Our last update about the bull calf Jun in Dak Lak, Viet Nam came from this past August. Jun has progressed wonderfully with his training to receive treatment from his mahout for his snare injury. As you can see in this video, Jun is willing and able to take a foot bath. This helps clean and heal his wound. Continue to stay tuned to receive updates about his improving condition.
The Regional Captive Asian Elephant Working Group Meeting
The meeting was held at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, June 11-12, 2015. Asian Elephant Support was delighted to be able to fund Dr. Vanthinh Pham’s attendance at this meeting. You may recall most recently AES, with the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, sent Dr. Khajohnpat Boonprasert and two senior mahouts from The Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, Thailand, to Vietnam to assist Dr. Pham in the treatment of the young wild bull, Jun, whose foot was badly damaged by a snare. The mahouts also helped demonstrate to the Vietnam mahouts, who had little experience with wild elephants, how to help calm and better manage Jun for safe and effective medical care.
The meeting at the Chiang Mai University addressed establishing a comprehensive strategy and long-term plan for improving the management systems within elephant tourist camps across Southeast Asia. Attendees also had the opportunity to share and learn from each other’s experiences and promote the best practices in elephant tourist camp management, and to build a network of captive Asian elephant experts who can work towards the goal of establishing and monitoring improved management systems in tourist camps.
Dr. Pham found the presentations that addressed setting up medical buildings with laboratories, health care, feeding and training for elephants, as well as mahout training most informative and was able to return to the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center in Vietnam with many useful ideas.
We at AES believe assisting those helping elephants develop friendships with others doing likewise is an important way to improve both the care the elephants receive as well as the knowledge and confidence so important for the veterinarian and mahout. We couldn’t do this without you. Thank you for your confidence and support!
