Lucky The Dancing Elephant: Orphaned Animal Dances Without Training Or Coercion (VIDEO) [-At least she is not faking her dance!]

06/7/11
The Huffington Post

Lucky hasn't been trained, coerced, or even bribed -- she's simply got happy feet.

Lucky, who's a rescue at the Phnom Tamao Rescue Center in Cambodia, is a particularly expressive creature. Orphaned at 8 months old, she would likely have been killed had she not been rescued.

Apparently she's a pretty happy elephant, and according to the Wildlife Alliance, Lucky has even developed an interest in painting in addition to dancing!

From the Wildlife Alliance's post:

Lucky walks with an almost constant smile on her face. She is so relaxed, in fact, that her eyes are almost closed when she's around us. Of course, a very long time ago, she experienced the trauma of losing her mother, but she now is a typically happy elephant, raised with so much love, walking and swimming everyday in the same places and enjoying the constant closeness of her familiar elephant ("ellie") friends. She is charming and could win anyone over through her affectionate ways -- her mouth opens so wide that when she smiles, you can see her tongue!

Check out her dance in this video from the Wildlife Alliance:

Cambodian killer elephant dies in new home

PHNOM PENH, Wednesday 16 February 2011 (AFP) - An elephant that killed its owner and then went on a 10-day rampage in the Cambodian countryside before being taken in by an animal rescue centre has died unexpectedly, officials said Wednesday.

The five-tonne bull elephant, named Sambo, terrorised villagers in southwest Cambodia and destroyed their crops before he was subdued by wildlife workers in December and moved to the centre on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

For safety reasons, Sambo had restraints placed on his front legs and was kept away from other elephants.

Killer elephant taken to Cambodian zoo

Dec 27, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - An elephant that terrorized residents of a village in southern Cambodia has been transported to his new home at a zoo, local media reported.

The bull elephant named Sambo killed his owner and escaped from captivity this month, trampling crops and harassing residents who retaliated with sticks, knives and fireworks. Officials from the Cambodian Forestry Administration eventually tranquilized him and transported him Saturday to Phnom Tamao Zoo outside Phnom Penh, the Phnom Penh Post newspaper reported.

Jack Highwood, the head of a wildlife conservation group who assisted in Sambo's capture, said the pachyderm's transportation was an ordeal as it became a local spectacle.

'We had to deal with people who wanted to get close [to] him, ride him, catch him and drive him - and especially deal with drunken people who wanted to take him home with them,' Highwood told the Post.

The elephant, which weighed in at roughly 5 tons when captured, has reportedly lost more than 500 kilograms since being put on a starvation diet to ease his aggression. Conservation groups said the beast has likely been in a little-understood hormonal state called musth, which causes intense aggression in bull elephants.

Despite the destruction wrought by Sambo, some residents in Mon village of Kampong Speu province were sad to see him go.

'What are we going to look at now that the elephant is gone?' one villager reportedly asked Highwood. 'Rice? Cows?'

Sambo the killer elephant finds new home

December 27, 2010
AFP

AN enraged bull elephant that killed its owner and then went on a 10-day rampage in the Cambodian countryside has been taken in by a wildlife rescue centre.

The bull elephant, named Sambo, terrorised villagers in the southwestern province of Kampong Speu and destroyed their crops before he was subdued by wildlife workers on December 15.

The five-tonne animal was confined to a rice field for more than a week while a special cage was built to transport him to the Phnom Tamao rescue centre on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital.

Sambo, who has displayed violent behaviour in the past and is thought to have killed four people over the years, arrived at the centre on Saturday evening, a late Christmas present for the animal sanctuary.

"he has been placed in a temporary enclosure for the time being," said communications officer John Maloy from the Wildlife Alliance, adding that Sambo was being kept away from the zoo's five other Asian elephants.

"Sambo is probably too dangerous to mix with them at present,'' he said.

The Wildlife Alliance believes Sambo is in musth, a periodic condition in bull elephants that is often accompanied by highly aggressive behaviour.

His handlers hope that eventually Sambo will calm down and find a mate at the rescue centre.

Cambodia is home to about 120 domesticated elephants, according to Jack Highwood who heads the Elephants Livelihood Initiative Environment, a local organisation that assisted in Sambo's transfer.

While there are no official statistics, Highwood estimates that six people have been killed by elephants in

Cambodia in the past three years, including Sambo's victims. In all of those cases it was by a male elephant in musth.

