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.