Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation

Now give me back my dog... (or, to put it another way, what does your consultant do?)

John Roberts — 2010-07-23T01:11:00Z

I have (yet another) secret to confess, ever since I heard the one about the consultant and the shepherd (& me being a shepherd of sorts, bigger sheep) I've wanted to jump the fence and become a consultant. However, with my ageless face and tendency towards tempremental ranting I've never really found anyone willing to pay for my advice, I am confined to offering my advice unasked and for free in these missives you know so well.

However, when the opportunity arose and an old friend, Khun Prasop Tipprasert, (who can rightly claim it was his idea to bring elephants to the Golden Triangle - or at least can claim to have visited this property with elephants in mind while I was still chasing stripy cats around Nepal) took early retirement from his Government job with the Forest Industries Organisation and the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, I went to the bosses, scraped some satang together and did the next best thing, I hired a consultant for the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation.

Why? Well, apart from being a charming young man with a knowledge of elephant lore & mahout stories going back centuries (only yesterday he told me of the local legend of people lining the banks as King Mengrai founded Chiang Saen - way back in the mists of time, back in what we would call the 1200's (& not in the 'just after lunch' way) to see the new King's elephant army swim the Mekong for three days straight) and therefore good to have around camp the main reason is that we believe in many of the other projects on which he consulted (google his name) in the name of the Government and we felt it would be good to allow him to continue consulting on these, his time could be our support of these noble projects.

In order to answer the specific question, asked from several quarters, notably (recently) our accountants, donors and auditors "what does K. Prasop do when he's not on site?" I thought I'd get him to jot down the projects he attended and helped this month.

I think it is worth the cash and fits in with our goals of helping all elephants, not just those under our care.

Over to K. Prasop:

_________________________

1. "Weekend Clinic for Autism"

10^th - 11th July 2010 (the first weekend) at Thai Elephant Conservation Centre (TECC)

-We started the last research program together with Chiangmai University (CMU) therapist team

-Eight children joined us. Two children were from Chiangmai, the other two were from Lampang and the last four were from Chiangrai (our home town)

-The average age of the children is about 10-12year-old.

-In the first week, we had 42 difficult cases, but very good progress.

-We use 4 elephants from TECC

-Prathida, 17 years old female, she is good behavior, gentle and stable.

-Wanaree 12 years old female, she is fast, smart and gentle.

-Neu-oon 6 years old female, she is playful, smart and nuaghty.

-Areena 4 years old female, she is curious, playful and smart.

17^th -18^th July 2010 (the second weekend)

-All children got on the elephant

-Good development

-Good motor planning

-Better social skills

-Smiling on the parents' face and the therapists' as well

2. "Lecturing given to Chiangmai Mahout Training Program at Maetang Elephant Camp in Chiangmai

Contents:

1. Training of elephants for eco-tourism.

2. Security measure in using elephant for tourism.

3. Elephant trekking and mahout training program of TECC.

4. Elephant nature and musth phenomenon, elephant welfare.

5. "Do" and "Don't" information for tourist in TECC

Participant and time frame:

1. The first group was held on June, 28-July, 27 2010. There were 120 mahouts and 120 elephants.

2. The second group will be held on August, 9- September, 8 2010. There will be 120 mahouts and 120 elephants.

All mahouts and elephants come from 18 elephant camp based in Mae-Tang, Chiang-dao district, Chiangmai.

3. "Super Pass for Anantara Elephant Camp"

As I was the consultant of the Office of the National Research Council of Thailand setting standard criteria for Thai elephant camp, and we had the draft of the criteria in our hand. So I get into the draft and found very good outcome.

We had got the best score on:

-Handling

-Personnel welfare

-Environment

-Security

-Services

-Social participation

Altogether, we passed 90% score. Right, it's look good, but it's a draft one. Anyway, we know where we are.

Cheers!!!

______________________

PS. Even though K. Prasop is a legend, one thing he legendarily does not do is type up his notes, so for this we thank the Golden Triangle's other roving ambassador, our very own Cherry Keratimanochaya DVM.

PPS. For the elephant camp standards I am happier with a 90% pass than I would have been 100% as we also sat on the advisory board and the objective was to set a standard that looks out for elephant, mahout & guest welfare, ethical business practices that would be both acceptable to our times and achievable for willing camps in order to give tourists, guests & agents an idea of the standards of a camp before they visit it. The objective most certainly was not to make all camps clones of ours.

Jerking knees or dancing to a sub-sonic tune? (on a seeming raft of new laws and initiatives)

John Roberts — 2010-07-11T01:20:00Z

Thailand needs a new law to govern the use and define the misuse of elephants on this we all agree. Over the past few days, it seems, some new laws have been passed, some have been mooted and others have been ignored.

The way we govern our elephants seems to be a hot topic at this moment, lawmakers seem to be looking our way, but why, after all this time talking about it & trying to light the oven, do we suddenly find ourselves holding a hot potato (& how long can we keep it hot)?

Why do we need a new law? ...& can we agree what it should contain? Rather than bang on with my own ideas I'll introduce you to an expert, Mr Richard Lair, for some background:

So Richard (& for those of you who don't know him, he's dedicated his life to working with the Government to improve the lot of the Thai elephants and is the leading foreign expert on the subject) is suggesting that a new law contain:

Regulation of working hours.
Requirements of a basic standard of nutrition.
Mandatory retirement age. (incidentally, I thought we already had one of these at 61).
Regulation, inspection and rating of elephant camps by independent individuals.

