NEVER HEARD AFTER SHE LEFT HERD
May 14th, 2013
I have been following the plight of Mali for months and today I am glad that it has reached the eye of Sri Lankans. Mali is a Sri Lankan elephant who was gifted to Manila zoo in Philippines in 1977. Today, in the zoo, Mali is undergoing a stressful life affected physiologically as well as Read more…
Summer weather could delay Toronto Zoo elephant transfer
May 13th, 2013
Torstar News ServiceIringa, in front, and Toka are two of the three Toronto Zoo elephants that would be moved to a California animal sanctuary. Long-delayed plans to ship the Toronto Zoo’s three aging elephants to a Northern California sanctuary may be further postponed by hot summer weather. Final plans to airlift the elephants aboard a Read more…
Video: Sri Lankan officials capture and release wild elephant
May 13th, 2013
A wild elephant had wandered into a human populated area. Officials from the Department of Wildlife Conservation captured the animal and will relocate it. Watch video>
Keeper Unit to monitor tourism activities along Kinabatangan river
May 12th, 2013
KINABATANGAN: Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), HUTAN and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) have established a River Keeper Unit. This unit will be assisting the department in protecting elephants and other wildlife within the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS). The River Keeper Unit is funded by Elephant Family and the Kinabatangan-Corridor of Life Tourism Operators Association Read more…
Two Phuket baby elephants ‘arrested’
May 12th, 2013
PHUKET: In an echo of a probe last year into “illegal” elephants in Phuket, officials are investigating the backgrounds of two baby elephants in Phuket that are suspected to have been taken from the wild or smuggled in from a neighbouring country. The two are described in paperwork that is suspected to have been issued Read more…
Columbia to end use of animals in traveling circuses
May 9th, 2013
BOGOTA: The Colombian Senate’s Fifth Committee has approved a draft bill to end the use of animals in traveling circuses. The 8 to 1 committee vote (4 absent) sends the Bill to the plenary session and was welcomed by Animal Defenders International (ADI), following a six-year campaign after their undercover investigators exposed cruelty and suffering Read more…
Elephant slaughter: The gangs get bold
May 5th, 2013
The chief of the country’s largest national park says he needs help to combat the well planned poaching campaign that has claimed at least seven of Thailand’s national animals in recent years. In early March, Kaeng Krachan National Park chief Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn was outraged to learn of another elephant killing in the area he oversees. Read more…
White elephant caught on camera in Phetchaburi
May 4th, 2013
A suspected white elephant, right, is photographed by an infrared camera at an artificial salt-lick in a Phetchaburi forest earlier this week. Apparent images of a much-sought-after white elephant spotted earlier near Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi have been recorded by cameras set up in the jungle, leaving officials with a decision to make Read more…
40 elephants suspected illegal as raids strike tourism trekking companies
May 4th, 2013
PHUKET: Officers from the regional Natural Resources and Environment Crime Suppression Division raided seven tour companies in Phang Nga this week following reports that the companies were in possession of illegal elephants. Col Watcharin Phusit, who headed the elephant raids in Phuket last year, also led the raids north of Phuket. “We investigated the ATV Read more…
National Zoo to get new Asian elephant
May 3rd, 2013
The National Zoo announced Friday that it is acquiring an Asian elephant from the zoo in Baton Rouge. The elephant is a 37-year-old female named Bozie. Zoo officials said that her companion, Judy, died recently. Elephants are herd animals and cannot be left alone. (CC Lockwood/National Zoo) – The National Zoo is acquiring 37-year-old Bozie Read more…
Video: Rogue elephant captured
May 2nd, 2013
Wild life officers have captured the rogue elephant that has been roaming at Galapitagala and Gonagala in Ampara. This elephant is alleged to have killed two villagers and destroyed five houses. The operation to capture the wild elephant Read more…
No Ethical Way to Keep Elephants in Captivity
May 1st, 2013
After reading the April 23, 2013, NewsWatch online post, “Captive Elephant Management: Interview with Knoxville Zoo’s Curator of Elephants,” by guest blogger Jordan Carlton Schaul, I felt compelled to respond. I am the president, and co-founder, of the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). Founded in 1984, PAWS operates three sanctuaries in Northern California for captive wildlife. These sanctuaries are currently home Read more…
Unmanned plane to help in jumbo hunt
April 29th, 2013
Officials will install 20 cameras and use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to locate a pachyderm which officials believe might be a baby white elephant. A forestry official launches a remote-controlled plane equipped with a camera. Officials are sending the planes to fly over a reservoir in the Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi to search Read more…
Is the govt sitting on its new animal laws?
April 28th, 2013
Last November the Thai legislature passed a major animal welfare bill. But as I understand Thai law, the bill has to be voted on three times (three readings) before it can go into effect. I have contacted friends in the animal rights movement and spent hours on the Internet trying to find out what has Read more…
Circuses to face wild animal ban
April 26th, 2013
Circuses in England will be prohibited from using wild animals in their shows from the beginning of December 2015, the government has announced. Ministers were initially reluctant to bring in a blanket ban – demanded by many MPs and campaigners – in case of legal action by operators. Agriculture minister David Heath said the two-year Read more…
Park boosts rangers to guard ‘white elephant’
April 25th, 2013
PHETCHABURI : Additional rangers have been deployed to Kaeng Krachan National Park amid fears poachers may be hunting a rumoured white elephant calf. Phetchaburi governor Monthian Thongnit oversaw the deployment of the extra guards yesterday as reports of the unconfirmed white elephant sighting spread, fuelling concerns that poachers may converge on the park. Photographer Apichart Read more…
Plan to register ivory items to stop slaying of elephants
April 24th, 2013
The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is considering a pardon for people who possess ivory and ivory products to encourage them to legally register the items. It also proposes amending ministerial regulations to make African elephants protected under Thai wildlife laws, so Thai officials can punish people who smuggle African ivory into the country more Read more…
Asian Elephants Frolicking in Camera Trap Video
April 23rd, 2013
The intimate behavior of wild Asian elephant families is revealed in new camera trap footage from Cambodia’s Seima Protection Forest. The video, released today by The Wildlife Conservation Society, shows elephant families wandering through this forest, wallowing in mud holes, feeding and playing. The footage is in stark contrast to scenes of elephant poaching and habitat loss in other areas of Read more…
Trafficking gang ‘killed elephants’
April 21st, 2013
A Laotian-Vietnamese wildlife trafficker and influential local people are believed to be behind the slaying of wild elephants in Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi, an elephant expert told reporters at the Crime Reporters and Photographers Association of Thailand. Elephant expert Dulasit Snidwongs na Ayutthaya said the alleged Laotian wildlife trafficker who has Vietnamese nationality Read more…
Chaiwat says jumbo deaths a conspiracy by officials
April 20th, 2013
The chief of Kaeng Krachan National Park will ask the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to probe a spate of elephant killings in the park. Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn said he will lodge the request with the DSI next week after a pregnant elephant was found shot dead in the park on April 9. He believes top-level Read more…
Circus charged after elephant abuse video
April 19th, 2013
Johannesburg – Charges have been brought against a top South African circus company after shocking footage emerged of elephants being abused. The cellphone video, broadcast on Carte Blanche on Sunday night, showed Brian Boswell’s Circus employees hitting elephants, causing outrage and huge support for the Boycott Brian Boswell Animal Circus Facebook page, reported the Times Live. By Tuesday morning, the Read more…
Elephants denied entry into Maine over tuberculosis test
April 19th, 2013
AUGUSTA — Johnny Rocket, “Just Larry” the clown, a flying trapeze act, a ballerina on horseback, Ringmaster Peter Sturgis and other big top performers will be at the 60th annual Kora Shrine Circus at the Augusta Civic Center Saturday. But not Nosey the elephant. Neither Nosey, nor any other elephants, will be part of this year’s Read more…
Old elephant killed in fight over female
April 18th, 2013
Tourists and staff at an elephant centre in Chon Buri ran for their lives on Thursday morning as two male tuskers fought over a female, and the old one was killed by the younger one, ASTV Manager newspaper reported. Authorities called to Khao Chi Chan Pattaya Elephant Centre in Sattahip district found the severely gored body of 69-year-old Read more…
Whole genome sequenced of deadly elephant herpes virus subspecies
April 18th, 2013
HOUSTON — (April 17, 2013) — The first complete genome of one of several species of elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses (EEHV), associated with a deadly disease that strikes both managed and free ranging elephants, has now been sequenced by a team of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The finding, Read more…
Circuses to face wild animal ban
April 16th, 2013
Circuses in England will be prohibited from using wild animals in their shows from the beginning of December 2015, the government has announced. Ministers were initially reluctant to bring in a blanket ban – demanded by many MPs and campaigners – in case of legal action by operators. Agriculture minister David Heath said the two-year Read more…
Elephant conditions at Woodland Park Zoo to get public review
April 16th, 2013
After years of bad press and public concern about conditions of the elephants at Woodland Park Zoo – and about any zoo keeping elephants – the Seattle zoo’s board has created a public panel to look into the health and living conditions of its elephants. The panel of community leaders will “evaluate the zoo’s elephant program Read more…
Elephants at Phra Kochabaan foundation get shot in the arm from Bayer Thai donation
April 15th, 2013
Bayer Thai has donated cash and animal health products worth Bt590,000 to the Phra Kochabaan Foundation, a non-government organisation in Ayutthaya that cares for and conserves elephants. To strengthen the “Bayer: Science for a Better Life” mission, the local company has a strong commitment to applying its German parent’s science into the major global challenges Read more…
Park chief, jumbo deaths ‘not linked’
April 13th, 2013
The carcass of a slain pregnant elephant lies inside Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi. The recent slaughter of elephants in Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan National Park and calls for the removal of the park’s chief are being treated as two separate issues, a high-level environmental official insisted yesterday. “I will study whether there was any Read more…
Big reward for info on elephant deaths
April 12th, 2013
PHETCHABURI – Rewards of 100,000 baht each are being offered to anyone who can provide information on the deaths of two elephants in Kaeng Krachan National Park on March 8 and April 9. The carcass of a beheaded wild elephant lies near a reservoir in Kaeng Krachan district of Phetchaburi. Its tusks removed, the elephant Read more…
Headless body of elephant found in Kaeng Krachan park
April 10th, 2013
Another wild elephant has been slaughtered in Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan National Park, apparently by poachers after its ivory, deputy chief of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department Theerapat Prayurasiddhi said yesterday. Theerapat said that according to Kaeng Krachan National Park chief Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn’s initial report, the headless carcass of a male elephant was Read more…
For the love of elephants
April 9th, 2013
Princess Stephanie has kept her word and will be welcoming to Monaco two elephants suspected of having tuberculosis. Baby and Nepal have been at the centre of an animals rights campaign these past few months that questioned a ‘precautionary’ death sentence for the pair. Luckily for the 40-year-old pachyderms, their new home is with the Read more…
Ivory hunters kill another elephant
April 9th, 2013
The dessicated carcass of a dead elephant has been found in Kaeng Krachan National Park, in Phetchaburi province, about three kilometres from where another elephant was found dead on March 8. An elephant found beheaded in Kaeng Krachan National Park on Tuesday. (Photo by Chaiwat Satyaem) Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn, the park chief, said he was informed Read more…
UPDATE: Elephant with circus shot in Tupelo
April 9th, 2013
PETA has announced a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for shooting Carol, the 39-year-old Asian elephant used in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The reward is in addition to a $250 reward offered by former First Congressional District Rep. Travis Childers. Read more…
“An Apology to Elephants,” Narrated by Lily Tomlin Read
April 9th, 2013
“AN APOLOGY TO ELEPHANTS,” NARRATED BY LILY TOMLIN, EXAMINES THEIR ABUSE AND CHRONICLES EFFORTS TO PROVIDE MORE HUMANE TREATMENT WHEN THE DOCUMENTARY DEBUTS APRIL 22, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO Read More> Source: The Futon Critic
Guest: Elephants first at Woodland Park Zoo
April 8th, 2013
IN recent years, information has been flowing in from long-term studies of elephants in the wild. They reveal a picture of an animal that is far different from what we learned about them in zoos and circuses. They have extraordinarily complex social lives, with immensely strong social bonds. Females, for example, are never parted from Read more…
Video: Sri Lanka HEC- 4 injured in wild elephant attack
April 5th, 2013
Watch video>
Elephant found beheaded in Vietnam forest
April 5th, 2013
The carcass presumably belonging to a female elephant that was found dead with its head, legs and skin removed in a local forest in the north-central province of Quang Binh. An elephant believed to be the last one in the wilds of the north-central province of Quang Binh has been found dead with its head, legs Read more…
Video: Wild elephant attacks woman
April 3rd, 2013
Watch video>
Thief chainsaws tusk off Louis XIV’s pet elephant in Paris museum
April 2nd, 2013
A 20-year-old man allegedly broke into the Museum of Natural History in Paris and used a chainsaw to sever the tusk off the skeleton of an elephant that belonged to King Louis XiV. The African elephant had been given to King Louis XiV — also known as the Sun King — by the king of Portugal in Read more…
Elephant electrocuted in farm
April 2nd, 2013
An eight-year-old male elephant was today electrocuted after it came into contact with an electric fence in a farm in Allurvayal, about 80 kms from here. Two people, including the farm owner, have been arrested in this connection, forest department sources said. They said the post-mortem report revealed that the elephant was electrocuted inside the Read more…
Now Poachers Are Sawing Off Elephant Tusks in Museums
April 2nd, 2013
Photo: entendered Thieves are plundering Europe’s museums of their rhino horns and elephant tusks. First it was Haslemere Educational Museum and Norwich Castle Museum in England, then the Florence Museum of Natural History. Overall, the Guardian reports, more than twenty museums and auction houses in Britain, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Belgium have lost tusks and horns to poachers looking to turn a quick profit. Last weekend, Paris’ Read more…
Elephant ‘Judy’ dies after long illness at BR Zoo
March 30th, 2013
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – It is a sad day at the Baton Rouge Zoo. Judy, an Asian elephant that lived at the Zoo since 1974, has died. Judy was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. She was 46. According to officials at the Zoo, Judy was diagnosed with arthritis in 1983 when she developed arthritis and Read more…
Thailand mulls combined legislation to protect elephants
March 29th, 2013
BANGKOK, March 28 – Thailand’s Elephant Bill, drafted several years ago, will be revised and submitted to Parliament to protect the diminishing pachyderm population in Thailand, according to a Natural Resources and Environment Ministry official. Currently elephant affairs are dealt with by four separate laws. Read More> Source: Pattaya Mail
How India deals with squatters: Elephants used bulldoze illegal jungle shacks
March 29th, 2013
Now these guys are eviction officers you really wouldn’t want to argue with. In most countries removing squatters or clearing illegal traveller sites is a slow process, mired in red tape and held up by endless legal proceedings. But in India they appear to have a developed a more direct solution. At first glance, the Read more…
Elephant dies while being transported
March 29th, 2013
An elephant of a circus died when it was being transported to Chapra in Nadia district, Forest department sources said today. After completion of shows at Ishlampur in Murshidabad district, the circus authorities transported their animals, including the elephant, to Chapra in Nadia district in a vehicle. When the vehicle carrying the animals reached Chapra Read more…
Stage set for exotic-animal ban
March 28th, 2013
The final curtain appears to have closed in Winnipeg on what’s become a controversial form of entertainment: circus performances featuring exotic animals. Members of the Humane Education Network demonstrate against the exotic-animal circus at the MTS Centre. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ) Earlier this week, the MTS Centre hosted three performances of Super Read more…
Air Force will fly Toronto Zoo elephants to California sanctuary on Bob Barker’s dime
March 26th, 2013
TORONTO - It’s time for three aging elephants at Toronto Zoo to finally pack their trunks and head into the sunset of their retirement years in sunny California. Apparently, a Jumbo jet just isn’t big enough. The three pensioner pachyderms — Toka, Thika and Iringa — will be airlifted to the West Coast aboard a Royal Canadian Read more…
Avorio: il mercato non conosce sosta Elefanti sempre più minacciati
March 25th, 2013
Cresce consenso su stop a bracconaggio e contrabbando. Ma il commercio prospera indisturbato BANGKOK - La mappa è chiara e conclamata, ed è formata da 23 Paesi fornitori e destinatari del traffico illegale d’avorio. Otto in particolare sono i «cattivi», identificati quali principali protagonisti nel contrabbando: Kenia, Uganda e Tanzania quali Paesi d’origine, Malaysia, Filippine e Read more…
Elephant rides contract should not be continued
March 23rd, 2013
I was very disappointed to read that our San Diego Fair Board has decided again to continue their contract with Have Trunk Will Travel for Elephant Rides for another TWO years of fairs. Advocates have repeatedly tried to convince the board to NOT continue the contract that was DUE to be up. At a meeting Read more…
The Brains of the Animal Kingdom
March 22nd, 2013
New research shows that we have grossly underestimated both the scope and the scale of animal intelligence. Primatologist Frans de Waal on memory-champ chimps, tool-using elephants and rats capable of empathy. Associated PressA herd of African elephants drink water at a dam inside the Addo Elephant National Park near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Who is Read more…
Video: Baby Elephant Smuggling Exposed
March 20th, 2013
How Thailand’s Tourist Industry is Driving a Brutal Trade in Baby Elephants. Illegal and brutal cross-border trade in endangered wild Asian elephants continues. On the Thai-Myanmar border at least 50-100 calves and young females are removed from their forest homes every year and are traded illegally every year to supply tourist camps. Countless elephants die Read more…
Video: Elephant Poaching and Ivory Trafficking