The Asian elephant is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Donated Cambodian elephants to be flown to S.Korea

Thursday, July 08, 2010
AFP

SEOUL — Two elephants donated by Cambodia will be flown to South Korea Thursday to swell the country's depleted ranks of the endangered species, a zoo official said.

A South Korean air force cargo plane has left for Cambodia to collect a 20-year-old bull and a 27-year-old cow elephant after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen approved the donation, the Seoul Children's Grand Park official said on condition of anonymity.

They will join a 36-year-old bull elephant called Taesan, who has been leading a lonely life at the park zoo since his mate died of colitis 14 years ago.

There are hopes the female will become pregnant from either Taesan or the 20-year-old bull.

South Korea currently has only 11 elephants including five females past breeding age.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species bans the buying and selling of elephants, sparking off a round of diplomacy by Seoul which led to the donation.

The Cambodian elephants weigh a combined 5.5 tons and to ensure they have a comfortable ride aboard the C-130, air force officials prepared two large shockproof containers, the JoongAng Daily said. Three Cambodian elephant experts will accompany them to South Korea.

Following acclimatisation, the Cambodian pair will be on public view later this month.

Pair of Cambodian elephants donated to S. Korean zoo

The male elephant donated by Cambodia to Korea. He and a female partner arrive by an Air Force C-130 cargo plane tonight. [YONHAP]

Korea’s zoo elephants to get a little less lonesome

July 08, 2010
By Kang Chan-ho [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]
JoongAng Daily (South Korea)

Like its general population, Korea’s elephants are getting older and not reproducing enough to replenish their ranks.

In the Seoul Zoo, Taesan, a 34-year old male, lives the lonely life of a widower after his mate Taesun died of colitis 14 years ago. Of the 11 elephants in six zoos across the country, five are females past childbearing age.

The idea that the nation’s kids might never see a live elephant distressed Wu Si-eon, former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Facilities Management Corporation, which oversees Seoul’s zoos. Last May, Wu decided to buy a female to mate with Taesan from an elephant-rich country.

It turns out that’s a very difficult thing to do. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora prohibits governments selling or buying elephants.

Wu pleaded for help from Vice Foreign Minister Lee Yong-joon last October and the nation’s diplomats may have solved the problem.

Diplomatic sources told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday that the government will fly in a male and female elephant donated by the Cambodian government at 7 p.m. tonight. The donation offer came about 10 months after Korean diplomats started their search for an elephant. The sources said the friendship between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Korean President Lee Myung-bak smoothed the way.

“Hun Sen approved donating a 20-year-old bull elephant and a 27-year-old cow elephant on June 25,” a diplomatic source said. “An Air Force C-130 jet left for Cambodia yesterday to bring in the elephants, which together weigh 5.5 tons.”

The Foreign Ministry’s initial goal was to get a female between 15 and 30 years old, the most fertile age range.

Sources said the Cambodian government decided to donate a male as well after Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Young-jong and Lee Kyung-soo, Korean ambassador to Cambodia, met Cambodian government officials.

Then the ministry faced another hurdle: how to get the elephants to Korea. By sea was too slow, and when the ministry inquired into private shipping by air, it gave up after learning it would cost $200,000.

Hearing the predicament the zoo officials faced, a senior Defense Ministry official volunteered the use of an Air Force C-130 cargo plane.

To ensure the elephants have a comfortable ride, Air Force officials prepared two large, shock-proof containers. Three Cambodian elephant experts will accompany the animals to Korea and help them settle in.

“It’s a great diplomatic deal given that elephants are banned from commercial sales and that their value is priceless,” Wu said.

The two elephants will live together with Taesan in the Seoul Zoo to boost the chance of the female getting pregnant, the ministry source said. The elephants will be unveiled to the public this month.

Rare 'white' elephant captured in Burma

White elephants are in fact usually more reddish-brown in colour

Tuesday, 29 June 2010
BBC News

"In English and some other languages, a white elephant also means a useless structure, and a needlessly expensive burden."

A rare "white elephant", a traditional symbol of good fortune and power in south-east Asia, has been captured in Burma, state media reports.

Reports say the 2m (6.5ft) female elephant was tracked down in Maungdaw in the west of the country.

White elephants are only nominally white - they often look reddish-brown in the sun, and light pink when wet.

Analysts say the animal is likely to be brought to the capital, Naypyidaw, for the military ruler, General Than Shwe.