As Richard says, just common sense.

At Chulalongkorn University there has been another long term study leading to a editorial comment in the Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine somewhat dramatically entitled "Roadmap to Torture: Captive Thai Elephant and the Anecdote" by Dr. Sumolya Kanchanapangka (who we know not only because she was one of our very own Dr Cherry's professors at University but because she also gave a paper on the scientific determination of elephant welfare at the EU Asia-Link Project Symposium in Chiang Mai).

She quotes from the 1939 law which states "THE OWNER HAS THE RIGHT TO TRADE AND USE THE ANIMAL AT WILL", she points to the fact that the demand for domestic elephants is driving a decrease in the wild population (she stresses a Thai population, I see a smuggled neighbouring population - &, at the risk of hitting my soap box too early, the major demand for domestic elephants nowadays in a dropping tourism market had to be for the buy-to-rescue business) and, most importantly for this piece, she makes a number of recommendations for any new law:

Tight registration of all captive born elephants within thirty days after birth (the law currently stands at 8 years) and every five years until 60 years of age.
Microchipping and DNA analysis of all captive elephants (work for this is currently underway but it is not legally binding - all our eles and most others inside the system are microchipped). Establishing a database of these and all following information.
Pictures and records of all sides of the elephants and all distinguishing marks.
Measurement of elephant body parts for weight calculation. Birth, health, breeding and deceased, translocation and transfer of title records should be included.

Written on the certificate of ownership should be:

Physical marks (tusks, scars, ear irregularities, pattern of tail hair, number of toe nails etc.) at 30 days and every five years until 60.
Microchip & DNA analysis of the elephants (also both parents if available)

Requirements for elephant camps & breeding facilities

Facility registration (this concurs with one of Richard's)
Report of the number of calves produced.
Random inspections of the facilities concerning the welfare of the elephants.
Good record keeping requirement.

Now, I can't find anything in there to argue with, partially I guess because we already follow all of these protocols, and I have and will continue to say that anyone buying an elephant without this sort of paperwork (of course the DNA analysis will take some time to implement) is being, at best, reckless and at worst willfully negligent. If you buy an elephant without this sort of back up you have no way of knowing whether it was wild caught or illegally smuggled from a neighbouring country and if you give money to an elephant smuggler or an elephant abuser you just make it profitable for him to smuggle & abuse another elephant.

We've seen what the experts think, now let's look at the new laws:

The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (as the 1939 law gives the owner carte blanche to do as he chooses it falls to individual administrative areas to write & enforce the laws in their cities) have toughened the penalties for mahouts who take their elephants on the streets (though the Bangkok Post maintains the old fine was around 500 baht, our boys insist it usually cost about 5,000 baht to get caught & released, not sure where the discrepancy arose), have made confiscation legal (previously authorities had to go through the process of checking DNA in order to confiscate for two weeks), introduced a 6 month jail sentence for repeat offenders and, somewhat controversially, introduced fines for land owners on whose land the elephants camp and a 10,000 baht fine for anyone caught feeding the elephants.

Several camps and authorities have agreed to buy the elephant of anyone who claims they cannot afford to look after it, some offer to employ the mahout after purchasing the elephant.

Meanwhile, at a federal level the Government is looking to change the laws on the export of Thai elephants to the rest of the world, currently we are under a moratorium that prevents all elephants from being legally exported although that is due to run out soon and so the situation would return to export being legal when strictly adhering to the CITES guidelines which allow for domestic bred elephants to be exported for conservation (breeding programmes & the like) and educational purposes only.

It seems that the new law is intended to relax this to allow for easier export to certain countries once Thailand has a stable population. I personally don't see anything inherently wrong with sending Thai elephants abroad as long as they are well looked after in another country and we can guarantee that they weren't wild caught or that their purchase to send abroad doesn't lead to wild capture or smuggling - other, perhaps better informed, activists see many motives for this change in the law and have stated them to the press.

I include the example only as an excuse to wonder, why, when the experts are able to point to some common sense changes in the law and the law makers are able to change the law why the changes being proposed aren't those recommended by the experts. It would seem counterproductive to change the law on export before you tighten the elephant registration law to prevent wild capture and smuggling.

...and while the toughening of the laws on street walking elephants are to be broadly welcomed I feel (even the contentious one of the fine for feeding - it is not as though it is not an easy law not to break) we would need, somehow, to make it federal as once illegal in Bangkok we have found that many elephants will go to other towns.

But the larger problem, as I see it, lies in the 'generous' offers of rescue and for this final paragraph or so I'd like you to put yourselves in the shoes of an impoverished mahout and acknowledge the existence of unscrupulous elephant dealers, for we know these creatures exist, and several international investigations have shown that the current registration law allows for illegal smuggling of elephants from our land neighbours, a leading Thai elephant conservationist has conversationally presented evidence that some are wild caught, some are captive bred. Let the role play begin, this is not as far fetched as you might think and there is good evidence that this is happening:

"Perhaps I'll start out honest and impoverished, why not, I'm in Bangkok with my elephant, it is a tough life but I get me, my family and my ele fed. I get busted a few times and it's looking like confiscation and maybe a jail sentence coming up when a kindly policemen tells me of an alternative offer, in order to stop the problem of street elephants some places will buy my ele, and at market rates too, some will even give me a job looking after an elephant. Fantastic, let's have their number...