March 20th, 2013
Elephant poaching and ivory trafficking will be a key issue during the upcoming CITES COP in Bangkok. The attached footage includes exclusive footage illustrating Chinese buyers acquiring ivory items… Watch video>
Experts trying to find answers to mysterious elephant deaths
March 18th, 2013
KOTA KINABALU – The mystery surrounding the deaths of 14 Bornean pygmy elephants at a forest reserve in January continues to unravel with wildlife experts leaving no stone unturned in investigations. Researchers are examining two surviving elephants to get to the bottom of the 14 fatalities. The surviving herd, an adult female and juvenile female Read more…
Peta Video: Actor Edie Falco Urges Families to Skip the Circus
March 18th, 2013
Edie Falco describes the agony that mother elephants go through when their babies are stolen from them and they are forced to watch as their babies are shackled and beaten. Join Edie in skipping the animal circus, and instead choose non-animal entertainment for your family. Watch video>
Cites wraps up in Bangkok to mixed reviews
March 17th, 2013
Delegates from 170 countries passed proposals upgrading protection for more than 50 species, but critics warn that loopholes allowing trade in some critically endangered species remain unclosed. The Cites conference wrapped up in Bangkok on Thursday with opinions sharply divided on what advances the meeting made to protect the planet’s endangered species. What progress the Read more…
Hypocritical to lecture Thais on ivory
March 17th, 2013
The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is pressuring Thailand to ban the domestic ivory trade. They scold us and make us look like a bad boy. But come to think of it, wasn’t it white men who killed tens of thousands of elephants for their tusks? In the mid-1800s, elephant tusks Read more…
Killing the ivory trade
March 16th, 2013
The 16th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), showed its teeth by coming up with a concrete action plan to curb the illegal ivory trade. It ”officially requested” eight countries allegedly involved in the trade, including Thailand, devise action plans or face trade sanctions. The Read more…
PM orders speedy elephant death probe
March 15th, 2013
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has told police and wildlife authorities to speed up an investigation into elephant poaching in Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi province. This screen grab from Channel 9 MCOT shows wildlife rangers trying to help an elephant which was wounded in the same incident where the mother elephant was killed. The Read more…
Hong Kong’s seized ivory stockpile an elephant-sized headache
March 15th, 2013
Seized ivory tusks are displayed during a Hong Kong Customs press conference on January 4, 2013. (CNN) – Hong Kong is fast becoming the Fort Knox of ivory. As one of the chief gateways to mainland China — the world’s largest market for ivory, according to animal welfare groups — Hong Kong has seized tons of Read more…
Tourists told not to buy any ivory products
March 14th, 2013
People carrying illegal ivory can be arrested at the airport or back home. Foreigners visiting Thailand have been advised not to buy elephant tusks or any ivory products, even if it is something as small as an earring or a bracelet. Offenders might face arrest in Thailand or at home if they are caught taking Read more…
‘Gang of eight’ on ivory probation
March 14th, 2013
The worst offending countries in the ivory trade have been given a strict deadline to reduce their involvement or face sanctions. The decision taken at the final meeting of the Cites conference in Bangkok is meant to compel countries like China and Thailand to tougher action. But some campaigners say Cites is failing to protect Read more…
Electric fence around Mattala airport
March 14th, 2013
Authorities of the Mattala International airport are considering the construction of a solar powered electric fence to keep elephants away from the airport, reports ‘Lakbima Online’. The particular decision reportedly taken after a man died due to an elephant attack on the Mattala airport road yesterday (13). The electric fence will be constructed in order Read more…
We’re going to need A LOT more food!
March 13th, 2013
52 Thai elephants celebrate national day in their honour with all-you-can eat buffet National Elephant Day is celebrated in Thailand on March 13 every year Events are held across the country in honour of the Asian elephant Introduced to raise awareness of efforts to save the endangered species Elephant fans have gathered in Thailand to Read more…
Crime ‘gangs shot elephant’
March 13th, 2013
A group of 20 elephants that strayed from a larger herd in Ang Reu Nai Forest, Khao Chamao, Rayong were yesterday being tracked by forest conservation officials. The officials are seeking to guide the group away from local settlements, after the elephants At least three organised criminal gangs are suspected to be behind the illegal Read more…
Sri Lanka President gifts two baby elephants to Japan to mark 60 years of diplomatic relations
March 13th, 2013
Mar 13, Tokyo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is on an official visit to Japan, gifted two baby elephants to Tokyo’s Tama Zoo Tuesday to mark 60 years of friendly relations between the two countries. Symbolizing the occasion, a photo of the two baby elephants, 8-year-old ‘Amara’ and 5-year-old ‘Vidura’, was also presented to Read more…
MOTHER ELEPHANT’S UNFORTUNATE DEATH AT TRINCO
March 13th, 2013
The Female Elephant Who Came to The Sacred Area With Injuries Caused To The Mouth By “Hakka Pattas’ Dies After Delivering The Baby Elephant. The human beings definitely possess a much matured mind than animals however an inhuman act of a group of human beings had led to an elephant on the verge of delivering Read more…
Ivory to get DNA tracking tests
March 13th, 2013
Countries making large seizures of illegal ivory will be required to conduct DNA tests to determine the origin under new anti-trafficking measures adopted at the Cites conference on Wednesday. The agreement at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) follows a surge in poaching of the African elephant to the highest levels since Read more…
Former handling of Virginia Zoo elephants criticized
March 13th, 2013
A former Virginia Zoo volunteer is criticizing what he said was the zoo’s longtime practice, ended last year, of striking elephants with a metal rod called a bullhook, or ankus. Dave MacDougall came forward with the claims after being terminated from one of the zoo’s volunteer programs last month. The 65-year-old Navy veteran volunteered for Read more…
Thailand’s promise to end ivory trade cautiously welcomed
March 13th, 2013
Thailand’s prime minister says she will amend her country’s laws to ban the legal trade in ivory. Yingluck Shinawatra was speaking at the opening of the Cites conservation meeting taking place in Bangkok, The legal market in Thailand is said to be fuelling high levels of poaching across Africa. Critics say that there is a lack of Read more…
Police inspect elephant carcass killed in Phetchaburi
March 12th, 2013
Police inspect elephant carcass killed in Phetchaburi PHETCHABURI, March 10 – Police and a team of specialists on Sunday inspected an elephant carcass in the Kaeng Krachan national park and gathered evidence to find the culprits. Assistant National Police Chief Jaramporn Suramanee led the team of specialists to the national park in Phetchaburi by helicopter Read more…
Fair board holds to decision to continue elephant rides
March 12th, 2013
DEL MAR — There will be elephant rides at this year’s County Fair though they could stop after next year, officials said Tuesday after animal-rights activists again asked for the practice to be stopped. A dozen speakers pleaded with the 22nd Agricultural Association board of directors, which oversees the fairgrounds, to stop the rides immediately, calling Read more…
San Antonio’s Elephant “Boo” Dies
March 11th, 2013
The San Antonio Zoo says Boo, its female Asian elephant, has died. The zoo euthanized her Sunday because of a debilitating weakness. Zoo leaders say her quality of life had vanished. The Zoo’s senior veterinarian Dr. Rob Coke and his staff performed several tests to determine the cause of Boo’s declining health. The zoo says in a press release that Read more…
Cites ‘loses patience’ with Thailand
March 11th, 2013
The world’s top officials on illegal ivory trading say Thailand and other “gang of eight” countries must stop the business within a year or suffer severe trade sanctions. British newspaper the Guardian quoted the officials as identifying the other countries involved as source nations Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, “enabling” countries Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and destination Read more…
Mother tusker shot, calf missing
March 11th, 2013
An autopsy examination on a dead elephant cow found in Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan National Park revealed a rifle bullet in her skull and that she had recently given birth, leading authorities to believe she was killed by poachers who wanted her calf. National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation department chief Manopat Huamuangkaew visited the park Read more…
First-ever record of Elephant on snow-covered Mountain
March 11th, 2013
tusker heading north In what could be the first ever case to be recorded in the world, a transient solitary Asiatic elephant has been confirmed to have ascended and scaled a snow-covered mountain at an elevation of 3419 masl at Shougay La in Chukha. A team comprising of officials from Wildlife Conservation Division (WCD) and Read more…
One cop’s war on wildlife crime
March 10th, 2013
While Thailand has long had an unfortunate reputation for illegal wildlife trafficking, one Thai policeman has dedicated years to fighting the problem. Kiattipong: Received award at Cites Former Surat Thani police chief Kiattipong Khaosamang has relentlessly pursued wildlife traffickers since 2008, earning him recognition from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Read more…
Ivory sellers on the horns of a dilemma
March 9th, 2013
Ban will drive trade underground. Ivory shop owners in Nakhon Sawan and Uthai Thani are unhappy with the government’s attempts to tighten local controls on the ivory trade. LUCRATIVE: Elephant ivory decorations are displayed at a Bangkok department store. Most of the shops and ivory factories are located in the two central provinces. The owners Read more…
Europe ivory trade fuels slaughter
March 8th, 2013
Hundreds of ivory items are illegally traded online in Europe each week, adding to the slaughter of African elephants, an Interpol report said Thursday. A recent survey of Internet sites in nine European countries found that ivory items worth an estimated 1.5 million euros (two million United States dollars) had been sold in a two-week Read more…
Agencies to jointly combat wildlife crime
March 6th, 2013
This transnational felony needs to be tackled on all fronts, top Thai official More than 30 international agencies yesterday agreed to join in combating wildlife crime across the world. “Every country needs to cooperate to fight against this transnational environment crime,” Thai National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation Department’s deputy director Theerapat Prayurasiddhi said. Ministers Read more…
Illegal ivory trade triples in past 15 years, UN says
March 6th, 2013
The illegal trade in ivory has tripled over thepast 15 years, trafficked primarily by “Asian-run, African-based” criminal networks, a UN agency said Wednesday. The UN Environmental Programme used the amount of ivory seized to determine that the illicit trade had doubled since 2007 and tripled since 1998 in its latest report on African elephant poaching. Read more…
The Fallacy of Noah’s Ark Propaganda
March 6th, 2013
The homepage of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) advertises: “Visit an AZA-accredited zoo or aquarium and help make a difference for wildlife”, implying that merely visiting one of these commercial establishments is a conservation action on its own. Despite the fact that there is no evidence for it, it is an apparently effective marketing message. Read more…
Airport police charged with wildlife smuggling
March 6th, 2013
Police have filed criminal charges in connection with trafficking illegal rhinoceros horns into the country against three junior officers stationed at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Pol Sgt Maj Samai Ratchjangvang, Pol Sgt Jakkapan Panprasert and Pol Sgt Phetcharit Panthaisong, all of the Suvanabhumi Police Station, were summoned on Wednesday to hear charges by the Natural Resources and Read more…
Thai, Viet gangs ‘involved in elephant, rhino poaching’
March 5th, 2013
Thai and Vietnamese criminal gangs are involved in the illegal poaching of elephants and rhinos in Africa, according to the state wildlife and plant protection agency. Individuals are hired for about US$500 (Bt15000) per trip to carry rhino horns and ivory from Africa to Thailand via African airlines. They are also offered free air tickets Read more…
Crazed Elephant Kills Thai Wife On Rayong Beach
March 5th, 2013
A 56-year-old Thai wife of a farang was fatally gored by a 2-year-old elephant on Maerampung beach. She was buying sugar cane to feed the elephant when it attacked her. The mahout said the hot weather had crazed the normally docile beast. The mahout and the elephant’s owner will be prosecuted by police. RAYONG – Read more…
India, elefante investito da un treno
March 5th, 2013
Watch video> Warning: images may be disturbing Source: Corriere della Sera
Elephant pearls found in fish market
March 5th, 2013
Peliyagoda Police has arrested three individuals near Peliyagoda fish market who were in possession of 12 elephant pearls. They were travelling by a three-wheeler when the Police caught them. The suspects are 23, 32 and 55 year old individuals from Dehiowita and Awissawella and they are to be presented to the magistrate court today (05).Peliyagoda Read more…
Two-thirds of forest elephants killed by ivory poachers in past decade
March 5th, 2013
There are about 100,000 forest elephants remaining in the forests of central Africa, compared with about 400,000 of the slightly larger savannah elephants. Photograph: Courtesy of TEAM Network/Conservation International The forest elephants of Africa have lost almost two-thirds of their number in the past decade due to poaching for ivory, a landmark new study revealed on Tuesday. Read more…
Ivory needs a new approach
March 4th, 2013
For well over two decades, the government and parliament have been wildly out of sync with the people they claim to represent. Over the next 10 days, officials and politicians are going to hear this, sometimes in harsh and unpleasant terms. The occasion is the meeting in Bangkok of the Convention on International Trade in Read more…
China must send a clear message to consumers on ivory trade
March 4th, 2013
A pedestrian walks past a shop window displaying a carved ivory tusk in Hong Kong. Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images On Sunday, the Thai prime minister promised to outlaw her country’s domestic ivory trade. Yingluck Shinawatra’s announcement at the opening of wildlife trade meeting Cites in Bangkok comes as African elephants are again on a dramatic trajectory towards extinction. Read more…
Thai prime minister announces end to ivory trade
March 3rd, 2013
Bangkok, Thailand – Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra today pledged to end ivory trade in Thailand, seizing a key opportunity to stem global wildlife trafficking. Her statement came after the call of nearly 1.5 million WWF and Avaaz supporters. Prime Minister Shinawatra said at the opening of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species Read more…
Meeting seeks trade protection for sharks, polar bears, elephants
March 3rd, 2013
BANGKOK: — The world’s main mechanism for restricting trade in wildlife kicked off in Bangkok Sunday with sharks, manta rays, polar bears, elephants and rhinos high on the agenda. About 2,000 delegates from 178 member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora gathered in Bangkok for the Read more…
In Trafficking of Wildlife, Out of Reach of the Law
March 3rd, 2013
Thomas Mukoya/Reuters Kenyan wildlife rangers guarding an intercepted shipment of elephant tusks and rhino horns at the Nairobi airport in 2009. HONG TONG, Laos — On an obscure and bumpy dirt road not far from the banks of the Mekong River, the compound of Vixay Keosavang stands out for its iron gates and cinder-block walls Read more…
Thailand in landmark ivory pledge
March 3rd, 2013
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra promised Sunday to end her nation’s trade in ivory, delighting conservationists who have long urged the kingdom to tackle the rampant smuggling of tusks through its territory. Speaking at the opening of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), Ms Yingluck said she will amend Thai law “with the Read more…
Demand in Thailand ’cause of African elephant poaching’
March 2nd, 2013
Savannah elephants in the Bouba N More than 500 soldiers have been working hard in the Bouba Ndjida National Park on a mission to end a bloody business – elephant poaching. And though this operation is taking place thousands of miles away, it is very much related to the ivory trade in Thailand. In February Read more…
Park chief rebuffs ivory hub claims
March 2nd, 2013
The deputy conservation chief has rebuffed suggestions that Thailand is a hub for the illegal ivory trade, but conceded that the country remains a transit point for smugglers. National Parks deputy chief Theerapat Prayurasiddhi was speaking ahead of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which gets under way Read more…
From Elephants’ Mouths, an Illicit Trail to China
March 1st, 2013
Adam Dean for The New York Times China’s hunger for ivory carvings is growing despite evidence that many tusks are taken illegally. PUZHAI, China — Chinese investors have anointed it “white gold.” Carvers and collectors prefer the term “organic gemstone.” Smugglers, however, use a gruesomely straightforward name for the recently harvested African elephant tusks that Read more…
‘Stop land conversions where jumbos roam’ call
February 28th, 2013
Lahad Datu: There is an urgent need to stop any further land conversion in elephant ranges as stated in the recently launched State’s Elephant Action Plan. “All forest reserves in elephant ranges should be upgraded to Class One, providing a haven for elephants,” added Dr Benoit Goossens, Director of Danau Girang Field Centre. He was commenting Read more…
CITES Ivory Policy Is On Drugs
February 28th, 2013
When I was in third grade, I ran for class mayor against Susan Peek, whose uncle was our town’s actual mayor. The class held a debate, aired on the local TV station. I lost the race on two grounds. First, the cupcakes I gave out with “Vote 4 Bryan” on them were from a bakery, Read more…
Conservation group calls on Thailand to ban ivory trade
February 27th, 2013
WWF’s representative presents a petition signed by 500,000 people urging Thai govt to ban ivory trade.//Photo : Voravit Pumpuang Bangkok – Thailand should use an international meeting in Bangkok aimed at saving threatened species to ban its ivory trade, a conservation group said Wednesday. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) presented Prime Minister Yingluck Read more…
Ten wandering pygmy elephants in Sabah translocated to Tabin elephant range
February 27th, 2013
LAHAD DATU: Ten Borneo pygmy elephants that had ventured more than 45 km from the Tabin Managed Elephant Range, ending up 10 km from Lahad Datu town, were rescued over a period of one week from Jan 18. The effort coordinated by the Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) under the Sabah Wildlife Department saw nine female Read more…
On Conference’s Eve, Thailand Is Pressed to Halt Ivory Trade
February 27th, 2013
Associated PressStuart Chapman, a regional representative of the World Wildlife Fund, presented a petition for a blanket ban on the ivory trade to Thailand’s prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, on Wednesday. As my colleague Erik Olsen just noted here, many threatened species will be competing for attention when officials from 177 countries open a conference on the trade Read more…
Parliament discusses seized elephant tusks
February 25th, 2013
Opposition Leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Leader of the House Min. Nimal Siripala de Silva speak about a container from Kenya, destined to Dubai which contained African elephant tusks. Watch video>
What Can We Do For Elephants?