With elections due this year under terms the country's opposition considers unacceptable, Burma's military rulers have been hunting for their good omen for some time now, says the BBC's Viv Marsh.

When locals sighted a white elephant earlier this year in the jungle in Rakhine state, a unit of the Ministry of Forestry was sent to scour the area and find it, the New Light of Myanmar reported.

'Great blessings'

Their prize - a female aged about 38, was captured on 26 June, said the news agency.

The Thailand-based charity Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation said it would normally object to elephants being held in captivity, but made an exception for white elephants, which are traditionally kept in pampered conditions.

"The white elephant is a sign of great blessings and fortune for the land," spokeswoman Soraida Salwala told the Associated Press news agency.

White elephants have historically been owned and revered by Burmese leaders - Gen Than Shwe has never had one of his own, although Burma's leaders travel in aircraft called White Elephants 1 and 2.

In English and some other languages, a white elephant also means a useless structure, and a needlessly expensive burden.

The generals may hope their new trophy - and their own fortunes - are not blighted by linguistic association, says our correspondent.

One man's mission to save Cambodia's elephants

Tuy Sereivathana with an Asian elephant. Photo by: Tom Dusenbery.

May 17, 2010
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com

Since winning the prestigious 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize in Asia, Tuy Sereivathana has visited the US and Britain, even shaking hands with US President Barack Obama, yet in his home country of Cambodia he remains simply 'Uncle Elephant'. A lifelong advocate for elephants in the Southeast Asian country, Sereivathana's work has allowed villagers and elephants to live side-by-side. Working with Fauna and Flora International (FFI) he has successfully brought elephant-killing in Cambodia to an end. As if this were not enough, Sereivathana has helped curb the destruction of forests in his native country and built four schools for children who didn't previously have formal education opportunities.

Mongabay.com recently reached Sereivathana while he was in London for the Elephant Parade—a showcase of Asian Elephants statues around the city to help raise conservation funds to save the species (to read more about the parade: Elephants march in London, trumpeting conservation).

When asked how he felt on hearing the news that he had won this year's Goldman Environmental Prize (often dubbed the 'Nobel Prize' for the environment), Sereivathana said, "my wife and I dropped tears from surprise and excitement. I sat down and remembered my childhood till the day that I started working with elephant conservation."

Like Cambodia's recent history, Sereivathana's path has not been easy. Sereivathana was born in 1970—the very year King Sihanouk of Cambodia was overthrown. From the ensuing power struggle rose the Khmer Rouge and its head, genocidal dictator Pol Pot. Fearing the new order, Sereivathana's parents escaped from the city of Phnom Penh to a small village deep in the countryside of Cambodia.

It was there, living a decidedly rural life, that Sereivathana had his first encounter with the Asian elephant. Visiting the village, two mahouts and their domestic elephants allowed young Sereivathana to pummel them with questions. Seeing an elephant for the first time changed the course of his life.

"That night, all members of my family were sleeping deeply well except me. I imagined large groups of wild elephants with their babies in large forest. I wanted to work as an elephant protector (in that time we didn’t know the word 'conservationist' yet)," writes Sereivathana.

Years later Sereivathana received a government scholarship and studied in Minsk, Belarus. On returning to Cambodia after a seven year absence, Sereivathana worked in forestry, but eventually began his lifelong dream of working with elephants when FFI granted him the opportunity.

"In 2003, two elephant experts from FFI Cambridge went to meet my boss, Mr.Chey Samith, director of department of Nature Conservation and Protection (DNCP)," Sereivathana explains. "They needed a government officer who has strong commitment on elephant conservation to cooperate with an elephant project. My chance came. I became involved with elephant conservation from that time on."

Before Sereivathana's involvement elephants were killed regularly in southwest Cambodia amid the Cardamom Mountains because they were viewed as a pest who increasingly raided farmers' crops.

Sereivathana says the conflict was exacerbated by habitat loss which forced many elephants out of the forest and into agricultural areas. New villages and new crops encroached on elephant habitat and even their long-trodden corridors.

After working to gain the farmers' trust, Sereivathana implemented several low-cost measures to keep elephants away from farmers' fields, thereby mitigating conflict and ulimtately protectingthe 250 or so elephants that survived in the region.

Employing a variety of highly creative methods—including carbide explosions to scare marauding elephants, electric fences powered by solar panels, hanging hammocks and hats to confuse elephants into thinking people were there, placing chili in ropes and dung to keep elephants away, and encouraging farmers to switch to less elephant-friendly crops—Sereivathana successfully brought elephant mortalities from human conflict down to zero. In fact, not a single elephant has been killed in Cambodia since 2005, the year Sereivathana started working with FFI fulltime.

