Project Report
| Aug 15, 2011
Village Elephant Management
By Jeff Smith | GVI Thailand Project Manager
![Elephant fence in use]()
Elephant fence in use
Elephant keeping in a traditional farming community can be difficult, because elephants can wander into farms in search of food. This can lead to major human-elephant conflict because an elephant eating a farmer’s field means a loss of food and income for that farmer. In one night an elephant can destroy an entire season’s work. However, the villagers of Huay Pakoot practice traditional elephant management techniques that help them avoid such unfortunate conflicts.One example of elephant management is building fences to keep elephants, and livestock as well, out of farmer’s fields.
The villagers have built one such fence in order to allow our herd of elephants to pass from one part of the forest to another. Through the field the farmers have created a corridor for our elephants to pass through with a barbed wire fence on both sides of the path in order to prevent the elephants from eating their corn. For the past two days the elephants have used the corridor when hiking with GVI volunteers, and volunteers have got to experience firsthand village elephant management techniques. It is a great solution to potential conflict during the farming season and benefits both the elephants and the farmers.
![Responsible Elephant management]()
Responsible Elephant management
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Apr 15, 2011
Home-coming Ceremony: Elephants Return to Village
By Jeff Smith | GVI Project Manager
![Ele Ceremony]()
Ele Ceremony
Over the past few weeks seven elephants have returned to the village to enjoy a few months of hard earned rest. The elephants are traditionally brought back to the village to forage in their natural habitat during the hot season. This allows them time to socialise with other elephants, mate and forage on a wider variety of plants. The elephants work in tourist camps either trekking (giving tourists elephant rides on large, heavy benches) or performing tricks such as playing football or dancing.
The villagers performed a welcoming ceremony for the elephants which they have done for possibly hundreds of years. The Karen people have a long, proud history of working with elephants and would often consider their elephant to be a member of the family.
The ceremony is one way in which the villagers give thanks to the elephants. First, a village pig is slaughtered and a soup is made using the pig’s head. The elephants are offered a small piece of the flesh with some rice. This is an offering of the pig’s spirit to the elephant’s spirit. A small bundle of fresh leaves with three candles and a rupee coin is placed on the elephants head. Jasmine flowers floating in rice wine is poured on the elephant as a blessing and white string is placed around the elephant’s ears. The villagers first bless the string over some rice asking the spirits to protect the elephant, wishing them a long and healthy life.
The villagers then eat together, eating the pig’s head soup. There is a strict order to who eats the soup.
![Rice offering]()
Rice offering
![Ele Ceremony String]()
Ele Ceremony String
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Jan 26, 2011
Baby Elephant Eats Mothers' Dung
By Jeff Smith | GVI Thailand Expedition Manager
![Baby Ele eating dung]()
Baby Ele eating dung
Baby elephants eat poo. This is a normal part of their development and builds important cultures of symbiotic bacteria that live in their digestive tracts and aid in digestion. They aren't born with their own set of bacteria, so before they're ready to move on to eating solids they first must start their culture, usually by borrowing some microbes from their mother. In fact, their first solid meal is, in most cases, a mouthful of their mother's dung.
On the photo here you can see little Song Kran digging into a nice fresh one. He is still nursing from his mother Boon Jaan, and sometimes Mana as well. He'll likely start moving on to solids over the next year or two. This dung is just the start of a long and healthy relationship that Song Kran will have with his microbial friends.
To learn more about elephants' digestive systems, check out this site.
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