Wanee ti Muang Thai (a date for your VCR)
Every year a group of established elephant charities in Thailand known as the Thai Elephant Alliance sponsor an expedition to all the elephant camps in the North, they bring with them a great knowledge base of vet's from the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, the Surin elephant hospitals and local livestock vets.
Those camps that cannot afford, or choose not to, give their elephants veterinary care get free med's and advice, for our camps they take notes on the aging and new marks on the elephants (things we might not notice day to day), take note of all our new additions and measure the babies' growth.
All our girls got a dose of vitamins and someone (not me this time) got the job of taking Pompui's vital statistics (a clue, 36, 24, 36 she ain't).
The expedition is always accompanied by the ladies that run the Thai Elephant Alliance (I think this is their website but, to my shame, I cannot begin to read Thai - http://www.elephantalliancethailand.com/) so I get to pick their brains over lunch on the happenings that don't make the newswire.
This year they bought a TV crew from UBC's channel 26 programme, Wanee ti Muang Thai (Today in Thailand) which will be broadcast on either the 5th or 6th of next month between 8 & 10pm Thai time. For those of you who don't take that Thai language channel, well you still have time to subscribe. With any luck they cut the interview with me (Thai readers will know that my Thai grasp of their beautiful language is bumpkin at best and atrocious at, well, let's just say atrocious and should not be heard in public) and concentrate on the eles.
...vet's and mahouts, every detail is taken but there are to sides to every coin (if you'll excuse a cliché), yes they're videoing Nong Dah's tail but Poon Larb appears to be picking pockets, Tawan is showing off his tusks (when there's a camera everyone's got a turn), Lynchee has decided that she's the better note taker but Som Si disagrees, Nong Pleum, being the first, has seen it all before and is above it all.
...whilst being attended to (leaned upon - hang on that's my job) by elephant family's chief vet' from their Jaipur operation, Dr Madhu (here to teach the crew about India's elephants), Lynchee decides they best way to get onto television is to eat the producer's personal effects.
Those camps that cannot afford, or choose not to, give their elephants veterinary care get free med's and advice, for our camps they take notes on the aging and new marks on the elephants (things we might not notice day to day), take note of all our new additions and measure the babies' growth.
All our girls got a dose of vitamins and someone (not me this time) got the job of taking Pompui's vital statistics (a clue, 36, 24, 36 she ain't).
The expedition is always accompanied by the ladies that run the Thai Elephant Alliance (I think this is their website but, to my shame, I cannot begin to read Thai - http://www.elephantalliancethailand.com/) so I get to pick their brains over lunch on the happenings that don't make the newswire.
This year they bought a TV crew from UBC's channel 26 programme, Wanee ti Muang Thai (Today in Thailand) which will be broadcast on either the 5th or 6th of next month between 8 & 10pm Thai time. For those of you who don't take that Thai language channel, well you still have time to subscribe. With any luck they cut the interview with me (Thai readers will know that my Thai grasp of their beautiful language is bumpkin at best and atrocious at, well, let's just say atrocious and should not be heard in public) and concentrate on the eles.
...vet's and mahouts, every detail is taken but there are to sides to every coin (if you'll excuse a cliché), yes they're videoing Nong Dah's tail but Poon Larb appears to be picking pockets, Tawan is showing off his tusks (when there's a camera everyone's got a turn), Lynchee has decided that she's the better note taker but Som Si disagrees, Nong Pleum, being the first, has seen it all before and is above it all.
...whilst being attended to (leaned upon - hang on that's my job) by elephant family's chief vet' from their Jaipur operation, Dr Madhu (here to teach the crew about India's elephants), Lynchee decides they best way to get onto television is to eat the producer's personal effects.
Posted by John Roberts at Tue, 29 May 2007 18:50:00 GMT 
Categories: Golden Triangle Elephants, Thailand Elephants, Public Service Broadcast
Categories: Golden Triangle Elephants, Thailand Elephants, Public Service Broadcast
I have enjoyed the latest entries to this website very much, especially hearing about Pompui. It seems that she is doing o.k. Keep up the good work and the additions to the website.
Reply to this
Dear Victoria
She is doing well, even though staying up all night playing with the rain causes her to sleep most of the day her new diet (that we picked up from the meeting on hand rearing) means that she now has a little bit of a fat gut to go with all that excess energy!
Quite the little terror, she's now learning to fight intelligently and has the courage to charge buffalo, other elephants and, most worrying, me on a motorbike - it's her territory.
Reply to this