These photos of captive-held elephants in Asia are not unique. I am posting them to document what happens when an elephant is struck on the head with a stick, ankus (elephant hook), axe or other … [Read more...]
Helping Captive-Held Elephants Heal
EAI Founder and CEO Carol Buckley recently completed a comprehensive guide to rehabilitating captive-held elephants so they can be released into a wild environment. The guide draws on Carol’s four … [Read more...]
Himal Gaj
Himal Gaj is a six-year-old captive born elephant. His father is the dominant wild bull in the area. His mother is a wild born, captive resident of the elephant breeding center at Khosor, Chitwan, … [Read more...]
Elephant abuse in Nepal: Are the mahouts really to blame?
It’s easy to look at an elephant shackled by both front feet to the ground, with open wounds, and blame the mahout. But I challenge you to learn the facts. Elephants belong to hotel owners In … [Read more...]
Drag Chains and Training
Elephant’s World posted two videos on YouTube last week of me training a young elephant named Jon (you can view them here and here). I was surprised to see the videos and happy to know they … [Read more...]
Jon
Last year I had the honor of working with a young, energetic elephant named Jon. He was a recent rescue, living at Elephant’s World, a Thai-run facility outside of Bangkok. To my surprise, two … [Read more...]
a need for change, right here at home
I recently returned from a lengthy trip to Asia, where I taught traditional mahouts (trainers) a gentler, more humane way of training and working with captive elephants. Viewing the undercover … [Read more...]
Ngo-Hok, aka Jon, at Elephant’s World
Elephant’s World was one of the locations where I was fortunate to introduce positive reinforcement target training. I will return there to continue training, and to consult on facility development … [Read more...]
checking in at ENP
My return flight to Los Angeles leaves from Bangkok, which was the perfect excuse to go back to Elephant Nature Park one more time to see the progress made by Chang Yim and Karl. Yim never ceases … [Read more...]
Seeds of Change
April 13 My work in Sauraha has come to an end, at least for the time being. Seeds of change have been planted. From the looks of it, some seeds are already growing, quietly shifting the soil … [Read more...]
a fiery red head
I’ve got a new heartthrob. He is smart, dark and seriously handsome, with a full head of fiery red hair! Admittedly on the young side, Bhadra still lives with his mom and spends the entire day … [Read more...]
Leaving Elephant’s World and Jon
Sitting in the passenger seat of the bright orange son tough (vehicle), the solo passenger bouncing down the dusty road, I left Elephant’s World. The tornado of emotion swirling inside made me dizzy, … [Read more...]
