A city is the last place where you would expect to find an elephant. Their existence is heartbreaking. Without the forest, and sufficient food, Thai elephants won’t have a chance of survival. 'Bring the Elephant Home' is dedicated to create a better future for all Thai elephants. We hope to achieve this by stimulating animal friendly eco-tourism, creating habitat for elephants, growing food for elephants, creating alternatives for elephant families and by finding solutions to solve human-elephant conflicts. With our project Trees for Elephants we have already planted about 250,000 trees for wild and domesticated elephants. To be able to extend the Elephant Nature Park, we’ll organize Bike for Elephants on January 14 and 15 2012. Read more... >>>
Park Plaza hotel sponsors Elephant Jungle
antoinette - 31 January 2011 11:03
Even before we officially got started, the Park Plaza had already confirmed their support for the Elephant Jungle Project! The Park Plaza hotel sold elephant dolls to their guests for some months to raise money for Bring the Elephant Home. The hotel displayed posters to inform guests about their initiative and organized an online fundraiser. Mid-December, the result was announced: 100,000 baht to spend on the Elephant Jungle Project! With the donation of the Park Plaza hotel we can install solar panels and build the first adobe accommodation. This support ensured a spectacular start of the project.
Thank you so much, people of the Park Plaza Hotel!
Click ‘more’ for an update on how the donation of the Park Plaza hotel is spent:
(more…)
Bike for Elephants successful again
antoinette - 24 January 2011 10:15
Last weekend Bike For Elephants took place for the second time. In two days 58 participants cycled 60 miles through the mountains of Chiang Mai to raise money for Thai elephants. After the first day we set up camp at the Elephant Nature Park, where the participants can see for themselves how their sponsorship money will be spend. Before we get back on our bikes, we spend some time in the field, where the elephants can roam freely. For most of the participants this is a unique experience they will not quickly forget. After the walk and the group picture the difficult ride to the Bua Thong waterfalls commences. A small number of participants don’t make the finish line, but most of them keep on pedaling until finally the Bike for Elephants banner comes into view. At the waterfall everyone can cool down, enjoy the picnic, and sit to talk about the impressive weekend. The date for Bike for Elephants 2012 will be decided soon!
And the result of this weekend: 402,414 baht (9,679 euros) for the Elephant Jungle Project!
To all of the participants and sponsors: thank you so much for your support!
Click ‘more’ for pictures (by Nitchanan Onkate) of the weekend:
Proceeds Run for Elephants
antoinette - 17 January 2011 09:43
On Sunday 26th December, three sporty volunteers of the Elephant Nature Park ran the half-marathon of Chiang Mai to raise money for the new Elephant Jungle Project. And with great results, because the three of them raised a fantastic 4,031 euros! Maxine, Aaron, and Marleen: Thank you so much for your incredible effort!
Action, with a very positive result!
antoinette - 15 January 2011 09:36
The Elephant Nature Park and Bring the Elephant Home have been campaigning for months to get the elephants out of Chiang Mai: everything from organizing petitions, spreading posters in the entertainment district, handing out flyers, to endless phone calls to the officials responsible. After a mahout had attacked a complaining tourist with his hook, the unacceptable situation was given a lot of media attention. An important moment to capitalize on. Late December, we had gathered about 80 protesters at the city hall to present over 100,000 signatures to the governor of Chiang Mai. And it worked! Mid January the council announced: No more street elephants in the city! The next day all mahouts were given a serious warning and were sent home, where they will get an income from the Thai government. At the moment Chiang Mai is elephant free!
Click ‘more’ for pictures of the protest and for the article written about it on mychiangmai.com.
Award for the best fundraiser of Bike for Elephants
antoinette - 27 December 2010 07:55
The Tongsai Bay sponsors Bike for Elephants with a complimentary gift voucher for the best fundraiser of Bike for Elephants 2011:
“A 3-night stay in a Tongsai Pool Villa inclusive of daily buffet breakfast and airport-transfers for 2 persons”
(worth: 88,275 Thai Baht or 2,230 euro)
The Tongsai Bay is splendidly located in Northeastern Samui. Every room has a spacious terrace and open-air facilities incl a bath-with-a-view feature. The Tongsai Bay has the objective to preserve the natural balance among animals, trees, soil, water and human beings and developed its own ‘Green Project’. This is now the model for many new hotels who also desire to preserve the island’s natural environment for future generations.
After the finish of Bike or Elephants 2011 the best individual fundraiser will be awarded with this special gift voucher. All participants: you still have more than two weeks to make sure you can recover from the bike tour in a beach pool villa on Samui island!
Elephant Jungle Project
antoinette - 21 December 2010 08:01
From November 2010 on, Bring the Elephant Home will manage and finance the Elephant Jungle Project of the Elephant Nature Park. A beautiful piece of 150 acre mountainous land, surrounded by protected forest, and with some streams running through it, that we will turn into a true elephant jungle.
With the support of Bring the Elephant Home, the Elephant Nature Park was able to buy the new land in 2009. The land was mainly used for cabbage plantations, so most of the forest disappeared (see photo top left).
In the last two years, we managed to remove the plantations, analyze the condition of the soil and we have started to restore the forest. We have improved the road, built bathrooms, fixed the existing wooden house and installed water pipes. In the coming years we still have to plant many more trees that will attract birds and other wild animals, this way the natural seed distributors will automatically visit our land from the neighboring forests, and plant more tree species for us. (more…)
Join Bike for Elephants 2011
antoinette - 10 December 2010 09:36
The trailer of Bike for Elephants 2011 (by: Hinesh Patel).
Bring Sri Prae Home
antoinette - 11 November 2010 09:08
Sri Prae was born in Mae Sot at the Thai - Burmese border 29 years ago. Five years ago she had an accident with a landmine, when she was working in the logging industry. Unable to work, a new owner bought her for a breeding program. When she didn’t get pregnant, she became useless and was sold again. But this time to t…he Bring the Elephant Home foundation. After spending some time at an elephant island in Buriram, her only friend passed away and the island got flooded. In November 2010 Bring the Elephant Home moved her to her new home…
Sri Prae can stay in the Elephant Nature Park for the rest of her live. Here she can live a true elephant life: free, in nature, surrounded by other elephants.
Photography and video: David Terrazas
Song: Biological by AIR
Video of the journey of Sri Prae to the Elephant Nature Park
antoinette - 10 November 2010 14:20
Camera: Nitchanan Onkate
Editor: Ae Parinchai
Welcome to your new home, Sri Prae
antoinette - 09:09
After several meetings and preparation time, we left Chiang Mai last week to pick up Sri Prae, and bring her to the Elephant Nature Park. Various reasons make this a tough job: We have to get teams from the ENP, BTEH and a team of mahouts from Surin together at same time on the elephant island. The paperwork will be difficult because they are registered to different people. It will be nearly impossible to get Sri Prae into the truck, and we have prepare the truck to make it strong enough. We also have to make sure the villagers understand the decision, and agree. We had two days in the village to take care of everything. The final village meeting went well: a brief evaluation, pitching ideas on how the project could continue in the future, and what Sri Praes life in Chiang Mai will be like. The villagers ask for pictures of Sri Prae after her arrival, and whether they can visit Sri Prae. Of course we take care of this.
Click <more> for the photo report of moving Sri Prae.