February 25th, 2013
“The elephants can’t speak for themselves. It’s up to us to speak out for them.” I am haunted by the fact that every day I read more terrible news about the escalating slaughter of African elephants for their ivory; the increasing and senseless market demand for ivory by avaricious consumers who are unaware of the Read more…
Captive Elephants Escape From Nearby Trekking Camp to Elephant Nature Park
February 24th, 2013
At 10:00 a.m. all was calm; most members of the family group were enjoying themselves at a swampy area, Mae Sri Nuan and Mae Thai off on their own. Ten minutes later, the two elephants who had been chained on the land next to us were in the act of challenging their mahouts. It all Read more…
Emanti has a broken tusk removed — no small job on an elephant
February 24th, 2013
If you’re a male African elephant, having an infected tusk is not a good thing. True, elephants, by nature, are not complainers. But a bad tusk can lead to all sorts of complications, none of them good. So when keepers at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park noticed that 2-year-old Emanti had a broken tusk, inspection Read more…
Two elephants found dead in different parts of Uttarakhand
February 24th, 2013
Two elephants were found dead in different parts of the State on Friday. While an adult cow elephant was found electrocuted to death in the Kosi range of Ramnagar division, a calf less than a year old was found dead in the Bijrani range of Corbett national park. According to the Corbett national park deputy Read more…
African elephant tusks remain at Col.Harbour
February 22nd, 2013
The stock of 359 elephants tusks valued at over Rs 4000 million seized by Sri Lankan Customs recently while the stock was being smuggled to Dubai from Kenya via Colombo remains at the Colombo harbour and decision has been taken so far with regards to what would be done it them, Leader of the House Read more…
WWF demands sanctions over ivory
February 21st, 2013
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Thursday called for strong economic sanctions against countries most complicit in the illegal ivory trade, including Thailand, the host of an international meeting next month aimed at protecting endangered species. WWF blamed the illegal trade in ivory for the deaths of up to 30,000 African elephants each Read more…
A Young Voice for Elephants: Celia Ho
February 21st, 2013
Celia holds an educational poster illustrating the issues facing elephants. The poster can be downloaded from her website. Photo courtesy of Christian Pilard, Eco-Sys Action. “I take every chance to share my campaign and the difficulties elephants are facing,” says Celia Ho, a 14-year-old student from Hong Kong who launched a campaign to stop ivory Read more…
Crackdown on traders as Cites looms
February 20th, 2013
Officials to monitor shops in lead-up to wildlife summit. The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) is trying to better regulate the ivory trade in Thailand before the high-profile Cites conference kicks off in Bangkok early next month. The DNP will also work with a Cites team in conducting random checks at Read more…
DiCaprio calls on Yingluck to ban ivory trade
February 20th, 2013
Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio has called on Thailand and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to show leadership on elephant conservation by banning all ivory trade in the country. “Illegal wildlife trade is the most urgent threat facing species like tigers, rhinos and elephants. These animals are being killed every day to feed an escalating demand for Read more…
MSN video ‘Battle for Elephants’ Bryan Christy and Kristen Stewart
February 20th, 2013
Video with Bryan Christy and Kristen Stewart about blood ivory. Watch> Source: MSN
Leonardo DiCaprio, Animal Activist, Asks Thai Government To Ban Ivory Trade
February 19th, 2013
BANGKOK (AP) — Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio has called on the Thai government to ban all ivory trade in the country, as part of a global campaign to tackle the illegal wildlife crimes. International conservation group World Wildlife Fund said in a statement Tuesday that DiCaprio sent a personal e-mail to his friends and supporters Read more…
Campaigns against ivory trade gather pace
February 19th, 2013
Thai and foreign actors and activists are building up pressure on Thailand to its part in the world ivory trade which, they say, puts elephants in Africa in danger of extinction. Leonardo DiCaprio has called on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to implement a total ban on the ivory trade in Thailand. Speaking at the launch Read more…
New Minister to halt stealing of elephant calves from National Parks
February 19th, 2013
The Wildlife Department will soon tighten existing laws to safeguard baby elephants from going into the wrong hands after being inhumanly separated from their mothers in the wild. A Department official told The Island yesterday that newly appointed Wildlife Minister Wijithamuni de Zoysa had given strict instructions that baby elephants should be safeguarded at any Read more…
Animals don’t choose to perform in circuses
February 19th, 2013
To The Press: Ginger Rae Dunbar’s Jan. 23 article, “Ringling Bros. clown around in Chick-Fil-A,” reported that two clowns who perform in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus recently entertained patrons of Chick-Fil-A in Springfield while distributing coupons for a discount on tickets for a series of shows at the Wells Fargo Center. Read more…
Elephant rides not part of this year’s Upland Lemon Festival
February 18th, 2013
UPLAND – Elephant rides will not be part of this year’s Upland Lemon Festival. Fairplex, which will run the April festival for the first time, has decided not to contract with Perris-based group Have Trunk Will Travel, Inc., which has animal- rights activists in Upland and Los Angeles pleased. “We really feel like this main Read more…
Understanding elephants’ needs to reduce conflicts
February 17th, 2013
KOTA KINABALU: Scientific information is extremely important and valuable for both conservation managers and research scientists in their effort to manage and save the Bornean elephants. According to Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) conservation and research head, Raymond Alfred, who has been studying the movement of the species for more than 10 years, the scientific information Read more…
Man Puts Giant Elephant Structure Outside Home in Southwest Miami-Dade
February 15th, 2013
A man has built and placed a giant elephant structure that doubles as a fountain outside his home in Southwest Miami-Dade. NBC 6 reporter Christina Hernandez has the story. It’s something Reinol Fernandez loves to admire from his porch. People walk over to see it like a neighborhood attraction. Strangers even stop in the middle Read more…
Denver Zoo visitors can now see female elephant Kimbo
February 15th, 2013
Kimbo, the female elephant acquired by the Denver Zoo in December, is out and about, having passed her quarantine period. Kimbo, 42, brings the elephant population in the Toyota Elephant Passage habitat to four as she joins Dolly, the other female, and bulls Bodhi and Groucho. Dolly is 48, Bodhi is 8, and Groucho is 41. Read more…
Good bye, big buddy
February 10th, 2013
Pinnawala elephant herd is known to be the largest permanent concentration of captive Asian elephants in the world. When we think about it what comes to our mind is elephants in all ages living in a nine-ha land of coconut plantations – or the famous elderly elephant Read more…
Shots in the park threaten nation’s endangered species
February 10th, 2013
The Kaeng Krachan National Park chief says if illegal hunting such as that allegedly involving a senior police official is allowed to continue on protected lands it will strike a severe blow to Thailand’s biodiversity. It was the shooting of the cat-sized krachong (mouse deer) that really made Kaeng Krachan National Park chief Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn Read more…
Elephant Poaching Rising in Burma: Officials
February 8th, 2013
Since 2011, 18 endangered Asian elephants have died in Burma, 11 of which were killed by poachers, Burma’s Forestry Department told state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar. “They were poached … because the ivory tusks are offered for high prices at illegal markets. People in China, [Taiwan], Hong Kong and Japan believe that ivory Read more…
Suspects arrested with elephant tusks
February 8th, 2013
The Welimada Police have arrested three residents of the Sirupura area in Welimada for the possession of two elephant tusks, the Police Media Unit told Ceylon Today Online. The suspects are due to be produced before the Welimada Magistrate’s Court today. Source: Ceylon Today
Orphaned pygmy elephant Joe on the mend
February 7th, 2013
Baby Joe the orphaned pygmy elephant at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Centre Things can only get wetter for orphaned pygmy elephant Joe – after finding a new mum. A picture of the starving three-month-old – found barely alive, nuzzling his dead, poisoned mother – broke the hearts of animal lovers last week , along with news of Read more…
Rhino and elephant death toll spikes in 2013
February 7th, 2013
One month ago I posted about how 2013 has gotten off to a particularly bloody start in terms of elephant and rhino killings. One month in and things have just gotten worse and worse. A non-poaching incident, but nonetheless cruel and criminal, the well-publicized case of 14 pygmy elephants which were killed in Malaysian Borneo (possibly by poison) shined Read more…
Naked protest for lonely elephant
February 6th, 2013
Volunteered models and entertainers on Tuesday went naked in public as part of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (Peta) campaign to try to move a 38-year-old Sri Lankan elephant from the Manila Zoo to Thailand. A PETA photo shoot was designed to bring attention to the group’s campaign to demand the transfer Read more…
Thai cop arrested with 20 elephant tusks
February 4th, 2013
A Thai policeman has been arrested after he was caught trying to smuggle 20 elephant tusks, officials said Sunday. Seized ivory tusks are displayed during a Hong Kong Customs press conference on January 4, 2013. A Thai policeman has been arrested after he was caught trying to smuggle 20 elephant tusks, officials said Sunday. The Read more…
Don’t burn seized elephant tusks
February 4th, 2013
This refers to the article ‘Why confiscated bloody-ivory should be burnt’ by Tharindu Muthukumarana in the features page of ‘The Island’ of January 29. The thrust of the piece is whatever action is taken should be a ‘strong message’ to the poachers and those who trade in them. The sheer size of the seized tusks Read more…
Motherless Elephant Gets New Home
February 4th, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A baby elephant, who became known around the globe because of a gut-wrenching photograph last week in which he appeared to be trying to wake up his dead mother, has a new home, where he has been drinking milk and acting healthy. Sabah Wildlife Department An earlier photo shows a young pygmy elephant Read more…
Hakka pataas set to become Elephant Killer No. 1
February 3rd, 2013
The improvised explosive device put out to kill wild boar killed 35 jumbos last year, reports Malaka Rodrigo. A six-month baby elephant is the latest victim of a “hakka pataas” – an explosive device designed to fatally wound an animal when it picks it up in its mouth. The wounded animal was found by Army Read more…
Orphaned pygmy elephant calf still fighting on
February 3rd, 2013
The Star/Asia News Network Sunday, Feb 03, 2013 KOTA KINABALU - Joe, the three-month-old Borneo pygmy elephant calf that survived a poisoning that kill 14 members of its herd, is proving to be a fighter. The calf looks set to survive as he has begun to increase his intake of infant formula milk while getting used Read more…
Seized Elephant Tusks Gifted To Dalada Maligawa, Later To Be Sold To Rightful Owner
February 2nd, 2013
An attempt is being made to sell elephant tusks worth Rs. 2,700 million that have been ‘unofficially’ seized by the Sri Lanka Customs in May last year after the consignment was officially handed over to Dalada Maligawa Kandy alleged Environmentalists. Environmentalists claim that this consignment of tusks after being seized should be destroyed and they Read more…
Sri Lanka to minimize elephant accidents on railway lines
February 2nd, 2013
Feb 02, Colombo: Sri Lanka Deputy Minister of Transport Rohana Dissanayaka said that ten elephants were killed in 2012 due to railway accidents. The accidents have not only taken the lives of the elephants but also have caused damage to the locomotives or in some instances derailed the trains. Sri Lanka Railways has identified the Read more…
14th Borneo pygmy elephant poisoned
February 1st, 2013
A fourteenth rare Borneo pygmy elephant has been found dead of suspected poisoning, Malaysian officials said Thursday, the latest in a series of fatalities that has shaken conservation efforts. Wildlife department officials measure a dead pygmy elephant in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, in Malaysia’s Sabah state, Januray 29, 2013. A fourteenth rare Borneo pygmy Read more…
Elephants stuck on Interstate-70 after semi hauling them slides off
February 1st, 2013
Three elephants were stranded for a short time on the side of Interstate 70 Thursday when the tractor-trailer hauling them slid off the road. Officials told RTV6 the elephants were on their way to the circus. Officials said the semi hauling the elephants was driving eastbound toward Indianapolis, about 3 to 4 miles from the Read more…
Borneo Pygmy Elephant Calf ‘Joe’ Wasting Away With Grief After Death Of His Mother By Suspected Poisoning
February 1st, 2013
There are concerns for the health of an orphaned baby elephant who is feared to be dying of a broken heart. Borneo pygmy calf Joe is losing weight fast and experts say it will be a ”challenging task” to keep him alive as he is only consuming half the milk he should be, AFP reports. Three-month-old Read more…
Elephants really do grieve like us
January 31st, 2013
The pictures of a baby elephant in Borneo, nudging and nuzzling the body of its dead mother in obvious distress and bewilderment, cannot fail to move us. Allegations that up to ten pygmy elephants were poisoned, perhaps by local farmers, are upsetting — perhaps because elephant emotions seem so like our own, so heartbreakingly close to Read more…
House panel OKs resolution for elephant Mali’s transfer, but zookeepers won’t let go
January 31st, 2013
The House committee on natural resources on Wednesday approved a resolution supporting the transfer of Mali, the elephant held in captivity at the Manila Zoo. The zoo’s management, however, remained firm on its stand not to allow Mali’s transfer to a sanctuary in northern Thailand, citing the elephant’s age. Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, who filed Read more…
Three more pygmy elephants found dead in Tawau
January 30th, 2013
KOTA KINABALU: The remains of three more endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found in the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, taking the total death toll to 13. State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun confirmed the latest discovery of the decomposing bodies of a male and two female elephants in the area where 10 others Read more…
Rare pygmy elephants ‘poisoned’ in Borneo
January 29th, 2013
Ten endangered pygmy elephants have been found dead in a reserve in Malaysia, with officials saying they may have been poisoned. The animals, which had all suffered internal bleeding, were found near each other over the space of three weeks. In one instance, a three-month-old calf was found alongside the body of its mother, apparently Read more…
Environmentalists cry foul over envoy’s attempted jumbo export
January 28th, 2013
The country’s environmentalists yesterday accused Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Japan, Retired Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, of making moves to have six Lankan elephants sent to Japan. Environmentalists claimed that Admiral Karannagoda had made the request on several occasions and had allegedly demanded that Director of the National Zoological Gardens Anura de Silva release six elephants to Read more…