Even more than this, Sereivathana has become a local ambassador not just for elephants but for the tropical ecosystems of the Cardamom Mountains, which house a variety of rare and endangered species, including the Indochinese tiger, the pileated gibbon, the Siamese crocodile, and the wild cattle known as kouprey which may already be extinct.

"My project worked with people to stop going into the forest (where they cut trees or timbers) through providing training courses on agronomics and chicken farming," explains Sereivathana. "We also provided crop seeds, handle tractors, and made agreements with wildlife hunters and loggers."

Sereivathana attributes much of his success to working closely with the poor agraian communities, in other words he has paid as much attention to human needs as to the elephant's.

"We also build trust with local community and local authority. Conservation base with human needs is one of the most important," says Sereivathana.

Along this line, Sereivathana developed a program which built four community schools inside elephant areas.

"I knew villagers [were] concerned about future of their kids (who are illiterate). We helped to create the schools and provided teachers: these are indirect ways to improve elephant conservation in the areas. The teachers choose one day per week to do education on elephant conservation or value of forest to students such as read story books about wildlife, forests, and elephants," Sereivathana says, adding that by teaching children one also reaches adults.

"When the students return home, they talk positively about elephants. It can help villagers to change their mind on elephant conservation and also bring mainstream elephant conservation to a new generation."

Asian elephants, Sereivathana says, have always been important to Cambodians: "[they] played one of the main roles in building Angkor Wat [and] many Cambodian stories and songs show very deep relationship between elephant and our culture."

It has just taken a passionate advocate like Sereivathana to remind locals to see elephants differently: not as enemies, but more like eccentric five ton neighbors.

"The elephant is a flagship species," says Sereivathana, who sees elephants as possessing a vital ecological niche in his nation's forests. "To conserve the elephant, we have to think about their habitat (they need large forest), so other species can survive in the habitat. In case of water sources during the dry season, elephants make water holes by trampling, so other wildlife also use the water source. Elephants spread out seeds of trees in forest."

Even the dung of Asian elephants has been recently discovered to provide an important link between elephants and other forest species. Researchers have found life blooming amid the dung: fungi, insects, and even tiny frogs.

When asked what advice Sereivathana would give future Cambodian conservationists, he had this to say: "We must join as strong friends and try to improve our capacity day to day, support each other. Hopefully, many of us can show face in global community. Please don’t hesitate or be shy to show our effort and achievement; especially don’t feel negative about your future."

Sereivathana has proven just how much one person's dedication and passion can impact the future of one of the world's most beloved species, the Asian elephant, but more importantly he's achieved success by bettering the lives of the people who share the elephants' habitat.

Former Forest Hunter Turns Eco-Tour Guide

(Photo: Brendan Brady, IRIN)

The 54-year-old had been a guide since 2007, but he has not always been so kind to the forest. At one time, he was a hunter and a logger in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia’s ecological gem, where elephants, tigers and crocodiles still live—although in dwindling numbers.

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Preah Sihanouk province Thursday, 22 April 2010

“I had no choice but to hunt for a living then, because I had no capital to do any business.”

Grey-haired Soth Sophal prepared one recent day to lead a group of six villagers through the forest to a waterfall.

He would guide them in a way responsible to the environment, showing off the natural splendor of the area, near his home village of Prey Praseth, in Preah Sihanouk province’s Kampong Seila district.

The 54-year-old had been a guide since 2007, but he has not always been so kind to the forest. At one time, he was a hunter and a logger in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia’s ecological gem, where elephants, tigers and crocodiles still live—although in dwindling numbers.

“At that time, nothing in the forest belonged to anyone,” he told VOA Khmer on a recent trip in March. “We could do whatever we wanted with it: hunting, trapping animals, logging for valuable timber.”

Soth Sophal was one of many who exploited the mountains in the 1980s and 1990s, when the area of more than 2 million hectares suffered chaotic deforestation a decline in wildlife.

People on the edge of the forest depended on the jungles for survival. In the early 1990s, Soth Sophal bought a rifle from a solider, for hunting, and learned to lay animal traps from a friend.

“I went to the forest with him and helped him carry home hunted animals like wild pigs and deer,” Soth Sophal said. “Then I could lay my own traps, and the animals would be caught.”