...after the deal I get to thinking, remember old cousin Somsak? Didn't he get an old elephant really cheap up country somewhere, something too old to work, or was it injured, can't remember? But still, remember he needed an elephant 'cause what's a mahout without an elephant, right? Didn't have much money so that was all he could get but he lived out his days happy as a mahout. What happens if I get my son, he's got no work, the waster, sitting at home drinking whisky, to bring one of these cheap elephants into town, use half the money my donor just gave me to buy it, it can limp around 'til it's arrested, might even get some better tips too if people feel sorry for it, then we'll sell it to our generous new friends, make tidy profit.

A couple of months later I got to thinking again, elephants are even cheaper in Burma, I know a guy who said he knew a guy who could get them in, get some paperwork for them, still keep the price low..."

...you get the picture, where there's a buyer there's a market, where there's a market there's a businessman and where there's an honest businessman unfortunately there is, more often than not, another dishonest businessman who is willing to take advantage of the weaknesses in the law.

The point of the piece is not to criticise the new laws or the law makers but perhaps to underline my agreement with Dr. Sumolya that if we are going to change any elephant laws we should first look at the ones on elephant registration and to ask that, before we loosen the regulations on export and create a law that legally binds the exporting authority to ''to closely monitor the export of Thai elephants and their condition while they are abroad. The regulation will authorise us to recall the jumbos if they face poor treatment at foreign zoos or other places.", would it not make sense to have a law that provides for this, or at least defines it, in our own country?

In short, we need a new elephant law, but it needs to be all encompassing.

The ordination of a guru (a chance for Bo & Makam to gain merit)

John Roberts — 2010-07-09T01:05:00Z

I have to admit that I don't deserve to be called a particularly Buddhist person, I eat meat & I drink alcohol, I sometimes think nasty thoughts (though I rarely act on them) and my ego is so large that I start a blog about Buddhism with a paragraph about myself. That said I am on the whole quite honest and though I'm sure my love of earthly pleasures has damaged my karma (the imported beer drinking, three litre 4WD pick-up driver who refuses a plastic bag at 7-11 & takes cold showers to 'save the world') I get the concept and understand that me travelling beyond the pale should not stand in the way of those, particularly our elephants and mahouts, that wish to continue their journey.

Therefore we have a policy in camp that our elephants are available for any religious ceremony (& in the old days many Buddhist ceremonies required an elephant's soul to be present - something that faded with the availability of elephants) as long as the elephants and the mahouts get something out of it.

So it was that when long time elephant camp friend K. Joy Sopitpongstorn mentioned that she was organising a Buddhist ordination ceremony in the North of Thailand my instant response was that the elephants would be glad to join, it was only later that she explained the further significance of the event.

On the 7th of the 7th 2010 renowned healer and lifestyle guru Deepak Chopra began what he describes as his monkhood journey at Wat Sri Rom Yen in Northern Thailand, he was joined by K. Joy's brother K. Jate, both were carried to the temple by Makam and Bo, a sacred duty under any circumstances, one that we are proud and honoured to have undertaken.

K. Joy graciously invited us to come along and witness the events, what follow are photographs from the elephant camp side of the story, the main event will be made into an inspirational movie for Mr Chopra's millions of followers.

...the elephants & mahouts went up the night before, we got there in time for breakfast....

....the mahouts & elephants camped with what must be one of the best views in Northern Thailand...

...the Yeng Chang (elephant saddles) are decorated and blessed before undertaking their sacred duty...

...as the film crews look on the first part of the day's ceremony begins with family and close friends beginning the haircutting...

...once shaved and under the watchful gaze of the monks lay folks are invited to pour water onto the novices and convey their blessings...

.....meanwhile, in the forest above the temple, Bo & Makam patiently await their turn....

...when the time comes dressing for the parade must be done quickly...

...decoration in the wind...

...two elephants, four mahouts, dressed up and ready for the parade, salute the flag...

...after the parade Mr Chopra and K. Jate thank their elephants and confer blessings...

...and the elephants head home.

Mr Chopra will be talking about and meditating on his experiences at Horseshoe Point in Chonburi Province on the 12th & 13th of July.

Forget the spin doctors, we've got ourselves a spin vet.

John Roberts — 2010-06-18T01:20:00Z

It is well known in the elephant world (I mean the under the underpass, out in the fields, round the sack of homemade whisky world of mahouts not the fine dining five star world of elephant camp owners & followers) that though we look after your elephant well, pay more than most, look after the family & have a genuine and obvious love for all the hangers on in an elephant camp we have certain crazy foreign ideas that must be adhered to in order to gain access to our long, straight sugar cane, our nice housing and our life insurance plans.

Admittedly part of this comes from being attached to a couple of five star hotels and the expectations (& sometimes admittedly romanticised - sometimes by ourselves and sometimes by our Hotel spin doctors in the PR department) visions & expectations of our guests, so the place needs to be clean and tidy, mahouts (& myself) need to be presentable, well dressed, not too smelly & sober (especially me for the latter points).

But part of this comes from our funny ideas about how elephants need to be looked after: give them as much freedom as you can, carry your tools but don't use them, don't make them do silly tricks (especially harmful ones) etc.