Ringling Bros. testimony about use of bullhooks
January 25th, 2013
A recent court settlement between Ringling Bros. and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals resulted in a payment of $9.3 million by the animal welfare group to circus owner Feld Entertainment. The original suit brought by the ASPCA, a former Ringling Bros. employee and other organizations was dismissed, as was the Read more…
Human-jumbo conflict takes heavy toll
January 25th, 2013
The human-elephant conflict had claimed the lives of 252 elephants and 66 humans last year, according to the Wildlife Conservation Department. Of the 252 elephants killed, 66 had been reported to the Department from the Mahaweli Zone, a high official in the Department said. Sixty eight elephant deaths had been reported from the Wayamba zone, Read more…
Villagers in distress as human-elephant conflict grows
January 24th, 2013
The human elephant conflict has affected residents of the Polonnaruwa and Anuradapura districts for a long period of time. Erecting electric fences in a forest located in close proximity to the villages was a remedial action taken for the problem. However, these electric fences have malfunctioned due to negligence. This electric fence in the Weheragala Read more…
Attacks prompt Nepal to cap wildlife growth
January 24th, 2013
Kathmandu: Officials in Nepal have said they will now have to put a cap on the growth of wildlife including endangered species like tigers and rhinos. They say it is a result of significant increase in loss of human lives from attacks by wild animals, reports BBC Online. The problem is especially acute in buffer Read more…
Vatican rejects claims it is encouraging illegal ivory trade
January 23rd, 2013
Benedict XVI accepts a gift of an ivory crucifix from Benin’s President Thomas Yayi Boni, who said it was obtained legally (Photo: CNS) The Catholic Church has never encouraged anyone to use ivory for religious devotional objects and, in fact, teaches that animals must be treated with respect, the Vatican spokesman has said. Fr Federico Read more…
Dept boosts illegal ivory fight
January 22nd, 2013
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation will invite ivory accessory shops for a briefing this month following complaints that Thailand is a trafficking hub for African ivory. Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, the department’s deputy director-general, said his agency has taken note of concerns that African ivory was being mixed with ivory from local elephants Read more…
Filipinos: Send elephant to Thailand
January 22nd, 2013
MANILA – Activists in the Philippines have escalated their demands that Mali, the lone elephant in the Manila Zoo, be sent out of the country, to Thailand. There is one problem, however: Mali isn’t Thai, and there is no known case of non-local elephants being inserted into local herds. The latest group to join the Read more…
Jumbo income at Pinnawala Orphanage last year
January 21st, 2013
The Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala earned an income of over Rs 490 million last year, National Zoological Gardens Director General Anura de Silva said. The Orphanage earned a Rs 13.3 million revenue during the first seven days of this year as well, he said. Sources said Rs 12.9 million out of this year’s income was Read more…
Seized wildlife trapped in legal limbo
January 20th, 2013
Animals captured in raids on suspected traffickers and private animal parks are considered evidence in trials that may take years to conclude and state agencies have few options but to keep them caged in overburdened facilities until the cases are resolved. The death of an elephant taken in a raid on a private elephant park Read more…
A dangerous situation developing at Yala
January 20th, 2013
There is a serious situation developing in the Yala National Park, due to a particular adult male elephant, becoming too acclimatized with the jeeps, and interacting with the visitors closely. This elephant is a mature tusker, who is known as ‘Gemunu’, and has been a very popular iconic elephant in Yala for over a decade Read more…
Elephant falls into well in Ganjam, dies
January 20th, 2013
Berhampur: The carcass of an adult elephant was recovered from an abandoned well, on the outskirts of Gada Humma village, about 50 km from here. “The tusker might have fallen into the well while crossing the National Highway on Friday night. Since the well is very deep and full of water, the elephant could not climb up and Read more…
Solar fencing to prevent elephants being run over by trains
January 18th, 2013
BERHAMPUR: In a bid to prevent wild animals from being run over by trains, Odisha’s forest department is planning to install solar fences on either side of the railway track from Rambha bypass to Palur junction in Ganjam district. The move comes after at least six elephants were crushed to death by an express train nearSubalaya a place within the Read more…
Elephant calf trapped down well in India – video
January 18th, 2013
An elephant calf that strayed from its herd is trapped at the bottom of a well near Bundu in the state of Jharkhand in east India. Crowds watch as the baby elephant struggles to find a way out. The calf was eventually rescued using an industrial digger, which broke the sides of the well. Elephants’ Read more…
“Elephant taunting” is now a thing in India”
January 17th, 2013
Environmentalist website Conservation India isreporting on the rise of a new and disturbing spectator sport that has emerged in south India’s Coimbatore forests. It’s the practice of “elephant taunting,” a bizarre and incredibly dangerous activity in which onlookers harass elephants to the point of retaliation. The activity has likely contributed to the dramatic rise in Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) Read more…
Thailand may face heat over ivory trade business at endangered species conference
January 16th, 2013
It was a professional hit, the quick and ruthless slaying of a family of 12. Poachers with machetes hacked off the tusks of 11 African elephants on Jan. 5 in a Kenyan reserve, passing over a baby that was crushed by its mother after a gunshot felled her. The same day, customs officials in Hong Read more…
SAVING BRIGITTE’S ELEPHANTS: A CONTROVERSIAL DEATH SENTENCE AT THE LYON ZOO
January 16th, 2013
French sex symbol turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot is shining a light on Baby and Nepal, two former circus elephants infected with tuberculosis, now facing euthanasia. LYON – Seen from afar, they look so tiny. All around the small enclosure they’ve been allocated in the zoo of the Parc de la Tête d’Or in the center of Lyon, a Read more…
Philippe Cousteau discussing poaching on CNN
January 16th, 2013
Watch video> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNO4UIYgnFM Source: CNN, You tube
Kenyan officials impound two tonnes of ivory: police
January 16th, 2013
Officials in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa have impounded more than 600 pieces of ivory, weighing two tonnes, officials told AFP Tuesday. Photo taken on December 30, 2012 shows an elephant at the Amboseli game reserve, approximately 250 kilometres south of Kenyan capital Nairobi. Officials in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa have impounded Read more…
India to host first global ministerial meet on elephants in Nov
January 15th, 2013
Regardless of geo-political boundaries, elephants face common threats of poaching, habitat loss and conflicts with people. NEW DELHI, JAN 14: India will host the first ever global ministerial meet – ‘E 50:50′ – on elephants in the Capital from November 14 to 19. The conference, expected to be attended by 50 countries that harbour wild Read more…
Hormones blamed in zoo elephant attack
January 15th, 2013
A YOUNG elephant at Taronga Zoo may have been stirred up by a rush of hormones and female elephants nearby when he challenged keeper Lucy Melo in an almost fatal attack. Ms Melo went back to work at Taronga on Tuesday, three months after she was crushed against a bollard by two-year-old Pathi Harn, the Read more…
Yingluck pressed to ban ivory trade
January 15th, 2013
WASHINGTON – World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a global petition Monday that puts responsibility for African elephant poaching on Thailand. The fund announced a worldwide petition demanding that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ban the ivory trade in Thailand. It said Ms Yingluck should use the upcoming international conference on wildlife trade in March to stop Read more…
Donated elephant tusks teach schoolchildren reality of a cruel trade
January 15th, 2013
Pupils at the Belilios Public School in North Point received an unusual gift from the government last year: dozens of illegal items seized by customs, including more than 50kg of ivory. The gift is part of government efforts to dispose of tonnes of elephant tusks and parts of other endangered species that were confiscated from Read more…
PETA calls for elephant’s transfer
January 15th, 2013
Animal rights campaigners in the Philippines will submit an online petition with 60,000 signatures to the government demanding that a neglected elephant be transferred from Manila Zoo to a sanctuary in Thailand. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Monday said it would submit the petition to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to highlight Read more…
Book on elephant survey to be printed again
January 14th, 2013
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) of Sri Lanka gave the go ahead to reprint 500 books on the first countrywide survey on elephants, after discarding the earlier stock printed at a cost of Rs 600,000. A senior official confirmed Rs 500,000 was allocated this time for printing purposes, despite financial restrictions. “We didn’t even Read more…
Home for heavyweights – Noah’s Ark prepares for elephant arrivals
January 13th, 2013
AT first glance you could be looking at just another industrial estate, barn or warehouse being fitted together with prefabricated girders slotting into place like pieces in an enormous jigsaw puzzle. But the construction site that is currently dominating a great swathe of the Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, near Wraxall, will soon become home to Read more…
Blind jumbo dies at orphanage
January 12th, 2013
A 70 year old tusker died at elephant orphanage in Pinnawala yesterday afternoon (Jan. 11). Blind in both eyes and lost part of its tail, the jumbo had tusks which were 166 cm in length. It was found by wildlife officers in 1994. Source: Daily Mirror
Thailand at the centre of rising illegal ivory trade
January 12th, 2013
A new report detailing the slaughter of African elephants to supply increasingly sophisticated smuggling gangs has led critics to charge that flaws in the country’s policy on domesticated elephants help to fuel the bloody business. ‘They are all authentic elephant ivory,” a middle-aged retailer of crafted ivory ornaments told a group of visitors at her Read more…
Hollande spurns appeal to save death row elephants
January 10th, 2013
French president Francois Hollande will not intervene in the case of two ailing zoo elephants whose death sentence led Brigitte Bardot to threaten to go into exile in Russia, his office said Wednesday. The two elephants named Baby and Nepal face being put down because they have been diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) and deemed Read more…
Radio collars for elephants in forests along rail tracks
January 9th, 2013
In the wake of the recent deaths of elephants on rail tracks in Odisha, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to put radio collars on elephants that are found roaming near rail tracks. The pilot scheme will be started by radio collaring the surviving elephants of the herd that lost five of Read more…
UConn’s High-powered Sequencing Technology Leads to Rare Elephant Genome
January 9th, 2013
The pygmy elephant from the Southeast Asian island country of Borneo is the most endangered of all elephants. Now a team of researchers at UConn and other universities around the world has produced the first genetic sequence of this tiny pachyderm, which will help guide conservation strategies. The researchers are among the first to apply Read more…
Illegal ivory to end up with unlikely claimant
January 9th, 2013
The large illegal consignment of ivory, detected by the Sri Lanka Customs Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) on 22 May 2012, is to be released to the Presidential Secretariat soon, Customs sources said. It is learnt the Presidential Secretariat has sent a letter to the Director General of Customs, Jagath Wijeweera, requesting him to release the Read more…
Seized African tusks to be released to temples
January 9th, 2013
The 359 African tusks seized by Customs Central Intelligence Unit on May 22 last year will be released to Buddhist temples on a written request by the presidential secretariat, the Customs said. The valuable tusks will be handed over to Buddhist temples including the Sri Dalada Maligawa. The tusks worth about Rs.400 million were packed Read more…
What Animal Attractions To Skip On Your Visit To Chiang Mai, Thailand
January 8th, 2013
Don’t ride an elephant. It may look peaceful, but once you know what really happens to the elephants, chances are you will skip it and opt for a more animal-friendly experience. I know it is hard to sacrifice the elephant ride; after all, the elephants are one of Thailand’s main calling cards. But, the truth Read more…
Pumpkins delivered to elephant sanctuary
January 8th, 2013
A pumpkin is both a treat and a toy to the residents at Riddle’s Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary, a specialized farm off the beaten path near the outskirts of Guy and Quitman. A horse trailer piled high with pumpkins and other gourd varieties was unloaded into the sanctuary and farm’s hay barn Tuesday, the fruits Read more…
Problem-Elephant Translocation: Translocating the Problem and the Elephant?
January 5th, 2013
Human-elephant conflict (HEC) threatens the survival of endangered Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). Translocating “problem-elephants” is an important HEC mitigation and elephant conservation strategy across elephant range, with hundreds translocated annually. In the first comprehensive assessment of elephant translocation, we monitored 16 translocations in Sri Lanka with GPS collars. All translocated elephants were released into national Read more…
UPDATE ON ELEPHANTS EXPORTED TO CHINA
January 5th, 2013
Elephants exported by the Zimbabwean government to China are suffering some of the worst of treatments being kept in horrifying dungeons under freezing weather and one of four recently taken there, has already died, it has emerged. Reports coming from China with exclusive photographic evidence, state that Zimbabwean elephants are suffering under excruciating conditions inflicted Read more…
Brigitte Bardot threatens to spurn France, embrace Russia if 2 elephants killed
January 5th, 2013
(CNN) — Famed French actress and animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot will request Russian nationality Friday if plans to euthanize two elephants at a zoo in the French city of Lyon go ahead, her foundation said. The move comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Russian citizenship to French actor Gerard Depardieu, who Read more…
Zoo elephant controversy raises questions
January 5th, 2013
The Oregon Zoo faces mounting national criticism, instead of congratulatory celebration, in the wake of one of the most highly anticipated births within the zoo industry: a baby elephant. Two days after Rose-Tu gave birth to the zoo’s 28th baby elephant, little Lily, The Seattle Times published an investigative series calling attention to the ugly Read more…
Vietnam to reward owners for breeding their elephants
January 4th, 2013
Hanoi – Vietnam is to award owners of female elephants 20,000 dollars for every calf their animals produce to boost the plummeting numbers of pachyderms, an official said Friday. “This is a part of an elephant conservation project approved last month,” said Y Rit Buon Ya, vice director of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department Read more…
IS IT THE END OF ELEPHANTS?