For about 13 years from 1994, Soth Sophal would catch an average two animals per night, earning him up to $400 a month, above the average for Cambodia’s impoverished villagers.

“I had no choice but to hunt for a living then, because I had no capital to do any business,” said Soth Sophal, the father of five children. “I just borrowed some money from neighbors to buy stuff for a trap and pay them back after I sold off the animals I caught in the forests.”

Eventually, he had a change of heart. He began to fear arrest from the authorities, as they began cracking down on the wildlife trade and illegal logging. He was afraid he had sinned by killing the animals. An international conservation group, Flora and Fauna International, was teaching villagers to grow crops, to farm instead of hunt.

Soth Sophal decided to use his skills as a woodsman to guide tourists. He now walks them through the Thmor Roung ecotourism site in Preah Sihanouk.

“I also help protect the wild animals by informing the conservation group and local authorities when I learn about any hunter coming into my community,” he said.

His family earns a living selling meals and snacks to curious tourists, both foreign and local. And while some villagers continue to hunt and log in the forest, Soth Sophal says he rests easy, no longer afraid of arrest, or of sinning, knowing he is doing what he can to ensure the forest is their for the next generation.

Like Cambodia's Elephants, Phnong Traditions in Jeopardy

Mane Yun in local Bunong village in Cambodia.

Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
13 August 2007

Cambodian elephants can be distinguished from their African counterparts by their smaller ears, Yun Mane, a young law student of the Phnong minority, explained recently from Mondulkiri province.

These elephants are endangered, just as the traditions of the Phnong people are.

The Phnong's traditional use of elephants to clear forests and for transportation is declining, as the monetary value of elephants increase. Many Phnong, who are short of food and money, sell their elephants to companies in Siem Reap, where they are used transport tourists around Angkor Wat, Yun Mane told VOA Khmer recently.

"The elephant is the animal we love the most because it helps transport wood from the forests to help us build homes, and rice from the fields, and fruits and vegetables from farms," she said. "Our people do not rely on motorcycles or bicycles, because, in the forests and on the mud paths, when there is heavy rain and flooding, the elephant is the most reliable of all.''

As a child Yun Mane rode her elephant into Vietnam to bring back food and herbal medicine. But she sold her elephant several years ago to help her family and help pay for her education. Phnong are historically known as expert elephant captors. In their religion, the Phnong pray to elephant gods for good health, abundant harvests and safe journeys. The Phnong are forbidden to kill or eat the animals. A domestic elephant is honored in death with the same traditional funeral burial as a human.

''When an elephant dies, the Phnong do not eat the dead elephant," Yun Mane said. "A few Phnong might, but very few. The elephant is considered sacred, even in death. We bury a deceased elephant, especially the elephant that I personally love."

Melbourne scientists plan to run DNA tests on elephant dung sent from Cambodia to help work out numbers and monitor wild populations. Rangers have collected almost 600 samples of elephant dung from the Cardamom Mountains in the country's southwest.

Elephant biologist Joe Hefferman said getting a more accurate picture of population size would help conservationists work out how many elephants were being poached.

What it's like to be tossed by an elephant

An elephant grabs hold of Jeff Corwin's arm while filming with Anderson Cooper.

Friday, March 23, 2007
By Jeff Corwin, Wildlife Biologist
Posted at Anderson Cooper 360 deg. Blog, CNN

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Alas, in the end, the elephant got the better of me. Now I know that pachyderms not only like to gobble peanuts down their gullets, but the occasional elbow as well. Yikes!

Truth is that elephant is easily 15,000 times stronger than my meager self, and if she had wanted to, she could have done far worse than crushing a bit of ligament and muscle. Lucky for me, no broken bones, hopefully no connective tissue torn (will have to wait till I get home to find out about that).

In the end, this experience is a reminder to me just how powerful these majestic creatures are (same goes for many other species as well). The elephant who took to nibbling on my elbow may be strong, but her strength does not hold up to the impact that deforestation and poaching is having on her species, the Asian elephant.

Just a century ago, there were many thousands of elephants roaming and thriving throughout the rainforests of Southeast Asia, but tragically today, their population has been dramatically reduced, almost to near extinction in the wild.

Today in Cambodia, there may be only a few hundred of these intelligent, mighty and charismatic behemoths left. What a tragedy it would be to lose the Asian elephant. My advice to you, though, is if you're ever taking a bath with an elephant, keep your elbow out of its mouth!