As I have said many times though, it is of very little use to the wider community if, once this is all over & the money runs out, our guys don't take their lessons home with them; if we somehow become the mythical, whispered about camp in the North where your elephants can grow strong and your family can live off the milk & honey provided and all you have to do is pretend to agree with the crazy foreigner that runs the place.

Credibility is key, it is key when I talk to you guys, I like to hope you wouldn't donate to a charity or visit a camp unless you had access to the philosophies and working methods behind that camp, but it is also key when talking to our (albeit income earning, stuff to gain) partners in all of this - the mahouts (the elephants, don't ask for credibility but I hope we earn that anyway).

Being six foot tall, blonde (& male) credibility took some earning during my first forays into the mahout world, when starting out its earning cost me many blisters, gallons of sweat, a disturbed digestive system & probably ten years of liver function and that was just with the mahouts living on site. I just couldn't carry on that a'way - besides, real credibility of the sort that also convinces you guys & persuades those guys to consider listening to our ideas doesn't come from proving our personal endurance.

To my mind it comes from having the best & most experienced Thai staff that can help mould my ideas into something less crazy and that can talk to the guys in a language they'll understand, it also comes from access to the best global scientific ideas - & here's where I renege on a promise & let you off the hook, in my last missive about the EU Asia Link Symposium on Elephant Health & Reproduction I threatened to give my thoughts on all the papers for the remaining two days, well, I'm not going to do that (I might, at some point, talk about the Bornean Pygmy Elephant paper as that's fascinating to me) for now I'll just talk about how we'll use the knowledge we gained on that trip practically to explain some of our crazy ideas.

Today's case study comes in the form of a mother and baby elephant and their owner/mahouts request to wean them as soon as possible so training of the baby can begin, there are several reasons they want to do this:

A smaller elephant is easier to train using the tickle & sing, softly, softly methods we insist upon (& I haven't found a credible way to explain why we like it this way, after all thousands of years of history have developed other, more efficient, methods, so for now this must remain a crazy foreign idea - the best I have got is that we need to be thorough but we have no need of efficiency).
Once the baby is weaned the Mother can come back into estrous and can therefore be impregnated again (whilst I don't agree with breeding willy-nilly I can see that babies are the future from the mahouts' view point.).
Other people are doing it far earlier and we can't see the damage (yet).
Once the baby is weaned they become two elephants and the rent goes up (hmmmm... will have to look into that).

That said, I have a personal belief that three years is the best time for weaning, long enough to learn elephant life with and from the mother, to have gained the required nutrition from the mother's milk to set the baby up for life, to have spent time in the grassland running around with the other babies so it isn't a complete shock to be away from Mum at times, besides, the training methods traditionally used in Surin can be started while the baby is still suckling anyway so why wean first?

In Thailand human kids start school at two and a half so two and a half to three years old is relatively easy explain on an emotional level. However while I can persuade the mahouts to accept my judgement (& can always play the 'I pay so you do as I say' card) I still feel a urge to explain my reasons, show my workings as it were, and this is where Dr Cherry and her scientific qualifications (& calm voice) come in.

Reason Number 1: Early weaning can lead to health problems later in life (in fact Dr. Khyne U Mar, who I will quote later on, suggests that weaning is done as early as possible for the sake of the mother - but this is in the timber industry where efficiency is required (as I said earlier, slapdashery is almost our creed), she also mentions that, once weaned, supplemental feeding is essential).

I have long held (& will long hold until someone can say otherwise) that part of the reason Thai tusks snap for a pass time is that since 1989 many baby elephants have been weaned early to be taken onto the streets, it is my theory that many elephants under the age of 20 didn't get enough access to calcium and while this is shown in the tusks today I wonder what will be the consequences in bones tomorrow.

For today's argument, though, I'll use the extreme case of Khun Chai, a young wild elephant whose mother was shot and who was rescued by a facility down South until it became clear that he had extreme rickets and that the facility couldn't look after him whereupon they sent him to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, he has since become too heavy for his brittle bones and broke a leg whilst trying to stand one day. He is now unable to stand at all.

Now, Dr Cherry tells me that I can't simplistically use this case as an illustration of why we don't wean early, after all he would have been forcibly weaned far earlier our mahouts have requested, the case may well not be lack of calcium and may have more to do with a Vitamin D deficiency and the facility that originally tried to raise him had the best possible advice about supplementary feeding so merely having been weaned too young did not directly cause this case.

My answer is, don't lie (we're after credibility) but spin it, let's acknowledge this is an extreme case (though not in the case of some elephants I have seen weaned for the street under the age of one - so in bringing this to the attention of the mahouts we may also be adding to the mahout grapevine (which is an example of efficiency if ever you were looking for one)) but let's get the guys to acknowledge that it is one of the things that can happen if weaning is done too early, so it follows that this is one reason I don't want to allow early weaning - besides, this happened even with supplementary feeding and I will not pay for baby supplements if there is a perfectly healthy and willing mother present.

To move to the second half of the presentation Cherry will give we move back to the symposium and a paper given by Dr Khyne U Mar entitled "Early Reproductive Investment Depresses Age-Specific Survival and Fitness in Female Asian Elephants".

Those of you who can talk boffin need read no longer, the title tells it all, fortunately for me Dr Khyne also climbed on stage and explained in words of one syllable or less. What makes her research so fascinating is that she has access to perhaps the best kept record of births, deaths & marriages of Asian Elephants anywhere in the world The Burma Timber Industry Studbook so she was able to reach back as far as 1941 and take data from females that, though geographically spread throughout Burma, were subject to identical treatment and working regimes.