January 4th, 2013
EXPERTS, shocked by the growing trade in ivory, fear they may in time be wiped out. Death is part of life in Africa, as David Attenborough’s latest series, which pulled in 6.5 million viewers this week, documents. Whether it is a pack of lions, sparring giraffes or a baby elephant dying of thirst in a Read more…
Hong Kong officials seize $1.4M in ivory
January 4th, 2013
HONG KONG, Jan. 4 (UPI) — Customs officials in Hong Kong seized 779 elephant tusks valued at approximately $1.4 million, their third largest seizure in three months, they said. The shipment weighed about 2,900 pounds and originated in Kenya, The New York Times reported. The recent seizures of large amounts of elephant tusks indicates illegal Read more…
USDA to Consider Guidelines for the Control of Tuberculosis in Elephants
January 3rd, 2013
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 2012–The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is taking public comments on the Agency’s intention to use the 2010 “Guidelines for the Control of Tuberculosis in Elephants,” issued by the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA), to assess whether or not USDA licensees are adhering to Read more…
Exploring a Thai elephant village
January 2nd, 2013
Ban Ta Klang – The elephant is the national animal of Thailand and was once widely used a work animal in the country’s forests. While the days of tourists being able to view these creatures at work has all but come to an end, the opportunity to experience elephants close up remains at Thaland’s largest Read more…
€1.73 million from EU funds to INTERPOL in support of its efforts to combat wildlife crime
January 1st, 2013
The European Commission will allocate €1.73 million over the next three years to INTERPOL in support of its efforts to combat wildlife crime and protect the world’s natural resources from the illegal international trade in wild flora and fauna. Also, the European Commission decided to provide €2 million to prolong the MIKE programme, a mechanism Read more…
Baby elephant controversy in Sri Lanka
December 31st, 2012
An elephant calf belonging to the Dewram Vehera in Pannipitiya which was taken over by wildlife officers after it was transported without a license, has been returned to the Dewram Vehera. The Department of Wildlife stated that steps were taken to hand over the elephant calf to the Dewram Vehera after the registration certificate of Read more…
The Elephant in the Courtroom
December 30th, 2012
Don’t worry, kids. Elephants are staying in the circus. And the animal-rights activists who tried to drive them out are paying a price for their abusive litigation. On Friday Feld Entertainment, producer of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, announced a legal settlement under which the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Read more…
Elephant ‘swallows’ tourist’s iPhone
December 28th, 2012
A Thai elephant appears to have swallowed a Chinese visitor’s iPhone while she was taking pictures of her friend feeding bananas to the animal at a tourist spot. The phone was later recovered from the elephant’s dung, or so it seems in a video that has gone viral on the web. The incident, at an unidentified elephant Read more…
India, elephant kills his mahout
December 28th, 2012
Temple elephant in Malayinkeezhu, Kerala, in southern India inexplicably killed his caretaker by pulling him apart. The local veterinarians were able to calm the animal only with the help of two anesthetic darts. He was then captured and tied up. Watch Video> (only shows animal and chaos, no sensitive materials shown) Source: Corriere Della Sera
Animal rights group to pay circus $9.3 million in elephant dispute
December 28th, 2012
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A major animal welfare group has agreed to pay $9.3 million to the owners of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to settle a lawsuit brought in response to now-dismissed legal claims of mistreated elephants. The settlement, announced by the parties on Friday, removes the American Society for the Prevention Read more…
National Elephant Center in Fellsmere on schedule, under budget
December 27th, 2012
FELLSMERE — Using an off-road forklift, steelworkers Harry Gates and John Bamburg carefully maneuvered a gate onto its track, one of several inside a quarantine barn at the National Elephant Center. Staff members soon will be able to slide the gates open and shut so they can move pachyderms between the barn’s compartments. “It’s like threading Read more…
Chicago zoos’ long history with elephants ended in 2010
December 25th, 2012
or about a century, Chicagoans had elephants to visit and admire. Lincoln Park Zoo’s peak was in 1963, when it had four Asian elephants. Brookfield Zoo housed five Asian elephants in 1959 and five African elephants in 1984. “The elephants had a large outdoor and off-exhibit indoor habitat on the northwest side of the zoo Read more…
Denver Zoo adds female elephant
December 23rd, 2012
The elephant exhibit at Denver Zoo has a new inhabitant. Kimbo, a 42-year-old female from Fort Worth Zoo, arrived Thursday night and is getting to know her new digs at Toyota Elephant Passage, Denver Zoo said in a news release. Kimbo brings the elephant population back to four as she joins Dolly, the other female, Read more…
Measures to prevent elephant deaths on rail tracks
December 23rd, 2012
A Railway Department official commenting yesterday on the deaths of about six wild elephants on railway tracks in the Anuradhapura and Batticaloa districts during the past few months, said that area Wildlife Department officials who travel in train engines should be more vigilant over the roaming elephants to avoid such accidents in the future. According Read more…
Phuket Elephant Fights For Life in Swamp and Wins
December 23rd, 2012
PHUKET: For a while today, it seemed as though Namboon the elephant may have breathed his last on Phuket. The big guy, aged 40, was stuck fast in a swampy pond and steadily going under. However, his mahout and the people from Amzing Bukit Safari in southern Phuket were not giving up. After four hours, Read more…
Elephants need forests to reproduce, not money
December 22nd, 2012
The elephant breeders in Dak Lak would receive 414 million dong in financial support from the state for every elephant who gives birth. However, they wish they can receive forests rather than money, because the forests, not money, would help elephants live their normal lives and reproduce. On December 12, the Dak Lak provincial authorities Read more…
Hallandale says no to bullhooks, whips used to control circus animals
December 20th, 2012
HALLANDALE BEACH — Whips, electric prods and bullhooks used to gouge and beat circus elephants are now outlawed in Hallandale Beach. The prospect of a traveling circus coming to town prompted the ban, approved by commissioners during a meeting Tuesday. Animal activist groups applauded the move, saying they hope it sparks a trend among cities Read more…
Toronto elephants on track for April departure
December 20th, 2012
TORONTO - Despite a “stormy” Toronto Zoo board meeting, the zoo’s three elephants are on track to be shipped south this April. City council voted last month to keep pushing ahead with sending the zoo’s aging elephants — Iringa, Toka and Thika — to the PAWS animal sanctuary in California. The decision came despite objections from zoo Read more…
Preah Vihear area to be de-mined
December 20th, 2012
The Thai-Cambodian Joint Working Group (JWG) has agreed to survey the provisional demilitarised zone (PDZ) around Preah Vihear temple and clear all landmines in the area by April next year, Supreme Commander Gen Tanasak Patimapakorn said on Thursday. This was agreed at the Thai-Cambodian JWG meeting on Dec 18-19 co-chaired by Cambodian Deputy Defence Minister Read more…
St. Louis Zoo celebrates Raja’s 20th birthday
December 20th, 2012
Where you were when Raja was born? For some St. Louisans, Raja’s birth 20 years ago is a touchstone event, akin to the completion of the Gateway Arch or Game 6 of the 2011 World Series. “We hear that all of the time — that people remember when he was born and how excited they Read more…
Extinct elephant ‘survived late’ in North China
December 19th, 2012
Wild elephants living in North China 3,000 years ago belonged to the extinct genus Palaeoloxodon, scientists say. They had previously been identified as Elephas maximus, the Asian elephant that still inhabits southern China. The findings suggest that Palaeoloxodon survived a further 7,000 years than was thought. The team from China examined fossilised elephant teeth and ancient elephant-shaped bronzes for Read more…
Ivory traders must register his month, DNP says
December 17th, 2012
All businesses involved in the trade or production of ivory items must register by next month. “If we find that any shop or manufacturing facility is involved in the use of illegally-trafficked ivory, we will revoke their business licence,” Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, deputy director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), said Read more…
Army hunts ‘mad’ killer elephant in Nepal: ‘Wild beast’ pulls couple from bed then tramples them to death
December 17th, 2012
A killer elephant is being hunted by Nepalese soldiers today after it strayed into villages and killed four people in three months. The rogue wild elephant walked into a thatched house in Gardi village adjoining Chitwan National Park, 50 miles south of Kathmandu, pulled a couple in their 60s from their bed and trampled them Read more…
Baby elephant found dead in Yok Don National Park
December 17th, 2012
VietNamNet Bridge – On the morning of December 14, rangers of the Yok Don National Park, in Ea Sup district, Dak Lak province, cooperated with the local authorities to examine the scene where a baby elephant was dead. Mr. Hoang Van Xuan, deputy director of Yok Don National Park, said the dead elephant was detected Read more…
Thai Authorities Stopped Ivory Smuggling at Suvarnabhumi Airport
December 17th, 2012
Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand, December 15, 2012 – CITES authorities, Royal Thai Customs, Immigration Police, and polices from Narcotics Suppression Bureau arrested one man, a Vietnamese national, for illegal possession of African ivory. The suspect claimed he had been hired by another Vietnamese in Ethiopia to carry 11 pieces of raw African ivory from Ethiopia Read more…
Tusks removed, elephant left to die
December 17th, 2012
LAMPANG : An elephant savaged by poachers for its tusk is in a critical condition after its wound became infected. Most of the 44-year-old male jumbo’s left tusk was severed in the Dec 11 attack. The tusk was about 1 metre long and weighed more than 20 kilogrammes. The other one had already been removed. The pachyderm had been secured and left alone in a forest near Wangtom village in Lampang’s Mae Mo district, where its owner, Tawat Read more…
Endangered Sumatran elephant found dead in western Indonesia; 17th death in 9 months
December 14th, 2012
EDS. NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Villagers inspect a dead Sumatran elephant allegedly poisoned by poachers for its tusks, in Indra Makmur, Aceh province, Indonesia, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. The male elephant, estimated to be 4-5 years old was found dead Friday with the tusks removed. Indonesia’s endangered elephants on Sumatra island are threatened by habitat Read more…
Vodka Saves Elephants: Circus Trainers Claim Alcohol Protected Animals From Deadly Siberian Cold
December 14th, 2012
MOSCOW — Circus trainers claim two of their elephants were saved from the deadly Siberian cold by vodka. Emergency ministry spokesman Alexander Davydov said Friday that the elephants were in a trailer that caught fire Thursday outside the city of Novosibirsk, forcing trainers to take them out into the bitter cold before another truck arrived Read more…
Wildlife crime profound threat to nations, says report
December 12th, 2012
The global illegal trade in wildlife is worth $19bn (£12bn) a year and is threatening the stability of some governments according to new research. Carried out for conservation group WWF, a report highlights a “new wave” of organised wildlife crime by armed groups operating across borders. It says funds from trafficking are being used to Read more…
Workshops to solve human-elephant conflict
December 12th, 2012
The Wildlife Department authorities will have discussions with the public at workshops to solve the human-elephant conflict, Wildlife Director General H D Rathnayake said. He said according to the National Elephant Conservation Policy, the Authority activates action plans to prevent the human-elephant conflict. “Under this programme, the department will identify practical and relevant steps which Read more…
Tusk, But Verify
December 12th, 2012
The Oregon Zoo told voters it needed $125 million to make more room for elephants. It’s also making more elephants. In August 2008, Oregon Zoo elephant Rose-Tu gave birth to her first calf, Samudra—as if right on cue for the zoo to make a big request of area taxpayers. The zoo was seeking voter approval Read more…
Massive African ivory seizure in Malaysia
December 11th, 2012
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11th December 2012 – Royal Malaysian Customs have made their largest ever seizure of ivory in transit through the country, finding 1,500 pieces of tusks hidden in wooden crates purpose-built to look like stacks of sawn timber. The ivory, stashed in ten crates which were divided between two containers, were shipped from Read more…
Changing locations fail to mitigate man-beast conflict, says landmark study
December 9th, 2012
Translocation of elephants, undertaken to mitigate the human-elephant conflict and conserve elephants, does not reduce the conflict or save elephants but causes an increase in the conflict and deaths of elephants, is the surprising finding of a study conducted in Sri Lanka. The results of this landmark study conducted by Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando and colleagues, Read more…
Expert: Manila Zoo’s elephant Mali may die from foot ailment
December 8th, 2012
On a blog post, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) quoted world-renown elephant expert Dr. Henry Richardson as saying “Mali may die from the lack of care she is receiving if left at the [Manila] Zoo.” Mali, the 38-year-old Sri Lankan elephant at the Manila Zoo, with Photographer and caretaker John Chua in Read more…
Poachers shoot elephant in Assam, hack it to pieces
December 8th, 2012
JORHAT: An adult male elephant was shot dead and its flesh cut away in Dulung reserve forest in Assam’s Lakhimpur district after it was shot dead by poachers late on Thursday. Poachers also beheaded the elephant and took away its trunk, tusks, and limbs before escaping from the forest. Forest officials said efforts were on Read more…
Relocating Elephants Backfires
December 8th, 2012
You can move an elephant, but you can’t make him stay. After monitoring a dozen bull Asian elephants in Sri Lanka that were transferred—three of them multiple times—to national parks, researchers have concluded that relocation neither reduces human-elephant conflicts nor helps conservation efforts. Indeed, five of the translocated elephants ended up being killed within 8 Read more…
Terribly injured elephant found bleeding to death after tusks, trunk and tail had been chopped off by poachers
December 7th, 2012
Lying in a pool of mud and slowly bleeding to death, this elephant is the latest victim of the rising global demand for ivory. The helpless animal was discovered by locals in a paddy field in Kharmauza village, near Goalpara in India’s Assam region. In a brutal attack, thought to have been carried out by Read more…
Video: Glamour Beasts: The dark side of elephant captivity
December 6th, 2012
Zoos’ efforts to preserve and propagate elephants have largely failed, both in Seattle and nationally. Chai, an elephant at Woodland Park Zoo, underwent 112 artificial insemination attempts — all unsuccessful. Watch video> Source: Seattle Times
Who Owns New Calf at Oregon Zoo
December 5th, 2012
Today Show video about the new female calf. View Video> Source: Today, MSNBC
Vietnam’s Elephants Face Threats from Near and Far
December 5th, 2012
HANOI — At the end of the war in 1975, as many as 2,000 wild elephants roamed the lowland forests of Vietnam. Today, there are as few as 50. Poaching and habitat destruction have brought the animals to the brink of extinction, and conservationists say the only herd with a long-term chance of survival is Read more…
Company that owns baby elephant is no friend of animal rights groups
December 4th, 2012
Animal Defenders International (ADI), an animal rights group based in Los Angeles, released video of an elephant named Tai, which is owned by Have Trunk Will Travel, being shocked and beaten during training for a role in the film “Water for Elephants.” Have Trunk Will Travel has a history of beating and shocking elephants owned Read more…
Elephant ‘extremists’ in Seattle now feeling vindicated
