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.  

ERU Video

Straight from Sumatra, Indonesia!

Check out this video of the Margahayu ERU (Elephant Response Unit) team when they meet a herd of wild elephants! This is one of the many reasons these teams are so valuable.   Riding on the trained elephants, it is amazing how close they can get to the wild elephants.  They get a true assessment of the numbers, condition, and sex ratios of elephants in Sumatra.  The information they are able to gather will be used to determine conservation strategies to help save this critically endangered species.

Visit to Dr. Kushal and Elephant/Tiger Workshop in Kerala

February 1st-4th, 2016, Asian Elephant Support’s president, Linda Reifschneider, attended the Regional Asian Elephant and Tiger Veterinary Workshop at Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Pookode, Wayanad, Kerala, India.  This event was hosted by the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, in collaboration with Parambikulam Tiger Conservation Foundation, Forest and Wildlife Department, Government of Kerala, and Asian Elephant Support.  The workshop is supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Asian Elephant Conservation Fund.

All workshop participants

Veterinary expertise is crucial to conservation efforts, and this workshop provided the opportunity to share experiences regionally, provide practical training, build local and regional capacity in elephant and tiger veterinary care, and enhance veterinary expertise needed for effective conservation.

The workshop looked at wildlife health from the ecosystem perspective and afforded the opportunity to discuss topics such as disease spillover from humans and/or livestock to wildlife, emerging diseases and/or disease prevalence, as well as reducing stressors in the environment.

In addition to meeting and hearing from some experienced elephant veterinarians previously unknown to AES, it was also very interesting to listen to those veterinarians working with tigers in range countries. It makes one stop to think that this majestic creature is now facing yet another challenge as habitat loss brings domestic canines into proximity, offering up the very real threats of distemper and rabies.

Dr. Arun Zachariah, one of the veterinarians in India AES has funded, co-chaired this event with AES consultant Heidi Riddle.  In addition, Dr. Zachariah presented on emerging diseases in Asian elephants and a second presentation on post-mortem techniques in Asian elephants and tigers.  You may find the official report here:  https://gallery.mailchimp.com/6008a9e8fff086bcf7caed1f8/files/AES_Elephant_Tiger_Workshop_Kerala_2016.docx

Dr. Christopher Stremme presented on the work he is doing in Sumatra (work AES continues to help fund) and also participated with Dr. Dennis Schmitt in a demonstration of ultra-sonography in Asian elephants.  Dr. Khajohnpat Boonprasert (“Dr. Yeaw”) who has helped us help wildlife department veterinarians in Vietnam, recounted the work being done at The Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, Thailand.  And Dr. Zaw Min Oo, who AES has worked with in Myanmar, also presented.

Dr. Meenakshi Nagendran, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services, discussed the global population status and conservation of programs for both Asian elephants and tigers and Sri. Ajay Desai, IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group, discussed human/wildlife conflict relative to Asian elephants and tigers and a second presentation on the ecology and evolution of Asian elephants.

The papers session ended with an evening showcasing amazing demonstrations of sand art, followed by a traditional fire dance.

The workshop ended with a planned field visit to the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, which has wild tigers, elephants, and other wildlife.  Dr. N. Kalaivanan led the field visit to the Mudumalai elephant camp, sharing camp management protocols with workshop participants from outside the area, as well as introducing us to camp staff and some of the camp elephants.  Dr. Kalaivanan also gave a presentation during the workshop on the chemical immobilization and translocation of Asian elephants.

Learning…..sharing…..networking…..  It is efforts such as this that grow long past ‘the event’.  Having not only another email address, but knowing the face and the expertise of that new contact to share ideas with and ask questions of – this is what helps move the care and conservation of Asian elephants – and tigers! – forward.  Your support well invested and for which we thank you most sincerely!

Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust

Sometimes funding takes a detour and finds yet another great destination!

Last year we agreed to fund participation at a symposium on elephants for the program coordinator at the Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust.  Agreements were reached, funds were transferred….and then the symposium was cancelled.  Initially, it was expected that the meeting would be rescheduled.  But as the months passed with no further announcements, what to do with the funds?

The Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust teaches awareness programs in poor rural schools.  The programs are carried out in areas where there are conflicts between humans and wild elephants, where both humans and elephants die and where there is much crop and property damage.

The school programs are very useful as they show the children the reasons for the need to conserve elephants and how this can be done.  These programs introduce the children to all aspects of the elephant including its physiology, biology, reproduction, home ranges, family life, etc.  The programs give examples of how they can implement effective elephant conservation strategies.

Naturally, helping to fund these outreach classes seemed a most logical use of the funds already received, but unable to be used toward their initial purpose.  From education one, which would have been a good use of our resources, the pictures show our funds are able to reach a much larger audience and a young audience….the next generation into whose hands the future of the Asian elephant will then be placed.

We appreciate our donors support that allows us to help make such education happen and if you think this is a good  use of funding, please consider a donation at this time.  Thank you.