Among the many things she has found over the years by subjecting this simple looking tome to statistical analysis and, indeed, what she found for this paper was that mothers tend to get better at raising calves with experience (well, we 'knew' that, but not scientifically we didn't), that the increased age of the mother didn't negatively affect calf (so an old lady can produce a calf as well, if not better (experience) as a young lady) but, crucially for this argument, females that had delivered three calves before the age of thirty had a significantly shorter lifespan (fail to reach the age of 54, so we're talking 5 to 10 years on average shorter life).

There are many caveats to this finding, elephants in zoos that have failed to breed early have had trouble reproducing later in life (another paper by Janine Brown from the Smithsonian Institute outlined possible health problems later in life for females who have not bred) and, of course, Dr Khyne was at pains to point out that work related stress and nutrition may also play part in her findings - all the elephants studied were working timber elephants not pampered guest looker-afterers.

So once again I say to Cherry, don't lie, spin. I cannot & will not stop you getting your female elephant pregnant immediately after weaning of her baby, but here are the findings of one in-depth study that suggest giving her a rest between babies may be advantageous to her later in her lifetime, as I know that you love your elephant as part of your family (& this I know) perhaps you might want to bare it in mind?

PS. To all scientists out there (particularly those being spun here) I hope you don't take offence at my (ahem) cherry picking of your results to suit my needs, let's experiment further and prove me wrong, if you come & research here I promise you can present your unbiased results to the mahouts.

How long you gonna stay here, Joe? (Travelscope on P.B.S.)

John Roberts — 2010-06-13T06:48:00Z

...we recently received the following e-mail from Joseph Rosendo and his team over at the Public Broadcasting Service show Travelscope, a show where they are dedicated and determined to accept the world's invitation to visit, as well as wanting to congratulate them on their 'Telly' awards and an 'Emmy' that I rudely let pass unflagged it dawned on me that we had extended an invitation to visit not too long ago (though, of course, we didn't ask him how long he was going to stay, that would have been rude).

Looking at the season preview video I note that not only did he spend some time in the river with our eles, he also visited Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai, otherwise known as 'The White Temple', all of which leads me to believe that, even if you reckon you see too much of the eles anyway, the show will be well worth a look.

Seems as though we'll be episode eight but every show in the series looks interesting to me, anyone know how I can stream P.B.S. out of the ether & into the ele-camp?

__________________

Travelscope News | June 2010

While the formal announcement of winners of the 31st Annual Telly Awardswill be made at the end of June, Travelscope has just learned that all three episodes submitted for consideration each won a Telly!

Zambia River Adventure - Watch a video clip
Guatemala - The Maya of the Western Highlands - Watch a video clip
Madhya Pradesh India - The Heart of India - Watch the full episode. This the episode that also landed Travelscope its Emmy nomination for Season 3 shows! The Emmy Awards will be presented on June 25th.

The Telly Awards honor the best in television programming, as well as, the finest video and film productions. The annual Telly Awards receive more than 13,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents.

#401 - Crossing the Swiss Alps – From cosmopolitan Geneva to the UNESCO heritage Aletsch Glacier Joseph travels through Switzerland by bus, train and lake steamer. In Geneva Joseph explores a city that has remained in the forefront of innovation and change and visits Lake Geneva’s fascinating lakeside villages such as the Olympic city of Lausanne. While in the sun-rich, car-free, 7,000-foot atmosphere of Bettmeralp Joseph enjoys a typical Swiss experience that is filled with glacier treks, colorful festivals, local cuisine, the beauty of the rural countryside and warm Alpine hospitality.

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#404 - Swiss Roots – Joseph joins his producer and wife, Julie, on her search for her Swiss roots in and around Lucerne, Switzerland. Their hunt takes Travelscope atop Mount Pilatus where they scale the local peaks, try their hand at cheese making and then travel across Lake Lucerne to historic alp horn and handöergeli (Swiss accordion) shops in the village of Schwyz. In Ebikon and Koelliken, Julie takes a walk in her grandparents’ footsteps and shares a glass of local wine and a pot of fondue with her long-lost and newly-met Swiss relatives.

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#406 - Germany’s Winter Carnival – Joseph dons his jester’s cap and heads to the German state of Baden-Wüerttemberg for Fasnet – Fasnacht – Carnival. Each town may call it by a different name, but they all agree it’s a non-stop community party that celebrates local culture and chases away the winter blues. Some of the historic carnival characters, like the Narro, date back to the festival’s beginning 500 years ago while others are the products of lively modern-day imaginations. From Konstanz on the shores of Lake Constance to the Black Forest villages of Villingen, Oberndorf, Gengenbach, Elzach and Rottweil, Joseph uncovers the festival’s history and rejoices in the controlled chaos of tolle tage – Crazy Days!

#407 - Thailand – Rediscovering Bangkok – It’s hectic, it’s crowded, it’s the epitome of diversity and filled to the brim with exciting things to see and do. Joseph takes a path less traveled as he explores Thailand’s capital city – Bangkok. During his urban adventure he wanders the back roads and waterways of old and new Bangkok. He participates in morning Buddhist rituals at a local temple, checks out an up-to-date wellness center, tries his hand at the ancient art of crafting a monk’s alms bowl, roasts Thai coffee at a 100-year-old Chinese market and scours a local Thai market for the perfect indigenous ingredients to spice up his gourmet Thai cooking class.