December 4th, 2012
Two Seattle women who have long protested the treatment of zoo elephants and were disparaged for doing so are now feeling better about their efforts. They were dubbed troublemakers, fanatics, and, then, in a word settled on by a PR effort to disparage them, “extremists.” What they are being called today, though, is “right.” “A Read more…
The Elephants Will Not Be Televised
December 4th, 2012
Change is certainly afoot when the work of Gil Scott-Heron and Thomas Kuhn converge, but converged they have as a series of news articles demonstrates.2 Last July, a group of prominent neuroscientists declared that animals are conscious.3 This is not news, it’s Science 101. The comparability of human and non-human animal consciousness drives science’s long-standing Read more…
Laguna Phuket issues statement over baby elephants
December 4th, 2012
PHUKET: — The management at Laguna Resorts & Hotels, which operates the five-hotel resort complex on Phuket’s west coast, have issued a statement about the baby elephant “Joey”, which was seized in raids in Phuket in February. Ziya Birkan, Deputy Managing Director at Laguna Resorts & Hotels, wrote in the statement: “We’re very pleased the Read more…
Woman killed by wild elephants
December 4th, 2012
RAYONG – A woman was trampled to death by a wild elephant after the herd was startled by the sound of fireworks, reports said on Tuesday. Panita Nichee, 31, suffered multiple broken bones and was pronounced dead at a hospital. The victim’s husband, Paiwal Sa-ngam, 33, said they were working at a rubber plantation in Read more…
Elephant havens face zoo-industry backlash
December 3rd, 2012
American zoos face swift and harsh punishment when they retire their aged elephants to a 2,300-acre sanctuary in the California foothills. After decades of captivity inside America’s zoos, the elephants arrived broken in many different ways. Maggie barely survived the harsh winters of the tiny Alaska Zoo. Confined many days to a cramped, indoor pen, Read more…
More than 60 humans, 200 elephants killed this year Environmentalist, Wildlife DG differ on jumbo count
December 3rd, 2012
Although the country’s environmentalists claimed that the elephant population had decreased significantly, Wildlife Conservation Department Director General H. D. Ratnayake said yesterday that around 300 baby elephants had been born this year. Environmentalists stressed that if the government neglected the human-elephant conflict, Sri Lanka’s elephants would vanish soon. It had become one of the major Read more…
Portland’s baby elephant belongs to traveling show
December 3rd, 2012
The newborn calf is the property of a private company, Have Trunk Will Travel, of Perris, Calif., which assumes ownership of the newborn within a month. A baby elephant born at Portland’s zoo last week may be fated to a life with a controversial traveling elephant show that rents out pachyderms to the entertainment industry, Read more…
How we did it
December 1st, 2012
The Seattle Times confronted a significant hurdle in examining elephant deaths in U.S. zoos: The industry doesn’t comprehensively track… The Seattle Times confronted a significant hurdle in examining elephant deaths in U.S. zoos: The industry doesn’t comprehensively track elephant births and deaths. To do that ourselves, we turned first to two zoo-industry books, the 2010 Read more…
Elephants are dying out in America’s zoos
December 1st, 2012
Zoos’ efforts to preserve and propagate elephants have largely failed, both in Seattle and nationally. The infant-mortality rate for elephants in zoos is almost triple the rate in the wild. As the 1960s dawned, few Americans had ever seen a baby elephant. It had been more than 40 years since an elephant had been born Read more…
Animals in circuses: a modern-day slave trade
November 30th, 2012
Existing regulations have failed animals such as Anne, the elephant kicked and beaten in a UK circus. We need a ban now. My Jamaican heritage and African roots make it impossible for me to ignore the historical similarities between cruelty to my own ancestors and cruelty to animals in circuses today. The mindset that has permitted Read more…
Zoo offers four elephants for free after herd power struggle
November 30th, 2012
A Dutch zoo has offered four elephants to other zoos willing to take them for free. The move comes after a fight within the Asian elephant herd at Noorder Animal Park in the north-eastern town of Emmen. Triggered by the death of the herd matriarch, a power struggle for supremacy ensued, creating such chaos that Read more…
Four elephants electrocuted by fallen high tension line
November 30th, 2012
Four wild elephants were electrocuted in the Vakaneri forest, between the 129 and 130km post in the Valaichchenai police area. by a fallen high-tension power line on Thursday night. The bodies of the elephants were discovered by police after a villager had contacted the 119 emergency police hotline to report the incident yesterday morning. Prior Read more…
Movie review: ‘Elefamilia’ shows elephant births at zoo
November 29th, 2012
Willie Theison sounds like a proud papa or nurse as he towels off the newborn and addresses the mother. “You did it again. Look at your little baby. “Welcome to Pittsburgh,” he tenderly tells the baby, who happens to be an elephant named Angeline. “Good girl,” he compliments the mom. The elephant was one of Read more…
Edmonton mayor slams Toronto’s ‘ridiculous’ motion to move Lucy the elephant
November 28th, 2012
EDMONTON – An irate Mayor Stephen Mandel slammed Toronto city council Wednesday for its “ridiculous” motion urging Edmonton to ship Lucy the elephant south. “I think it’s very disrespectful of other cities who pass resolutions about what Edmonton should or shouldn’t do,” he told city council, without naming Toronto. “They should understand why we do Read more…
McCartney helps Edmonton activists who want Lucy the elephant moved
November 28th, 2012
EDMONTON – We should have known that Sir Paul McCartney loves Lucy — he sang backup to John Lennon on Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. But now the former Beatle, in Edmonton for sold-out concerts Wednesday and Thursday at Rexall Place, is proving it by lending his support to the Valley Zoo’s namesake, a Read more…
Virginia: Proposed list of restricted animals includes elephants, rhinos
November 28th, 2012
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Elephants, cape buffaloes, rhinos and chimpanzees – they’re all among a list of proposed restricted species in Virginia. The state’s Dangerous Animals Initiative on Wednesday recommended those animals and about a dozen more for a proposed list of restricted exotic, potentially dangerous animals. The report now goes to Gov. Bob McDonnell Read more…
Most captive elephants ‘suffering’
November 27th, 2012
Most elephants living in captivity across the country suffer from work overload, malnutrition, and poor living conditions, says the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre. Sittidet Mahasawongkul, head of the Lampang-based centre’s elephant hospital yesterday said he and his team recently conducted elephant health check-ups at several elephant camps and found most of the animals were ailing Read more…
Wild Things looks to convert to unique zoo in Salinas
November 27th, 2012
Weaving his way past the trunks, tusks, and the very big toes of his elephant herd, Charlie Sammut looks right at home. He is. The elephants — Butch, Mailika, Buffy, Paula, and Kristi — belong to his menagerie at Wild Things, a ranch in Salinas where he has rescued, raised, and trained exotic animals for Read more…
Toronto Council votes to send zoo’s elephants to California — again
November 27th, 2012
After a year of political wrangling and opposition from Toronto Zoo staff, city council has reaffirmed its decision to send the zoo’s three aging elephants to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in California. Zoo management, who had opposed the move, indicated after the 32-8 vote that they will abide by council’s edict. “I Read more…
Four more elephant sanctuaries to be set up in Sri Lanka next year
November 23rd, 2012
Nov 23, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has taken measures to set up four more elephant sanctuaries in the country by next year, Deputy Minister of Wildlife and Agrarian Services S.M. Chandrasena has said. The four sanctuaries are to be set up in Horowpathana, Lunugavehera, Maduru Oya and Galgamuwa. The wild life officials will capture Read more…
Elephant cruelty sentence condemned
November 23rd, 2012
Animal welfare campaigners who secretly filmed a performing elephant being chained and hit with a pitchfork have condemned the “derisory” sentence given to a circus owner convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to the animal. Bobby Roberts was also convicted of failing to prevent an employee from repeatedly beating 60-year-old Anne, an Asian elephant. In addition, Read more…
Circus elephant owner says alleged abuse was ‘disgusting’
November 22nd, 2012
The owner of a circus elephant said he was disgusted when he saw secretly-filmed footage of a groom striking her with a pitchfork. Bobby Roberts, who is on trial along with his wife, Moira, for allegedly causing the elderly elephant unnecessary suffering, said his employee’s treatment of the animal was “disgraceful”. Roberts told Northampton crown court that Read more…
LA City Council takes step towards prohibiting elephants with circuses
November 21st, 2012
LA City Council Personnel and Animal Welfare Committee decided yesterday (20th November) to move forward to a vote by full Council a prohibition on the use of elephants in circuses. The move was proposed by Councilmember Paul Koretz and welcomed by Los Angeles based Animal Defenders International (ADI). Tim Phillips, Vice President of ADI, who Read more…
Rosamond Gifford Zoo has new elephant
November 20th, 2012
Syracuse, NY — A 15-year-old bull elephant has joined the elephant herd at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, zoo officials said today. Doc, who came to the zoo from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation, arrived at the zoo on Thursday, officials said. Doc replaces 40-year-old Indy, the zoo’s long-time resident Read more…
Georgia piano company pleads guilty to smuggling ivory
November 19th, 2012
A Georgia piano importer has pleaded guilty to federal charges of illegally smuggling internationally protected elephant ivory into the U.S. The U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta says 49-year-old Pascal Vieillard of Lilburn and his company, A-440 Pianos Inc., pleaded guilty Thursday. Prosecutors say the company illegally imported 855 elephant ivory key tops, totaling 1,710 pieces Read more…
Footage of abuse to circus elephant Anne shown in court
November 19th, 2012
A husband and wife from Northamptonshire are due to go on trial accused of causing unnecessary suffering to a circus elephant called Anne. Bobby and Moira Roberts appeared at Northampton Crown Court today accused of having kept the 58-year-old Asian elephant, called Anne, constantly chained to the ground at the Bobby Roberts Super Circus in Read more…
Hong Kong seizes $1.4M in illegal ivory
November 17th, 2012
HONG KONG (AP) Hong Kong customs officers have made their second big seizure of illegal ivory in less than a month after confiscating more than a ton of the elephant tusks worth $1.4 million, officials said Friday. Officers discovered 569 pieces of ivory tusks weighing 1,330 kilograms (2,930 pounds) on Thursday in a container shipped Read more…
BABY ELEPHANT GETS AN ARTIFICIAL LEG
November 16th, 2012
For the first time in Sri Lanka an artificial leg had been implanted to a baby elephant. This baby elephant had been loitering in the jungle area of Ampara when had unfortunately trampled a landmine placed by the LTTE and had injured the rear leg very seriously. Veterinary surgeons that operated on this baby elephant Read more…
DWLC gets new Director General
November 16th, 2012
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC), which has been functioning for more than year without a permanent Director General (DG), got a new head yesterday, with the appointment of H.D. Ratnayake. Formerly, Director Operations of the Department, Ratnayake is a Sri Lanka Administrative Service Grade One officer counting more than 17 years in the Department. Read more…
Envoy requests US help to fight poaching
November 15th, 2012
Kenya’s ambassador to the United States urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday to send US Marines to help counteract the increasingly “vicious boldness of the poaching gangs” that are decimating Kenya’s wildlife. Speaking during a panel discussion on wildlife trafficking that Mrs Clinton hosted at the State Department, Ambassador Elkanah Odembo noted that Read more…
Wild elephant wreaks havoc. Fire crackers ineffective
November 15th, 2012
Lives of the residents of Tempitiya, Dumana and Pulawa are in grave danger owing to a herd of wild elephants wreaking havoc in the area. They are destroying plantations and houses. All attempts by the villagers to chase them away have been in vain. R.B. Sarath Karunasena (44) told The Island that among the animals Read more…
Animal Rights Group Puts Bounty on Elephant Killers
November 14th, 2012
Animal rights group PETA offered a $1,000 reward Tuesday for information on the killing of three critically-endangered Sumatran elephants near palm oil plantations in Indonesia. The carcasses of three female elephants, including a year-old calf, were found rotting at the weekend in the jungle on Sumatra island outside the Tesso Nilo National Park, which is Read more…
Two jumbos killed, another wounded
November 14th, 2012
Wild life officials in Anuradhapura have commenced investigations into the death of two jumbos, a tusker found dead in Koongollwewa, Medawachchiya and another, poisoned in Herathgama, Kurunegala. They also found another adolescent elephant, seriously wounded by a trap gun in Kalagama, Galkiriyagama. The carcass of the huge tusker with its tusks removed was found in Read more…
Poaching, Trafficking a Menace for Already Endangered Animals
November 14th, 2012
Christiane Amanpour reports on ivory trade: A global phenomenon threatens some of the most endangered animals on the planet. Poaching and illegal trading are targeting dwindling populations of elephants in Africa; majestic big cats such as tigers in Asia; and rhinoceros populations in several parts of the world. China is the No. 1 destination in Read more…
URGENT: Help save Bona and 6 other adult elephants from relocation to Bali Zoo
November 12th, 2012
From EARS Asia.org: “Help us save Bona and six adult elephants who live in the beautiful forest of the Elephant Conservation Centre in Sumatra from being sold to a Bali Zoo. We urgently need to protect the future of a little elephant called Bona and six other adult elephants due to be relocated from their Read more…
Strange things after the death of elephants
November 12th, 2012
VietNamNet Bridge – According to statistics from the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center, since 2009, at least 14 wild elephants died, including four adult elephants which were killed for their tusks and tail hairs, and 10 died of unknown causes. Besides, ten domestic elephants also died. The brutal massacres In late August 2012, two adult Read more…
Home : News : Local News : Tulsa Zoo holds birthday party for Gunda the elephant, zoo’s oldest resident
November 12th, 2012
ULSA – The Tulsa Zoo’s oldest resident is turning a very young 62 years old. Gunda the elephant will celebrate her birthday Friday at 11 a.m. Zoo officials are inviting everyone to stop by and wish Gunda a happy birthday as she digs in to her very own giant-sized cake to celebrate her big day. Read more…
Report: Dubai authorities seize more than $4 million worth of illegal ivory from Africa
November 11th, 2012
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Customs authorities in Dubai have seized ivory worth as much as 15 million dirhams ($4.1 million) from more than 100 poached elephants. The UAE’s state news agency WAM reported Sunday that authorities at the Jebel Ali Port seized the ivory hidden in a shipment of green beans. They said it Read more…
New York exhibit captures historical life of circus
November 10th, 2012
NEW YORK — Jumbo the elephant died, holding his keeper’s hand in his trunk, on Sept. 15, 1885. The giant pachyderm, not yet 30 years old but more famous than any elephant before or since, had been hit by a freight train after an evening performance in St. Thomas, Ontario. The train was derailed. Jumbo Read more…
Elephants gaining space at Niabi; visitors get better view of cats
November 10th, 2012
Niabi Zoo is in the midst of tripling space for elephants Babe and Sophie and giving visitors an up-close look at the big cats. Preparations also are being made for a $1.8 million lion exhibit, which could begin next spring. In September, Niabi lost its accreditation status with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. One Read more…
Bali Zoo to acquire Sumatran elephants?
