Nepal HEC Workshop

GETTING ALONG WITH ELEPHANTS:

Workshop in Bardiya National Park, Nepal, addressing the very real life/death decisions local people make on a daily basis when they share living space with elephants.

In 2009, Zoo Outreach Organization conducted a series of Human Elephant Coexistence and conservation education programs training about 120 educators in various elephant range areas of Nepal.  The evaluation of this program found it to be very effective and it was decided similar training was necessary in other parts of Bardiya National Park.  A three-day workshop was organized for November 3 to 6, 2016, with Asian Elephant Support providing the financial means.

Participants included village heads, village council members, teachers, Nepal Armed Forces that deal with inter-border wildlife issues, members from NGOs, volunteers, and forest personnel.  AES advisor Heidi Riddle, Riddles Wildlife & Elephant Sanctuary; Naresh Subedi from the National Trust for Nature Conservation; and B. A. Daniel of Zoo Outreach were the main resource persons.

During the workshop a variety of educational materials developed exclusively for Nepal were used including Getting Along With Elephants, a brochure that includes species information, has activities related to Asian culture and the Asian elephant, human-elephant conflict (HEC) case studies and morals, history of HEC in Nepal and other Asian elephant range countries, various mitigation measures, and some important guidelines for people to mitigate HEC in their daily lives.  The materials were thoughtfully designed and created for a carefully selected class of individuals in positions to teach what they have learned to others.

This workshop included 32 participants plus the three instructors.  The survey participants completed at the end of the three-day workshop is geared to measure their knowledge gained of the presented elephant information.  The highest range difference of ‘before’ and ‘after’ the workshop was 9% to 90%.  The group average score was 38.98% before and 82.35% after.  Each participant received a pledge card to commit to practice teaching what they learned in the next three to four months, while the coordinating institutions committed to follow up with the participant educators to spread the word of HECx with their respective audiences.

Education is a core component of conservation as well as caring for today’s elephants.  We thank YOU, our supporters, for helping us provide quality learning opportunities that will pay themselves forward to even larger audiences.  

Collaboration for Education & Elephants: Dr. Zachariah and Dr. Stremme

Asian Elephant Support is fortunate to be able to work with two very talented and dedicated veterinarians:  Dr. Christopher Stremme and Dr. Arun Zachariah.

Dr. Stremme teaches at the Veterinary College of Unisyah University in Banda Aceh, Sumatra-Indonesia and he invited Dr. Zachariah to visit the University from September 23-25, 2016.  Dr. Zachariah is a senior veterinary officer with the Kerala Department of Forests and Wildlife, as well as an assistant Professor for wildlife studies at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences Universsity, Pookode, India.  He is also a leading scientist on EEHV in wild and captive elephants in Asia and specializes in wildlife disease ecology and genetics.

The first day included meetings and informal discussions between Dr. Zachariah, the Dean of the Veterinary College, several professors, and lecturers. They discussed EEHV and several other wildlife diseases, their potential impact, and their importance for endangered species conservation.  In addition, Dr.  Zachariah visited the College’s laboratory facilities and gave advice on how it could be utilized for different wildlife disease studies.

On the second day, Dr. Zachariah conducted a seminar on wild Asian elephant and tiger diseases.  The topics included:

• Wildlife disease ecology and their conservation impact
• Current and emerging diseases in wild Asian elephants and tigers
• Post mortem procedures in Asian elephants and tigers

The seminar was attended by a total of 67 participants including veterinary students, Veterinary College lecturers, professors, and BKSDA (Nature Conservation Agency- Indonesia) veterinarians.

AES strongly believes in collaboration between individuals and facilities dedicated to helping elephants!  Being able to help fund the work of veterinarians such as Dr. Stremme and Dr. Zachariah is possible because of your support. Our thanks to you for helping to make such efforts possible!

Dr. Aung Myint Htun - Asian Elephant Workshop in Thailand

This past summer we were happy to help Dr. Htun participate in the Asian Elephant Health, Reproduction and Breeding Management Workshop in Thailand.  The workshop was divided into three portions: one week online, one week examinations, and lastly, one week hands-on practicals in Thailand.  Dr. Htun was able to learn about foot care in addition to ultrasound checks for pregnant elephant cows.  