#408 - Thailand – From Golden Triangle to White Sands – From vibrant Bangkok Joseph travels south for a bit of rest and relaxation in the turquoise waters and on the fashionable beaches of the Krabi Peninsula. There he observes the ongoing efforts to preserve nature, indigenous cultures and ancient customs in the face of widespread tourism. After the short respite he heads north to the border of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos to continue his Thailand adventure in the infamous Golden Triangle. From a coffee, tea and macadamia nut plantation to a thriving elephant camp, he uncovers what Thais are doing to transform the Triangle’s ancient opium production to pursuits that will improve the lives of the area’s many Hill Tribe people.

#409 - Fredericksburg, Texas – It’s time for barbecue, German beer tasting, fine wine sampling and guitar pickin’ when Joseph explores Fredericksburg, Texas. Located midway between Austin and San Antonio in beautiful Texas Hill Country, Fredericksburg offers visitors hundreds of bed and breakfasts, scores of dining establishments, historic attractions, varied activities and a deep-rooted German heritage. From tracing its Germanic roots and climbing Enchanted Rock to sipping some local brews and getting down-home with some Texas Roots Music, Joseph enjoys a taste of Germany, a heap of nature and a whole lot of Texas.

#410 - Gathering in Scotland – Scotland has been a part of the United Kingdom for more than 300 years, yet it has managed to maintain its distinct customs, culture and character. Joseph dons his tartan and joins the Scottish clans for a bit of culture and fun at The Gathering in Edinburgh where hundreds of clans and thousands of people come together for sport, folk dancing, arts, crafts and bag piping. During his travels Joseph explores Glasgow, imbibes a dram or two of the local product at an island whiskey distillery and meets his grace, the Duke of Argyle, at Inverary Castle during the Campbell clans’ Highland Games.

#411 - Cappadocia, Turkey – Cappadocia, in Turkey’s rural heart, is a natural wonder and a cultural treasure chest. It is where the East and West seem to have collided and “fairy chimneys” – fantastic volcanic ash formations – have risen from the land and tower over beautifully carved valleys. As part of his journey through the Cappadocia Region, Joseph floats in a hot air balloon above the homes and underground cities that are carved out of the limestone rock of the Goreme Valley. He visits holy mosques and ancient churches, delights in Cappadocia’s slower, gentler lifestyle and meets the artisans of the region’s traditional arts and crafts – rug weaving, ceramics and water painting.

#412 - South Africa – On Safari! – Joseph gets an elephant-sized helping of the African wild on safari at the Lion Sands Private Game Reserve adjacent to South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park. Using the elegant Lion Sands accommodations as his home base he heads out in search of the Big Five and encounters lions, African elephants, Cape Buffalos and Black Rhinoceros. He rounds out his wildlife tour at Camp Jabulani when he literally rubs shoulders with two cheetahs at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre then joins other camp guests atop a team of rescued elephants on safari through the African bush. As an important complement to the animal adventures, he visits the local villages and schools in order to understand more about the native culture and discover how they coexist with and benefit from tourism.

#413 - Mozambique, Africa – On Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago Kuta Katilameans, “Roll your reed mat out on the sand, lay back and relax.” Always ready to follow local customs, Joseph does exactly that at the Indigo Bay Island Resort and Spa on Bazaruto Island and at the Azura Resort on Benguerra Island. Joseph continues to practice the fine art of Kuta Katila on the sparkling beaches and in the turquoise waters of the Bazaruto Marine National Park. Snorkeling, sailing, horseback riding and sand-boarding down 100-meter high dunes are activities that are all on the agenda, as well as, a sunset swim with horses. Activities aside, as always, the highlight of the show is Joseph’s friendly encounters with the islands’ people and the opportunity to share cultural experiences.

Check your local PBS station for broadcast times. If you can't find Travelscope, contact your local public television station and let them know that you want to join Joseph on his cultural encounters around the globe!

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...that's all very well, but what on Earth's a haplotype? (wide awake in the air-conditioning watching concepts fly over my head).

John Roberts — 2010-06-08T01:00:00Z

"It takes all sorts", perhaps a truism for every project or movement (I hesitate to call us a 'cause' for the same reason I refuse to join 'causes' on Facebook - once you make common 'cause' with people you haven't met your fellow 'causers' (?) can get very particular about what may have caused you to cause with their cause because your cause may cause their cause to go off course, of course - it all gets too confusing) and I like to think we have room for all sorts at our little camp, in fact, that might set us apart from many other places, our door is open to 'all sorts' as we have no hard & fast dogmatic theories on how this business of elephant conservation should be done.

So it was that we accepted an invitation to travel down to the beautiful, big city (for us bumpkins - though it was pleasing to see the Laos contingent even more impressed than we were by concepts of live music and cold beer, the glories of living in Hong Sa!) of Chiang Mai to attend the E.U. Asia-Link Project Symposium on the Health & Reproduction of Asian Elephants. Long term readers will re-call (although, for your sake, I really hope not!) that I attended the first of these symposia in Kasetsart University in Bangkok three years ago and complained about the air-conditioning then.

In an equally freezing room we gathered again for an update on the projects, as this was the final year of EU funding there were some conclusions too.

