Today I went to the Elephant Project which is run by an NGO named Elie, and is basically a retirement home for aged working elephants. Traditionally, elephants were taken from the forest as 3 years olds to be used for work, and were not bred in captivity. It was actually a bad omen if an elephant was born far from the forest and considered a sign that someone in the village was partaking in some hankypanky before marriage. There are about 60-70 working elephants left in Cambodia, and all but 3 (some accidents) are aged. Many were killed by the Khmer Rouge, and none have been taken from the forest in recent years. So these elephants are owned by families, or by the sons and grandsons of the original owners, and don't have much to do but work in tourism. Some under better conditions than others.
The elephant project, along with several other NGO's, has worked within the legal system for 7 years so the community of Banong, a minority group to the Khmer and traditional elephant people, actually have legal title to their traditional lands. This is very unusual, without title groups can be moved off their land any time the government wants otherwise. The elephant project rents land from the community - and provides health care insurance and food and other things, and then takes out 10 year leases on the elephants - they pay a monthly fee, paid in rice or other useful things rather than cash, hires a mahout to look after the elephant, usually a family member of the owners, and then cares for the elephants - hopefully for the rest of their lives. Some are "rescues" from bad situations, other owners come forward because they see a better life for their animals. They have 8 female and one male elephant currently, including Sambo who was famous as he did the Wat Phnom temple circuit in Phnom Penh for many decades and was a favourite fixture at many social and cultural events. But years of marching on the pavement gave him a sole ulcer that wouldn't heal, so he lives here now and the owner comes every two weeks all the way from Phnom Penh to spend time with him. The owner's father was an elephant trader with many animals, but this is the only one to survive the Khmer Rouge - the elephant was actually sent to a work camp on the east side of Cambodia and the current owner, also a survivor, managed to find her and take her to Phnom Penh to live.
I spent the day basically walking in the forest with a group of tourists and watching the elephants and hearing about them, their stories, and about elephants in Cambodia. ELIE has set up a program to provide veterinary care to the captive elephants in Modulkiri, but the vet is Khmer speaking and the work sporadic so I don't think its a good fit with with vet students right now. The founder, Jack Highwood, is apparently working on setting up a link with the vets at the Thai Elephant Hospital, and if they come periodically to work with the local vet then that might provide opportunities.
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| Tuon - our Banong guide |
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| John - our tour guide |
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| And off we march into the forest in search of elephants |
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| Crossing a small stream |
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| An interesting jungle vine |
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| There are still some large forest trees here |
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| And out of the forest, and elephant appears |
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| They are calling these "elfies" (vs selfies) |
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| Bath time - and a good scrub |
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An old elephant who is on her last tooth or so - she gets a special diet with lots of soft food- banana tree sections which she pops under her foot or bangs against a tree
trunk to open up the tough outer part and get to the insides. |
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| Sambo, of Phnom Penh fame, heading out of the grazing area to the part of the forest where she will spend the night |
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