Human-Elephant Conflict in Asia

Recently Asian Elephant Support collaborated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ Asian Elephant Conservation Fund to produce a document titled “Human-Elephant Conflict in Asia”.

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) is a complex interaction between humans and elephants, and represents the detrimental impact both species have on each other. For the purpose of this document, the use of the term ‘HEC’ implies the detrimental impact that elephants have on humans. This takes the form of crop raiding and property damage, and also involves manslaughter and injury to people. The most common negative interaction between human and elephants in this context is crop raiding. Consequently crop raiding is the most referred to aspect when HEC is mentioned in the document.

HEC has been identified as a major threat to elephant conservation by all Asian elephant range countries; they all experience HEC and loss of human life due to elephants. Elephant deaths due to retaliatory killing by people have been reported by most range countries. HEC adversely affects the people who live in and around elephant habitat. It also adversely affects elephants and undermines efforts to conserve the species. The greatest danger HEC poses to elephants is the antagonism it generates among local communities towards elephant conservation. If elephant conservation is to succeed in Asia, then HEC will have to be resolved, or the conflict minimized to the point where it becomes tolerable to local communities.

There are two main constraints in planning and implementing HEC mitigation; one is the absence of a problem analysis guide that helps people work through the complexities of HEC to determine the multiple levels at which different types of interventions are needed. Second is the absence of a comprehensive information source on the different methods (interventions) available for conflict mitigation and how they need to be implemented. Additionally, in the absence of such a document, gaps in our collective conservation knowledge cannot be determined.

The goal of this project was to review existing HEC mitigation efforts in all 13 Asian elephant range countries by reviewing documents, research papers, and meeting reports about HEC, synthesizing the information, and preparing a comprehensive guide that identifies the best approaches and methods to mitigating HEC and acts as the basis for planning and implementing HEC mitigation efforts. This document also effectively channels research to cover gaps in knowledge on HEC and its mitigation across Asia.

The document can be downloaded here:  https://www.fws.gov/international/pdf/Human-Elephant-Conflict-in-Asia-June2015.pdf

Paper on Tuberculosis (Myobacteria tuberculosis) in Elephants

Our advisor, Ellen Wiedner DVM, edited a paper called Recommendations for the Diagnosis, Treatment and Management of Tuberculosis in Elephants in Human Care.  It has been found that while TB can pass from human to elephant and vice versa, it is only through contact after working closely together for a long period of time.  According to the paper transmission has occurred for as long as humans and Asian elephants have worked together; for thousands of years.  The initiative to compose this paper and compile its findings was brought upon by the USDA so that people working with elephants could have easier access to information on how to deal with tuberculosis in their elephants.  You may read the full publication here:  https://gallery.mailchimp.com/6008a9e8fff086bcf7caed1f8/files/TBRecommendations2015FINAL.pdf

Elephant Health and Management in Asia

This past year in 2014 one of our advisors, Heidi Riddle, co-authored a paper about the importance of identifying health issues in Asian elephants as seen by their veterinarians.  It is important to understand how difficult it is to find data on captive Asian elephant management throughout their range countries.  That being said the authors of this paper delved into what could potentially help both mahouts and their elephants receive the best care.  When both mahout and elephant are able to access medical care, that is a mahout is healthy and can provide for his charge, both individuals will thrive.  Finding solutions to this little known problem will certainly allow for a future with elephants to flourish.  Follow the link below to read the paper:   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4320845/

AES helps to further a veterinarian's education

Mr. Pham Van Thinh, a veterinarian from the Daklak Elephant Conservation Center in Vietnam, attended the "Asian Elephant Health, Reproduction and Breeding Management" course, which took place in Sri Lanka this summer. This training course was conducted by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Science of the University of Peradeniya, in collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London, UK, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Chiang Mai University, Thailand, and the National Elephant Institute in Lampang, Thailand. The partner institutes were the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), Sri Lanka, Department of National Zoological Gardens (DNZG), Sri Lanka, and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, USA.