To save you the trouble of reading the proceedings, unless you would like to, I have a copy on CD so anyone wanting an unscribbled (note, not doodled, scribbled with thoughts - though with my handwriting it is hard to tell) upon version bring your laptop & I'll download, I thought I'd share some of my own conclusions. Hopefully they may be interesting to some but mainly to convince my bosses (& my wife) that I wasn't just on holiday at the time.

Unfortunately, the term 'executive dinner' fails to cover up the sound of the band when the telephone rings and beer still tastes like beer whether drunk with the Thai vet's, the CMU, Kasetsart & Chula' Academics, the Laos/French delegation or the bosses of Elephant Nature Park's new and highly laudable Surin venture, so here goes.

So, here's some of what we learned:

Elephant Reintroduction: Managing Captive Elephants by Returning them to the Wild for Natural Habitat Protection: Actually, Dr Sivaporn strayed from the published paper to give a witty account of his introduction to elephants from a lifetime in differing fields of different industries - how he was roped into Her Majesty's Royal Re-introduction Project and what he has learned about elephant behaviour from his time at the project. He gave some great anecdotal accounts of elephant intelligence and suitability to their surroundings & mentioned his revelation that it was the chains that elephants are kept on that destroy more of the forest than the elephants themselves, mentioned an experiment that he had done in which tamarind seeds that had passed through the belly of an elephant, once planted, germinated at the same time as those that had not, however the borborygmised seeds grew several times faster.

He also unveiled a video which is used to educate children as to the benefits elephants can have for the forest, I may have posted it before but it is worth seeing again.

Thai Elephant Camp Management: Past, Present and Future: K. Anchalee gave a great talk on the evolution of tourist elephant camps and her ideas on the directions in which they can go to serve different markets but also to improve the lot of elephants & mahouts - unsurprisingly (given that we consider ourselves a catalyst for the last stage of that evolution and a driver for the future) I agreed with a lot of her points. On a contemporary note she also outlined how many would people suffer (not just the camp owners, elephants and mahouts but the surrounding industries, especially the fodder suppliers) if the tourists stopped coming. She has launched a well publicised campaign to bring tourists back to Chiang Mai, for our part & in parallel with our obvious efforts to request visitors to come to Chiang Rai too, we investigate ways in which we might be able to move beyond tourism (without the equally fickle process of relying 100% on generous overseas donors).

Human-Elephant Conflict and Methods for its Mitigation in the Asia Range States: Dr Oswin Perera gave an overview of the many different methods used and the diversity of the problems in the Asian range states, a thoroughly interesting topic which may affect us directly when the Anantara projects in Xishuanbanna & Sri Lanka take off & underlined the work being done by Elephant Family in building elephant corridors in India (something we indirectly financially support through our funding of an elephant in their Elephant Parade). The most useful direct conclusion was that electric fences tend to work well when the entire herd are inside them from the beginning (& enough fodder sources are included inside) - something we could artificially arrange if we were to get our new land.

Measures for Long-Term Coexistence between People and Wild Elephants in Kui Buri National Park, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Southwestern Thailand: This was a paper that outlined the work done by the National Parks and Wildlife service and the Royal Project Initiative under His Majesty the King and though great success was shown in a number of methods to control Human Elephant Conflict in this intensive pineapple growing region of Thailand (including community relations, fencing of different kinds etc.) from a global perspective two things sprung to mind 1, this wasn't always an intensive pineapple growing region and, as I may have stated before, in the old days people didn't expect (or budget for) a year round growing season, those encouraging the poor farmers to convert to pineapple growing as a source of income should bare some responsibility and 2, while all credit must go to the Royal Project staff for their initiative and hard work, their findings also showed that giving elephants and other wildlife room to roam in prime, flatland habitat (rather than the mountainous areas given to most National Parks) allows them to thrive in a more natural manner. Incidentally, we learn this week that Gaur (bos gaurus) have also made a comeback in this park, thanks largely to the sizable area of prime habitat made available under the Royal Project.

Study on Aspects Related to Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Released Juvenile Elephants of Elephant Transit Home at Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka: Oh, what can be done with large forests, wild herd and some careful management - though a slightly different aspect (the Sri Lankan calves were wild born, orphaned & then carefully handled, the Thai candidates are all long term domesticated elephants) a lot of parallels between this successful enterprise and Dr. Sivaporn's efforts.

The Breeding of Captive Elephants to Fight Extinction in Laos: Friend Sebastien outlined the problems faced in Laos in keeping the population bouyant: over work & under relaxation; the need for hand to mouth, immediate cash for most elephant owners just to survive; perceived dangers of calf birth; illegal (or at least contrary to CITES) smuggling of young females across borders are all problems leading to a heavily inverted age pyramid in favour of older elephants in Laos. Through elefantasia, they are trying several methods to reverse this trend before it is too late. What struck me, who has often argued that Thailand may have too many elephants, was how the CITES regulations, while set up to protect the species, may also hinder it's preservation as we have plenty of young females and all Thai places appear to be breeding like crazy. Again we get into the argument of extinction vs. extirpation and whether extirpation is so terrible if the species itself is doing well elsewhere, the Lao would counter that for the Land of a Million Elephants to have none would be a cultural disaster. One other great piece of work that elefantasia are doing is setting up the database of microchipped elephants (& microchipping them with internationally recognisable chips) which he agreed to make public to us in order to help prevent smuggling - though a Thai database also exists, it is not public, but at least we'd be able to recognise illegal Laos elephants (if not Thai ones).

