We need to act now

BTEH is dedicated to the well-being and survival of African and Asian elephants, fostering socio-ecological resilience in communities seeking human-elephant coexistence, and striving for a world where both elephants and people can thrive. Our community-based conservation approach, developed since BTEH’s founding in 2004, emphasises shared decision-making, sustainability, equality, and partnerships. Through our projects, we promote evidence-based solutions that achieve human-elephant coexistence through range expansion, habitat restoration and supporting farmers in elephant-friendly livelihoods and land use, generating benefits for people, elephants and the ecosystems they share.

Elephant Research Experience Thailand:
October 1-10 2025

Dive into the heart of Thailand’s Kuiburi National Park and make a real impact on elephant conservation! Join Bring The Elephant Home’s groundbreaking research team and experience the thrill of studying wild Asian elephants up close! As one of our selected research assistants, you’ll track elephants through lush jungles, decode their behaviours, and work alongside expert researchers and local communities. Contribute to a cutting-edge elephant ID system and community-driven conservation projects that transform human-elephant conflict into coexistence.

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For the future of elephants!

Elephants are a keystone species in the ecosystems they are part of. Elephants disperse seeds, maintain grasslands and find water, all crucial for the survival of other species.

The mission of Bring The Elephant Home is to increase the chances of survival for elephants
in the wild and strive towards a
harmonious world where both humans and elephants can thrive, mutually benefiting from
coexistence.

Antoinette van de Water – founder BTEH

We need your help

We always welcome partners, volunteers, donors and sponsors for our projects. Please consider supporting our activities in Asia or Africa by making a donation. You can follow the latest news here.

Meet the team

Bring The Elephant Home is active on three continents. There is a lot of work to do for our various projects around the world, and we help to realise our ambitious plans is always welcome! More info: support@bteh.org. Meet the team!

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Latest news

Community engagement coordinator

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Podcast Protecting the Wild: Merging Tourism and Conservation in Africa

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Bringing down fences: one year on.

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Newest video

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  • ❤️ Here’s how you can help: 1. Search for Bring The Elephant Home in your company’s Benevity portal, make your donation, and request a match. 2. Set up a recurring payroll gift and ask your employer to match it, doubling your impact every month. 3. Use paid volunteer days (if your company offers them) to join our Elephant Research Programs in Thailand or Southern Africa. ✈️ 4. Not on Benevity? Ask your employer if they can: • Add BTEH to their workplace giving platform • Nominate us for a corporate grant or sponsorship • Organise a volunteer day or team fundraiser for elephants Your support protects wild elephants, restores habitats, and strengthens the communities who live alongside them. Let’s make your kindness go even further. 🌐 https://benevity.com/ #BringTheElephantHome #Benevity #DoubleYourImpact #WildlifeConservation #Elephants
  • 🐘Education becomes action! In partnership with @thesfs and @oregonstate, we recently welcomed students to our Thailand field station to move beyond the textbook and become part of the solution for human-elephant coexistence. From collecting data in the field to helping grow elephant-friendly crops, every moment is designed to be meaningful. 💬 As one student, Paris, shared, "It’s not just about elephants, it’s about creating lasting change in communities." Ready to bridge the gap between education and impactful conservation? We are always excited to partner with new institutions and individuals. Reach out to explore how we can collaborate. 🌐 www.bteh.org or ✉️ email rick@bteh.org #BringTheElephantHome #ConservationEducation #FieldResearch #StudyAbroad #Thailand #HumanElephantCoexistence #OregonState #SFS
  • Wild elephants don’t all behave the same when faced with something new, and where they live seems to shape their curiosity. A new study by Jacobson et al. (2025) tested how wild Asian elephants in Thailand reacted to unfamiliar objects in two very different places: deep inside a protected sanctuary and near farmland. Elephants living closer to agricultural areas were more curious and exploratory (showing what researchers call neophilia) compared to elephants in the sanctuary. This curiosity might help them find high-calorie crops like pineapples and bananas, but it also increases the risk of conflict with people protecting those same crops. Interestingly, the team couldn’t confirm whether curiosity and exploration are stable personality traits in elephants, because individual elephants didn’t always react the same way to different new objects. Understanding how curiosity differs across landscapes matters for coexistence. Curious elephants may be more likely to raid farms, but they may also be more willing to interact with solutions like deterrents or alternative food sources. 📄 Jacobson, S.L., Dittakul, S., Pla-ard, M., Sittichok, S., Yindee, M., & Plotnik, J.M. (2025). Wild elephants vary in their attraction to novelty across an anthropogenic landscape gradient. Royal Society Open Science. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250896 How could this research change the way we design human–elephant conflict mitigation strategies?
  • 🌍🐘 Celebrating Mo & Kie – Our Coexistence Impact Fellows! 🐘🌍 Mo and Kie, two of our dedicated team members, have been participating in the Cincinnati Zoo’s Coexistence Impact Fellows Program. This fellowship supports conservationists working in their own countries to create solutions for people and wildlife to thrive together. Earlier this year, Mo and Kie traveled to the USA for a week of collaboration, training, and connection with conservation leaders from around the world! During Fellows Week, they shared their work on human-elephant coexistence in Kuiburi, brainstormed new ideas with Zoo staff, and brought fresh skills and inspiration back to Thailand. As part of this fellowship, Mo and Kie have been undertaking incredible fieldwork in Kuiburi, supporting our ongoing research evaluating the use of alternative crops to mitigate human-elephant conflict and conducting an impressive occupancy survey of around the borders of the national park to better understand the distribution of Asian elephants across the region, especially in remote areas. We are so proud of Mo and Kie and grateful to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for championing community-led conservation. 🌱@cincinnatizoo You can read more and watch an interview with these conservation queens at this link! https://buff.ly/PShlBZ3 #BringTheElephantHome #Coexistence #ElephantConservation #CincinnatiZoo #ConservationFellows #HumansAndElephants #WildlifeCoexistence #Thailand
  • Today is World Nature Conservation Day! 🌱 We’re working toward a future where people and elephants can truly thrive together through community-led conservation. In Thailand, our efforts to better understand wild elephants and create lasting solutions to human-elephant conflict wouldn’t be possible without the conservation heroes on the ground every single day. Your dedication makes this work a reality – thank you. 🌏🐘🌱 You can help keep this mission moving forward. Donate or Adopt an Elephant today. 🌐 www.BTEH.org #WorldNatureConservationDay #BringTheElephantHome #Coexistence #elephants #thailand #southafrica #conservation
  • 🐘🍎How Elephants Gesture! New research by Eleuteri et al. is catching attention. In their latest study, researchers found that elephants use their trunks to make intentional gestures like pointing, reaching, and swinging to request their favorite treats. Just like humans might wave or point when they want something, elephants only gestured when humans were watching, then kept trying if they didn’t get what they wanted. Researchers recorded 38 different types of gestures, showing that elephants use body language in deliberate, thoughtful ways. While great apes have long been the stars of gesture research, this study reveals that elephants also communicate with purpose and persistence, offering deeper insight into how complex communication may have evolved in social species. 🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.242203 #Elephants #AnimalBehavior #Communication #Cognition #ConservationScience