November 9th, 2012
An alleged plan by Bali Zoo to acquire six Sumatran elephants is unlikely to be an easy process according to Regional Chief of The Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) Bengkulu Darwis Saragih, who yesterday stated the plan will depend on the Ministry of Forestry’s decision. “We are not yet sure, because elephants are endangered animals Read more…
Toronto ground zero for battle over future of elephants in zoos
November 9th, 2012
For the past year and a half, a fierce battle has raged over whether three African elephants should stay in their decades-old home at the Toronto Zoo. But it’s a battle that some experts say is now at the centre of a larger North American debate about the future of elephants in zoos. Since the Read more…
Baby elephant DNA results finally revealed
November 9th, 2012
PHUKET: After months of silence, the DNA results needed to determine the legality of three baby elephants seized in raids on Phuket in February have been released for two of the three young pachyderms, while one’s fate is still undetermined. The DNA results for the baby elephant seized from the Phu Thai Souvenir Market in Chalong proved that Read more…
Uganda: Million Dollar Worth Elephant Ivory Seized
November 8th, 2012
Tanzanian police have seized over 200 elephant tusk pieces valued at around a million dollars from 91 different animals, officials said on Oct 31. Four people were also arrested when the 214 tusk pieces were seized on Monday from the house of a Kenyan living in Tanzania’s economic capital Dar es Salaam. Police said they Read more…
Zoos and wildlife parks are no way to treat an animal
November 8th, 2012
The idea that a zoo is the sole or even best repository for learning is risible. Over the past century, thousands of species have disappeared from our planet, and many more are on the critically endangered list. Yet even as we wantonly destroy nature’s great habitats, and hunt species to extinction, we console ourselves with Read more…
Elephant killed by electrocution
November 7th, 2012
The Kantale Elephant Control Unit had apprehended a suspect who had killed an elephant on Tuesday by electrocuting it.The suspect, a resident from Serunuwara Sumedhankara Purahad allegedly inflicted injuries with a sharp weapon on the dead elephant to mislead the authorities and to show that the animal had been succumbed to gunshot injuries. Photo credit: Read more…
Baby elephant born at Elephant Nature Park reserve
November 7th, 2012
The Elephant Nature Park, a 250 acre elephant rehabilitation refuge in Thailand, has announced the arrival of a brand new baby elephant. Called Navann, the baby was born to Sri Prae, a female elephant brought to the park in 2010 after surviving a land mine blast. Little did the staff know at the time, Sri Read more…
Mayor’s executive committee reopens elephant debate
November 6th, 2012
TORONTO — The Toronto Zoo’s three elephants might not be heading to retirement in California. Councillors on Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee voted to start to unravel the 2011 council decision to send Toka, Thika and Iringa to the PAWS sanctuary in California and instead let zoo staff decide where the pachyderms should be sent Read more…
A jumbo task gets underway
November 4th, 2012
N. Piyasena, a 57 year old, farmer from Galegama area at Medawachchiya, Anuradhapura, is the latest victim in the ever-intensifying human-elephant conflict. Mr. Piyasena was attacked by an elephant on Tuesday night while he was heading to a funeral house. A father of two, he had left home around 11 p.m. saying he would Read more…
Could Toronto’s elephant saga finally be over?
November 4th, 2012
Giorgio Mammoliti says it could be the “worst decision’’ this current Toronto city council has made. Councillor Mammoliti, an executive committee member, is referring to last year’s 31-4 council vote ordering that the Toronto Zoo’s three remaining elephants be sent to the PAWS sanctuary in California. Given that the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 25 decision Read more…
Lonely Asian Elephant Learns To Speak 5 Words In Korean
November 2nd, 2012
If you speak any Korean–or are familiar with Season 2 of Arrested Development–you know that the word for “hello” is “annyong.” Koshik, an elephant who spent much of his youth at Everland Zoo in South Korea, can actually pronounce it. A beluga whale made the news just last week for being able to imitate human sounds, but Read more…
Dutch government announces ban on the use of wild animals in circuses
November 1st, 2012
ALMERE, The Netherlands – In their coalition agreement presented to the public on the 29th of October, the new Dutch government announced a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses. The Dutch animal protection organization Wilde Dieren de Tent Uit (No Wild Animals in Circuses) has worked towards a ban for years and Read more…
Government officials promise to oversee Port St. Lucie circus
November 1st, 2012
PORT ST. LUCIE — Cole Bros. Circus has brought its act to St. Lucie County for seven years and is gearing up for another visit Nov. 15-18, but this time it’s amidst some controversy. Fort Pierce resident Jen Feuerstein, who appealed to the government to reject the circus, objects to its use of elephants and Read more…
Illegal ivory trade ‘helping fund guerrilla groups’
October 30th, 2012
Washington has asked Thailand to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade, citing the illicit business as a major moneymaker for armed guerrilla groups. The matter was raised by US ambassador to Thailand Kristie A Kenney during a meeting with Natural Resources and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk yesterday. Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, deputy chief of the Department Read more…
Councillor Shelley Carroll presents petition calling for elephant transfer
October 30th, 2012
Councillor Shelley Carroll dragged in boxes of signatures Tuesday from supporters who want the Toronto Zoo’s elephants moved to a U.S. sanctuary. Carroll presented a petition containing 30,000 signatures — with at least 6,600 Toronto-based supporters of the move — to city council. City council voted in October 2011 to send three African elephants to Read more…
Elephant personalities revealed by scientists
October 28th, 2012
With their grey skin, mournful eyes and slow plodding gait, you could be forgiven for thinking elephants are uniformly melancholy creatures. But scientists have now discovered the largest living land animals have personalities to match their size. In a new study of African elephants, researchers have identified four distinct characters that are prevalent with a Read more…
In A Tanzanian Village, Elephant Poachers Thrive
October 25th, 2012
An insatiable demand for ivory in Asia is fueling a massive slaughter of elephants across Africa. As NPR’s John Burnett reports, one of the worst poaching hot spots is Tanzania. In this story, he visits an ivory poacher’s town that sits next to a major game reserve. It’s midday in Mloka, a cheerless village that is the Read more…
Three zoo keepers held for beating elephant
October 25th, 2012
Three zoo keepers were sacked and then arrested by cops after a female elephant was allegedly beaten. The men are said to have been caught on CCTV whipping kiddies’ favourite Tonzi, 28, with bamboo canes in her pen. World-famous Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire confirmed the keepers were sacked for “a gross breach of the zoo’s Read more…
Rare and endangered
October 24th, 2012
Without any doubt, Sri Lanka is one of the last remaining havens for wild elephants in Asia. However, the escalating conflict with humans over living space is causing the rapid destruction of natural habitat of the gentle giants and is threatening their survival in the wild. Elephas maximus maximus is a distinct sub species Read more…
Asian elephant loses calf at Calgary Zoo
October 24th, 2012
Keepers at the Calgary Zoo are keeping a close eye on the Asian elephant, Maharani, after she delivered a premature stillborn calf on Wednesday morning. The calf was due in February or March 2013. “It is clear even at this very early stage that the calf was born 5 to 6 months early and appears Read more…
Zimbabwe weighs cost of too many elephants
October 23rd, 2012
A herd of elephants hobbles past a cluster of acacia trees to a water-hole deep in Zimbabwe’s vast Hwange game reserve, attracted by the drone of generators pumping water round the clock into the pool. With the elephant population ballooning, wildlife authorities have resorted to using 45 generators, each consuming 200 litres (52 gallons) of Read more…
The elephant’s cemetery
October 23rd, 2012
After a drawn-out forest rainstorm, Ma Net Village turned into an island surrounded by water. Usually the Serepok River flowed tranquilly, but now it looked like a huge serpent whose greedy mouth opened wide to swallow everything in its turbulent current. The newly-asphalted road had been furrowed into a muddy mess. Tuan slowly dragged Read more…
Missouri State professor: Asian elephants facing human threat, but not from poaching
October 22nd, 2012
Asian elephants are in danger, but not from the poaching that their African cousins are, said Dennis Schmitt. Instead, he said, it is encounters between wild elephants and people that threaten the elephants, and sometimes also the people. Schmitt is professor of reproductive biology in the school of agriculture at Missouri State University, Springfield, and Read more…
Elephant tramples keeper to death in Japan
October 22nd, 2012
TOKYO — An elephant trampled its keeper to death at a Japanese zoo on Tuesday as he tried to stop the gigantic animal from attacking its new-born calf, police and reports said. Inthavong Khamphone, who was from Laos, had watched the elephants overnight with other keepers at Fuji Safari Park after the mother gave birth Read more…
Helpful info from collared elephants
October 22nd, 2012
KOTA KINABALU: THE survival of Borneo pygmy elephants in Sabah is brighter with data collected from pachyderms fitted with satellite collars. Since 2008, nine elephants had been fitted with such collars in the Kinabatangan area, allowing wildlife officials to gather crucial information. Sabah Wildlife Department director Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said of the nine elephants, Read more…
For ‘de-programmed’ elephants, return to wild is a slow, costly process
October 21st, 2012
Two elephant conservation groups are working together to reintroduce domesticated elephants to the wild, releasing 84 of them over the past 10 years under an initiative of Her Majesty the Queen. The Elephant Reintroduction Foundation (ERF) must shoulder not only the increasingly high cost of purchasing elephants, but also of preparing them for their return Read more…
Wild elephant killed by train
October 21st, 2012
A wild elephant died in a collision with a train at Getadivula in Ambanpola. The train was on its way from Colombo Fort to Vavuniya at the time. After being informed of the incident, Ambanpola police visited the scene and commenced investigations, while the Galgamuwa wildlife office is conducting a separate inquiry. The jumbo’s dead Read more…
‘Kora Aliya’ tranquilized
October 20th, 2012
A wild elephant, known as ‘Kora Aliya’ that has turned a great threat to the safety of residents in several villages of the Ampara district was tranquilized by Wildlife Department officials this morning in order to be transported to Pinnawala. Veterinary surgeons Dr. Vijitha Perera and Dr. Pramuditha had tranquilized the animal that was running Read more…
Hong Kong makes largest ivory seizure worth $3.4m
October 20th, 2012
Hong Kong customs officials say they have confiscated nearly four tonnes of smuggled ivory – their largest seizure of products from endangered species. The haul – worth about $3.4m (£2.1m) – was hidden in two separate containers from Kenya and Tanzania. The seizure followed a tip-off from mainland Chinese police, who have since arrested seven Read more…
12 year old boy’s jaw broken by circus elephant, Gestörter Elefant bricht Bub (12) den Kiefer
October 18th, 2012
Der 12-jährige Junge sieht im süddeutschen Burladingen die Tierschau des Circus Luna. Teil der Show ist die Elefantendame Benjamin. Sie ist laut der Tierschutzorganisation Peta schwer verhaltensgestört, weil sie früher allein in einem nicht artgerechten Gehege gehalten wurde. Eine um Benjamin aufgebaute Sicherheitszone soll die Zuschauer deshalb vor ihren Anfällen schützen. Trotzdem betritt der Bub die Zone: Read more…
Elephant Tramples Zookeeper in Japan
October 16th, 2012
Zookeepers at Japan’s Fuji Safari Park are mourning the loss of one of their own today, after a 3-ton elephant trampled a veteran worker days after giving birth. The accident in the Shizuoka Prefecture happened overnight, when zookeepers attempted to separate the newborn from its mother after she began attacking the calf. Four keepers made Read more…
The New Most Expensive Coffee in the World
October 15th, 2012
Look out civets, there’s a new animal processing the world’s most expensive coffee: Thai elephants. The original ‘poo coffee’, Indonesia’s kopi luwak is produced by feeding civets — small, weasel-like animals — coffee fruit then later retrieving the beans from their droppings. Supposedly, enzymes in the digestive system break down proteins that produce bitterness in the coffee, Read more…
4 elephants OK after circus truck wrecks in Miss.
October 15th, 2012
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A circus official says a truck pulling a trailer full of elephants ran off an interstate in southern Mississippi over the weekend, but the four pachyderms and the driver weren’t harmed. Renee Storey, an executive with Cole Brothers Circus of the Stars, said the elephants were being transported from Alabama to Read more…
Why Did the Elephant Have Thin Hair?