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/

Elephants on the Line - Bhutan and India

Mamatha

Part of the AES mission statement is “to increase awareness and offer support for human-elephant coexistence to help protect the needs and future of the Asian elephants”.  Over the past couple of years, AES has supported Mamatha Sathyanarayana,  a high school Biology teacher from Mysore, India.   Along with her teaching responsibilities, she is also involved with wildlife conservation. She facilitates workshops about wildlife co-existence (elephants, in particular)  for the local village children.  In October 2014 we had the opportunity to support Mamatha to attend and facilitate educational workshops in Bhutan. The North East India and Bhutan border is home to a sizable population of Asian elephants.  Elephants on the Line (EoL) is an organization that is collaborating between Bhutan, India and US partners to address the major human-elephant conflict issues in this area.   In 2014 the focus of EoL is the Udalguri District of Assam, India, which has one of the highest HEC rates in all of Asia. The following is Mamatha’s account of the workshops:

Elephants on the Line Education Workshops

Bhutan and Assam, India, October 2014

Role playing exercise

Elephants on the Line (EoL) is a trans-boundary, community based project that has been initiated to help local communities in Northern Assam and Southern Bhutan deal with human elephant conflict by providing awareness activities and encouraging villagers to voluntarily participate in conservation activities. From October 3-5, a two-day education workshop was held at the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan. The workshop was organized by the EoL project and was attended by about 20 staff from the Bhutan Forest Department, as well as some volunteers from the Assam EoL project.

During the workshop there were presentations about the status of elephants in Bhutan and in Assam, elephant behavior, causes of Human-Elephant conflict (HEC), and addressing conflict through coexistence.  I led the workshop components that specifically addressed coexistence and used various activities to share information and engage participants.  The activities included having participants develop short dramas, participate in a role play situation, and learning how to use energizers to refocus participants’ attention and teach. While at the Park all participants also enjoyed an evening session about elephant husbandry and care with the camp elephants that are used to patrol the park.

Workshop participants

From Oct 6-8, a second workshop was held in Orang National Park, Assam (India).  The area affected is Udalguri District; there have been many human casualties from HEC as well as some elephant casualties in this region. In this workshop all of the participants were local villagers who are directly affected by HEC.  The workshop started with presentations about the causes of HEC, as well as the use of maps and GPS units to identify elephant habitat.  We also presented a few activities related to coexistence and the participants were very engaged. 

AES would like to thank Mamatha for her hard work for Asian elephants in India.  We are proud to support local people that are so dedicated to saving this amazing species and finding ways for elephants and humans to co-exist. 

ACEH - A real team effort

Asian Elephant Support is participating in a significant endeavor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.   This innovative effort, the “Aceh Conservation, Environment, Humanity” (ACEH) program, is working to engage legislators in Aceh Province, Indonesia.

Conservation biologists alone have not been able to slow down the rapid decline in numbers of wildlife species and their wild habitats around the world.  Human-elephant conflict (HEC) has been identified as a major threat to elephant conservation by all Asian elephant range country governments.  The greatest danger HEC poses to elephants is the antagonism it generates among local communities toward wildlife.  

The specific goals of ACEH are:

• Strengthen the concept of “sustainable development”, which has been mandated by the Indonesian Constitution.
• Support the formation and operation of the Aceh Sustainable Development Caucus.
• Facilitate the flow of information about sustainable development to legislators in order to enhance the development of public policies that incorporate sustainability principles.
• Provide technical consultation to Aceh’s Parliament on a variety of issues such as land-use planning.

In January and February of this year, the ACEH team devoted significant time to conducting presentations and meetings with 13 of the 15 political parties in Aceh during the lead up to the local elections in April.  ACEH is building a network of civil society organizations to contribute to this effort.  At present ACEH is planning the agenda and structure for the Caucus, which is expected to begin in October 2014 when newly elected legislators start their terms.

We want to share with you the ACEH brochure, in English, that summarizes this project.  We appreciate our supporters who, in turn, enable us to be a small part of this major effort for wildlife in Aceh and throughout Asia.

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VESSWIC 3 Year committment

AES has been working with the Veterinary Society for Sumatran Wildlife Conservation (VESSWIC) since 2010 to improve the health of the captive population of elephants in Sumatra, Indonesia.

VESSWIC's goal is to contribute to the conservation of Sumatran wildlife by providing various kinds of veterinary expertise and services. To achieve their goal, a wide range of conservation activities, projects, programs, and collaborators are needed. Sustainability of these efforts is critical, and sustainability requires regular and dependable funding.

AES has supported VESSWIC with specific needs for general veterinary care, elephant patrols, veterinary and mahout workshops, and urgent care for orphaned calves.

Now we are pleased to announce that we have made a commitment to VESSWIC of $5,000 annually for three consecutive years beginning January 2014.

Sustainability is a key strategic objective for all organizations, and a reliable source of income helps us make long-term commitments to projects such as VESSWIC to produce sustainable change over time. Some examples of welfare and conservation efforts that require long-term commitments include:

• Regular veterinary care requires expertise and regular visits over extended periods.
• Training and professional development can require hands-on and academic learning on an annual basis. Care for an orphaned calf may extend years after the initial emergency support.
• Animal hospitals require ongoing operational costs.
• Effective elephant patrol units require skilled mahouts and healthy and well-trained elephants that can patrol regularly to make a difference long term.