Animal Welfare: Initial Proposal - Welfare for the Captive Thai Elephant: The paper sought to recognise the differences between animal welfare and animal rights and suggested that since these definitions are highly subjective (both from the beholding human and from the elephants themselves) that we turn to science & chemical analysis of the blood to actually prove whether or not particular elephants are happy. I found this an interesting notion and almost got my cheque-book out to buy a lab for Dr Cherry to start her own papers on our elephants (until I saw the price), but let's do my own blood first - I'd reckon there are a fair amount of stress chemicals (technical term, see you can tell I was paying attention) every time a pretty young nurse sticks a needle in my arm. Still, given the extreme subjectivity of this very touchy subject science may well be the way to go.

Nutritional Management of Orphaned/Rejected Baby Elephants at Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage: A series of case studies investigating the better choice of milk & solid food to give to elephants that do not have access to their mother's milk - given the science of this (& you'll remember we - well Bua Tong & Am - took part in a study of differing calcium levels over time) and the complexities involved I would say that Pumpui is a lucky little elephant as we just fed her human formula and that seemed to work just fine (though a lot of the reason for these investigations was the high cost of human formula for places that regularly rear five or six orphans at a time). The two scribbles I have in the margin for 'next time' were the idea to start with Human Formula II which most closely matches elephant milk and, as a substitute, buffalo milk (now, I know about this from a rhino we tried to hand rear in Chitwan, cow's milk fat particles are too large to be digested).

Providing Veterinary Care to Domesticate Elephants of Laos (Elefantasia Mobile Elephant Clinic): This was a nice quiet (& easy on my brain) close to day one as, though not involved we have kept ourselves updated with Elefantasia's efforts (along with the Elephant Umbrella Foundation) and achievements to create a mobile veterinary clinic and mahout workshops based loosely on the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre's highly successful model, both of which have been featured in these pages many times.

Goodness me, & that was just day one, perhaps I'd better leave it there for awhile as I can sense you dropping off and as the reason for writing this blog was to convince my bosses that I had been at work, staying for too long typing it becomes a self defeating argument - "not only did you have a three day holiday in Chiang Mai you then spent the next week gabbling on in your far-from-concise report, you're fired" (signed: The Boss).

Ooops.

A cultural experience and perhaps a chance to talk elephants in London.

John Roberts — 2010-06-08T00:13:00Z

Through Anantara Hotels Resorts & Spas we are participating in Elephant Family's Elephant Parade (we have an elephant called Little Bird in a not-too-secret location somewhere in London, at some point there may be a competition for the first person to send me a photograph of themselves with her - first prize being dinner with me, second prize being, you guessed it, two dinners with me).

We are far from the only range states participants in this event, which is designed to raise money for and draw attention to the plight of wild elephants and the work being done by elephant family, and the Asian herd (as we are collectively known) have been skillfully arranged by Bangkok Fashion house Lotus Arts de Vivre.

To celebrate the parade and to showcase their work they are holding an exhibition with an opening cocktail party on the 9th of this month, if you want to go & talk parading elephants, please go along:

For those of you who can't see it, the text reads:

Lotus Arts de Vivre and COUTURELAB have pleasure in inviting you and your friends to Lotus Arts de Vivre Exhibition featuring our latest collection of Jewelry and Home decor; Wednesday 9th June 2010 to Saturday 31st July 2010 10:00 - 18:00.

Please join us for Cocktail Reception on Wednesday 9th June 2010; 6.00pm - 9.00pm.

Couturelab Boutique, 37 Davies Street, W1. Tel: +44 (0)207 499 7802

COUTURELAB

Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation

Now give me back my dog... (or, to put it another way, what does your consultant do?)

Jerking knees or dancing to a sub-sonic tune? (on a seeming raft of new laws and initiatives)

The ordination of a guru (a chance for Bo & Makam to gain merit)

Forget the spin doctors, we've got ourselves a spin vet.

How long you gonna stay here, Joe? (Travelscope on P.B.S.)

Travelscope® Wins Three Telly Awards!

Season 4 Released June 5!

Season 4 Episode Descriptions

Follow Joseph's travels on his blog and pod cast pages!

For Joseph's On-Location Postings
Join Travelscope's Facebook page!

...that's all very well, but what on Earth's a haplotype? (wide awake in the air-conditioning watching concepts fly over my head).

A cultural experience and perhaps a chance to talk elephants in London.

Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation

Now give me back my dog... (or, to put it another way, what does your consultant do?)

Jerking knees or dancing to a sub-sonic tune? (on a seeming raft of new laws and initiatives)

The ordination of a guru (a chance for Bo & Makam to gain merit)

Forget the spin doctors, we've got ourselves a spin vet.

How long you gonna stay here, Joe? (Travelscope on P.B.S.)

Travelscope® Wins Three Telly Awards!

Season 4 Released June 5!

Season 4 Episode Descriptions

Follow Joseph's travels on his blog and pod cast pages!

For Joseph's On-Location Postings Join Travelscope's Facebook page!

...that's all very well, but what on Earth's a haplotype? (wide awake in the air-conditioning watching concepts fly over my head).

A cultural experience and perhaps a chance to talk elephants in London.

For Joseph's On-Location Postings
Join Travelscope's Facebook page!