The course focused on the management, nutrition, health, reproduction and breeding of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) with additional discussions on local and regional conservation issues. It had two components: a stand-alone distance learning (online-based) course of 6 weeks duration (12th May – 10th June 2014) that participants completed from their home countries; and a hands-on practical training course of one-week (7th – 11th July 2014) that was conducted on-site in Sri Lanka. The on-site training was conducted at the University of Peradeniya, Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, Elephant Transit Home and Uda-Walawe National Park.

The course was attended by 22 participants from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam. Asian Elephant Support was proud to sponsor Dr Van Tinh Pham from Vietnam, who works at the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in the central highland province of Dak Lak. The ECC aims to protect both wild and domestic elephants in the Dak Lak province, where elephant population numbers are critically low.

The central highlands region is Vietnam's primary elephant habitat. The Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Centre reported that the central highlands region had around 502 captive and more than 550 wild elephants in 1980, but all that are remain now are 49 captive elephants and five herds of wild elephants numbering 60-70 individuals. Shrinking forests, illegal poaching, shortage of food, improper breeding techniques, and overworking have been the cause of deaths of both captive and wild elephants. Experts estimate that the captive elephant population will disappear in 20-30 years if they do not reproduce. According to the Dak Lak ECC, the reproduction rate of captive elephants over the past 30 years has been only 0.6 % per year, and the rate has dropped even further now because of limited opportunity to breed. To boost the captive population there is now an emphasis on reproduction, which was a primary focus in the training course attended by Dr Van Tinh Pham.

Delivering the Scale to the ECC in Sayaboury

Back in the July 2013 newsletter, we shared how your donations made it possible for AES to purchase a portable scale for the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in Sayaboury, Laos. On August 12th, AES president, Linda Reifschneider, left St. Louis, MO, and headed to Laos with the scale. Asian Elephant Support has helped fund several projects for ElefantAsia in the past and we wanted to get first-hand observations of the work being done and to meet the individuals that work so diligently to maintain Laos’ only elephant hospital.  

Mother and calf

Sadly, in a country that was once referred to as the “Land of a Million Elephants”, Laos now only has approximately 700 elephants left in the wild and approximately 500 elephants in captivity.  Every elephant is important to the future of wildlife in Laos.  ElefantAsia and the ECC are desperately working to preserve this rapidly declining population.  While being able to obtain an accurate weight to calculate drug dosages is invaluable in a hospital situation, the ECC’s breeding program makes a scale even more useful.  Many of the elephants in captive situations are still being used in the logging industry.  

The ECC offers owners of reproductively viable female elephants the opportunity to still produce a minimal income while their elephant is on “maternity leave”.   The owners are given a small tiller to grow crops for income or to sell and keep the proceeds during the pregnancy. Being able to monitor the weight of these babies will be very beneficial to this program.  Currently, the ECC has one mother and calf pair and a young orphaned calf.

Bull receiving treatment for abscesses

While at the center, Linda had the opportunity to observe the daily medical treatments given to two adult bull elephants.  One suffered a damaged tail from an attack by a wild elephant and the other suffered multiple injuries as a result of a young and inexperienced mahout.  This second incident reinforces the need for better education for mahouts in many areas of Asia, an effort AES is actively pursuing.

Bull with damaged tail with his mahout and owner

Overall, Linda was impressed with the work being done by ElefantAsia and the ECC and we know the scale will be put to good use.  With your help, we look forward to continuing our support for these organizations in the future.  

Elephant Hospital in Laos Gets a Portable Scale

With an increase in the number of human-elephant conflicts (HEC) and other issues facing Asian elephants today, the Elephant Hospital in Laos is seeing an increase in the number elephants that require treatment. In many situations, it is critical to have an accurate weight to determine the proper dosage of medication to avoid overdosing. Also, with medication not as accessible as in the West, it is important to use the correct amount.  Your donations have made it possible for AES to purchase a portable scale for the Elephant Hospital. As shown in the picture, the scales have arrived and will be hand-delivered in August by our president. Watch for more updates from Laos over the next couple of months!