October 12th, 2012
Hair helps keep you warm, right? But hair can also keep you cooler than bare skin, as long as the hair is not too thick. So says a study in the journal PLoS ONE. [Conor L. Myhrvold, Howard A. Stone and Elie Bou-Zeid, What Is the Use of Elephant Hair?] Researchers studied elephants, which have Read more…
Fisherman catches tooth of ancient mastodon
October 9th, 2012
KARNES CITY — Davy Villanueva isn’t an outgoing guy; so handling the notoriety generated by his discovery of a mastodon tooth last month has been a big adjustment. “Now I know what all the celebrities go through. I feel sorry for them,” said Villanueva, 44, whom friends jokingly nicknamed “Hollywood” after his story appeared on national news outlets. A Read more…
Elephant, calf electrocuted in Ganjam
October 9th, 2012
Two elephants were electrocuted at the Kankhai jungle under the Khallikote forest range, situated 55 km away from Brahmapur, on Sunday. It was the second such incident in the district in two days following the electrocution of two elephants and a wild boar in the Karadabani jungle in Gallery range of Bhanjanagar area on Saturday. Read more…
Topeka Zoo elephant breaks off part of tusk playing with log
October 8th, 2012
Around 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 4, Tembo, a 42-year-old African Elephant , was playing with a log in her exhibit and broke about ten inches off of her left tusk. The log, in this case a tree trunk four feet in diameter, is one of Tembo’s toys. “We’re not sure what she was trying Read more…
Elephant tramples forest guard
October 7th, 2012
A 33-year-old forest guard was trampled to death by an elephant near Pandalur in Gudalur, about 90 km from here. The guard was among a team of forest officials from Bidurikadu range, which had gone yesterday to chase away three elephants moving around Rockwood estate for the last couple of days, forest department officials said. Read more…
SL to send two elephants to Prague zoo
October 6th, 2012
Sri Lanka has donated two young female Indian elephants to the Prague zoo, where they will arrive on Saturday, flown to the Czech Republic by a Sri Lankan military plane, Prague zoo director Miroslav Bobek has told the media. The elephants, eight-year-old Janita and seven-year-old Tamara, come from the elephant zoo in Pinnawale. “The Hercules Read more…
Mother and baby elephant die
October 4th, 2012
A female elephant succumbed to shock and died on Thursday while trying to give birth to a calf which had died inside her womb while being treated at an elephant hospital in Hang Chat district in Lampang province. Twenty-five-year-old Phang Thong collapsed while her mahout was leading her on an exercise walk this morning at the Read more…
Happy the elephant’s sad life alone at the Bronx Zoo
October 1st, 2012
PACH ON THEIR WORD: With Happy kept separate from two other elephants, angry critics are blasting the Bronx Zoo for reneging on a promise to shut down its exhibit. In 2006, in a yard at the Bronx Zoo, Happy the elephant took a few steps toward an eight-foot mirror — and lumbered into history. A researcher Read more…
Stuffed elephant goes up for auction
October 1st, 2012
PEOPLE who get carried away at auctions may be wary of a big one coming up next month. A stuffed African elephant 7ft high and 11ft long is going under the hammer at Brading on the Isle of Wight on October 18. The beast had been on show at Brading Waxworks until it closed down Read more…
Really Laos, you shouldn’t have: giving elephants to Japan is a bad idea
October 1st, 2012
The 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan was undeniably a tragedy on many scales. Thousands killed, tainted agriculture, disappearing tourism and overall economic gloom. It’s little wonder the Japanese government is looking for some way to lift national spirits and make life near Fukushima marginally bearable. Japan has decided to import eight elephants from the secretive, Read more…
The WEIRD Psychology of Elephants
September 29th, 2012
In 1976, psychologists John and Sandra Condry of Cornell University had 204 human adults view videotaped footage of an infant boy named David and infant girl named Dana, and asked them to describe the infants’ facial expressions and dispositions. They described their findings in an article in the journal Child Development. In the video, infants were shown Read more…
Elephant Guards Murdered in Chad
September 28th, 2012
Chad: September 2012. Zakaria Ibrahim, Brahim Khamis, Daoud Aldjouma, Djibrine Adoum Goudja, and Idriss Adoum—all dead, gunned down during dawn prayers. Where? North of Zakouma National Park in Chad, central Africa. When? September 3, 2012. Why? They were assassinated for protecting the last of the elephant herds found in the vast stretches between the Sahara Desert Read more…
Elephant herd runs amok in Koraput villages
September 28th, 2012
KORAPUT: A herd of eight elephants, including three calves, damaged houses and standing crops over several acres of agricultural land in at least two villages in the district. The marauding herd had razed at least four houses in Paraja Limica and destroyed large tracts of agricultural land in Pakhandola till Thursday. “With the jumbos staying Read more…
Pregnant elephant works out at Oregon Zoo
September 28th, 2012
PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) – What to expect when an elephant is expecting. It’s on the minds of everyone at the Oregon Zoo as Rose Tu makes it into the 19th month of her second pregnancy. The elephant mother still has about two months before 4-year-old, Samudra, gets a new baby brother or sister. Zoo keepers are preparing Read more…
Circus Comes to Anaheim Council Chambers Tonight
September 26th, 2012
In showbiz, timing is everything, which explains why Feld Entertainment is bringing the big guns to tonight’s Anaheim City Council meeting. Having presented its Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to packed Anaheim houses for years, Feld recently inked a five-year deal to continue the streak at the Honda Center–a deal the Virginia-based promoter Read more…
Blood Ivory
September 26th, 2012
IN JANUARY 2012 A HUNDRED RAIDERS ON HORSEBACK CHARGED OUT OF CHAD INTO CAMEROON’S BOUBA NDJIDAH NATIONAL PARK, SLAUGHTERING HUNDREDS OF ELEPHANTS—entire families—in one of the worst concentrated killings since a global ivory trade ban was adopted in 1989. Carrying AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, they dispatched the elephants with a military precision reminiscent of a Read more…
TB concerns put transfer of Toronto Zoo elephants back in limbo
September 25th, 2012
The tug-of-war over retirement plans for Toronto’s three aging elephants is far from over, with councillors being asked to rethink their controversial decision to order the animals sent to a California sanctuary. The Toronto Zoo board is asking Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee and council to consider a new report from zoo staff that outlines Read more…
Politicos build hotels in Elephant Reserve
September 24th, 2012
North Central Province political stalwarts of the ruling party, Berty Premalal Dissanayake and S.M. Chandrasena are accused of constructing hotels in the Kala Wewa elephant reserve, environmentalists have charged. Former Chief Minister Dissanayake and Agrarian Services and Wildlife Minister Chandrasena (who claims to have tendered his resignation as minister) vehemently denied their personal involvement in Read more…
For conservation, not intrusion- Jeep Safari, Sri Lanka
September 23rd, 2012
A safari jeep clamoured past the elephants, making their way to the Minneriya reservoir. The sudden appearance of the vehicle surprised one mammal that was grazing at the head of the heard. She looked up suddenly. Troubled, the creature backed away, heading in the opposite direction of the tank, towards the jungle. The other elephants Read more…
Jumbo meets tragic death in sewage pit
September 22nd, 2012
An elephant which fell into the sewage pit near a house at Wellamudawa area in Thirappane died after struggling for hours to escape. She had fallen into a large sewage pit after crashing through the concrete cover of the pit on last night. The elephant has struggled for a while after falling into the pit Read more…
Zoo Director Talks Options For Elephants
September 20th, 2012
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) — It’s a decision that carries a lot of weight. Topeka city leaders must decide the future of the zoo elephants. Animal activists say it’s an easy decision, that the Topeka Zoo isn’t the place for Timbo and Sunda. “They display the neurotic swaying, most of the time when you go there Read more…
Dutchess, Blind Elephant undergoes cataract operation to restore her sight
September 20th, 2012
It was a truly mammoth undertaking, but Duchess the blind elephant will finally be able to see again after receiving what was quite possibly the world’s largest ever cataract operation. The 43-year-old Asian elephant, who only has the one eye left, had been able to do little more than distinguish between light and dark for Read more…
When Jumbo Was Toast of the Town
September 20th, 2012
Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, direct your gaze to this thin circlet of elephant tusk from 1885. Its spidery inscription reads “Jumbo King of Elephants.” It is a relic of both the 13-foot-tall Jumbo and a lost golden age, when the circus was New York City’s most popular entertainment. Scholars of the arts Read more…
Sacred elephants put on a diet
September 19th, 2012
Obese elephants in the Tamil Nadu region of India are now having to watch watch they eat and do more exercise, as they have become dangerously overweight. Almost all of the temple elephants in the region, which is the far south of the country, are bigger than is deemed healthy, due to a combination of Read more…
Maligawa elephant goes berserk
September 14th, 2012
An elephant named Sinharaja, which was being taken for the Dodamwela Devala perehera, went berserk at Bulumulla Junction, on the Kiribathkumbura – Waturakumbura road on Thursday evening. Its mahout, Jayantha, who was injured after being thrown to the ground by it, was admitted to the Peradeniya hospital. Sinharaja, belonging to the Dalada Maligawa, was being Read more…
Obese elephants in Tamil Nadu given slimming help
September 14th, 2012
Authorities in India are being presented with a massive task – managing the weight of obese elephants kept in temples. In parts of India, elephants are kept in temples for religious reasons – taking part in ceremonies and festivals. Efforts are on in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu to get these over-pampered tusked Read more…
Phuket baby elephant probe sparks raids
September 10th, 2012
PHUKET: The inspection of elephant camps in Southern Thailand, geared to ensure that all pachyderms on the premises are legal, started on Monday and will include searches of the locations in Phuket where elephants were seized earlier this year. “We received an order on Monday from National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department [DNP] Director-General Read more…
Drought-hit Dasara elephants’ weight loss a worry
September 9th, 2012
MYSORE: Drought coupled with the neglect of forest department officials seems to have taken a toll on the health of Dasara elephants. Most elephants in the first batch have lost weight up to 300 to 500 kg. Of the seven elephants arrived in the city, at least four have become weak due to lack of Read more…
There’s shortage of female elephants for Dasara
September 7th, 2012
MYSORE: Dasara authorities have a new challenge this year — there aren’t enough female elephants around during the flagship festival and four experienced ones are on maternity leave. They’re needed to keep the male elephants under control. The problem is so acute that Chaitra has been enrolled for Dasara duty after a gap of 15 Read more…
Are investors driving the illegal wildlife trade?
September 7th, 2012
A new survey of the illegal trade in wildlife across Asia has contradicted some commonly held beliefs. The survey was conducted by a consortium of wildlife and conservation NGO’s and media companies in preparation for a marketing campaign to reduce the trade. The belief that the trade in endangered species is being kept alive by Read more…
How Does The Media Report On Elephant Human Conflict?
September 4th, 2012
We see often an inconsistency in reporting on wildlife in newspapers. On some days we see responsible stories, and on other days, even the same newspaper has an inaccurate or sensational story. The media is not sensitized sufficiently enough on why the man/elephant conflict is occuring and as a result, the stories which come out Read more…
Mahouts not to send elephants for Mysore Dasara
September 1st, 2012
The Mahouts of Dubare elephant camp have said that they will not send any elephants from Dubare elephant camp to the world famous Mysore Dasara, next month. Urging the authorities to regularise their service and to provide boat facility to cross river Cauvery and to build a hanging bridge across Cauvery, the mahouts have decided Read more…
GLOBAL AMBASSADOR OF ELEPHANT PARADE
September 1st, 2012
PSA International is one of the leading global port groups, with flagship operations in PSA Singapore Terminals, PSA Antwerp and PSA Zeebrugge. Our organisation participates in 29 port projects in 17 countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas, and as “The World’s Port of Call”, PSA wholeheartedly embraces its responsibility to the communities and the Read more…
Two baby elephants from Pinnawala to Japan
August 29th, 2012
It has been decided to gift two baby elephants from the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage to the Tama Zoo in Japan. The names of these two baby elephants are ‘Amara’ and ‘Vidula’. The two baby elephants would be a donation to the Japanese Government, said the Director General of National Zoological Department, Anura De Silva. These Read more…
Anaheim councilwoman wants ban on elephants in circus
August 28th, 2012
ANAHEIM – A councilwoman is asking for a city law that would ban the use of exotic animals, such as elephants, for circuses and other entertainment – a request that could prevent Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from bringing its annual show to Anaheim. Councilwoman Lorri Galloway requested Tuesday night that an ordinance Read more…
ELEPHANT BABY: GRAND ENTRANCE
August 28th, 2012
The stork arrived with a big bundle of joy at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, delivering a female African elephant calf at 3:39 a.m. today! The 205-pound calf and her mother, Swazi, are on their feet and bonding. It appeared that Swazi’s water broke early Sunday morning. From previous experience, keepers knew that labor Read more…
Tortured Sunder the elephant soon to be heading to sanctuary
August 27th, 2012
On Friday People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA) confirmed that Sunder the elephant who has been confined by chains with spikes to keep him captive will be released to a sanctuary near Bangalore where he will be rehabilitated and live free. The 13-year-old elephant has been isolated in India’s Maharashtra district in Read more…
Man-eating tiger rescued in Mysore
August 26th, 2012
MYSORE: A day after a tiger, which supposedly killed a tribal woman, was trapped by forest department officials using an elephant in Heggadadevana Kote on Sunday. The big cat has been shifted to Mysore zoo to treat injury on a front limb. However, its condition is stable. The cat is suffering from an injury on Read more…
Rare baby makes history
August 25th, 2012
Early on April 17, while most Thais were recovering from their traditional Songkran celebrations, a baby elephant was born in a wilderness reserve in central Thailand. This was an important moment not just for Jarunee, a 15-year-old former tourist elephant from Surin, who had carried the baby inside her for 22 months. Staff at the Read more…
Full report of elephant survey yet to be released
August 24th, 2012
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) has failed to release the much anticipated full report of the first comprehensive elephant survey, even a year after the survey. Ceylon Today reliably learns, despite the efforts of all DWLC officials to make the first countrywide survey a success; several officials are keen only to have their names Read more…
UW professor tracking down elephant poachers
August 24th, 2012
When World Wildlife Fund posted video of an elephant slaughter in Cameroon, many people took a little time to let it sink in, but for University of Washington Professor Samuel Wasser, it was time to go to work. Wasser is an expert on endangered animal scat. He has made several discoveries using specially trained dogs Read more…
2 elephants spotted on border with bullet injuries
August 19th, 2012
In spite of the Indian government taking up the issue of attack on elephants from across the India-Nepal border, two elephants have been spotted with bullet injuries in the Kurseong forest division of Darjeeling district in West Bengal, forest officials said on Saturday. The hilly district shares a long boundary with Nepal. While a male Read more…
Elephant population dwindles as demand for ivory grows; how to foster a baby elephant
August 16th, 2012
On Wednesday “Nightly News” aired a report from special correspondent Chelsea Clinton featuring naturalist Daphne Sheldrick (above), who has been working for decades to preserve Kenya’s wildlife. The final piece in Clinton’s two-part series (below) aired Thursday, and it explains how baby elephants orphaned by poachers are being rescued and raised. Daphne Sheldrick writes: With Read more…
Baby elephant brings joy and concern to Berlin zoo
August 16th, 2012
Polar bear Knut has passed away. Long live baby elephant Anchali. This week, Berlin’s zoo celebrated the birth of a 350-pound Asian elephant, born to her Thai mother Pang Pha and 18-year old “proud father” Victor. The young elephant was named Anchali, which means “greeting” in Thai. The elephant calf has the potential to become Read more…
Jackson part of new science designed to diversify elephant herds
August 15th, 2012
The International Conservation Center near Fairhope will house an elephant frozen sperm bank. A reproductive lab will be housed there for research and implantation, Willie Theison, elephant manager for the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. His statement came after the announcement in Vienna, Austria, of the first-ever successful artificial Read more…
“Operation Frozen Dumbo” gets elephant Tonga pregnant
August 14th, 2012
VIENNA, Aug. 14, 2012 (Reuters) — Scientists have succeeded for the first time in impregnating an elephant with frozen sperm, ultrasound pictures presented by Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo showed on Tuesday. Schoenbrunn zoo director Dagmar Schratter displays an ultrasonic image of an elephant foetus during a news conference in Vienna, August 14, 2012. The scan shows Read more…
Lost in captivity
August 12th, 2012
The baby elephant at the resort hotel in Bentota on July 13 was present to welcome guests. An animal lover visiting the hotel was aghast. For here was an animal that should still be in the wild or in a safe haven, instead entertaining tourists. But thankfully Sanju (as the animal’s current owner calls him) Read more…
Elephant riding in Cambodia: Should you?
August 12th, 2012
Do you dream of riding an elephant on your Southeast Asia vacation? Have you always wanted to get close to one of these noble beasts, outside of a zoo setting? Do you just want to see cute baby elephants do tricks? According to some experts, you shouldn’t. Especially in Cambodia. Asian elephants are compelling beasts, Read more…
Wild elephant and a calf rescued
August 8th, 2012
A wild elephant and a baby elephant that went searching for water due to the prevailing drought had fallen into a well in Kela Bogaswewa- Ruwanmaduwa in Vavunia today. They were rescued by the wild life officials with the assistance of soldiers of 56 Brigade.Pix by Romesh Madushanka See Photos> Source: Daily Mirror
St. Louis Zoo Asian Elephant Is Pregnant
August 1st, 2012
ST. LOUIS (AP) – A popular resident of the St. Louis Zoo is expecting. The zoo said Wednesday that the Asian elephant Ellie is pregnant and is due to deliver next spring. The father is Raja, a 19-year-old who was the first Asian elephant born at the zoo in 1992. The calf would be his Read more…
‘The Gathering’ Greatest Elephant Show Begins
July 31st, 2012
Come August and the world’s 6th greatest wildlife spectacle, ‘The Gathering’ takes place at Minneriya in the north central province of Sri Lanka. The island nation, boasting of having close to 5,000 wild elephants, becomes the hot spot for elephant watchers all over the world during the months of August and September. ‘The Gathering’, taking Read more…
Devotees pay homage to temple elephant
July 30th, 2012
MADURAI: Hundreds of devotees paid homage to ‘Avvai’, the 54-year-old elephant of Tiruparankunram Murugan temple in Madurai. In a poignant gesture, devotees stayed awake in the temple throughout the night and participated in the funeral procession of the elephant that served the temple for the past four decades. Avvai was brought to the Subramaniya Swamy Read more…
Surin man stomped by elephant
July 30th, 2012
A 50-year-old man was stomped to death by an elephant near the venue of a merit-making ceremony during which Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra offered alms to monks mounted on elephants in Muang district of Surin province on Monday morning, reports said. The attack occurred about 7.30am inside Wat Chumpolsuthawas, about 200 metres from where the Read more…
Plan for forest patrol on elephants
July 28th, 2012
Making use of the tamed/trained kumki elephants at the Kozhikamudhi elephant camp near Top Slip in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), officials have planned a patrolling of the forest areas on elephant in inaccessible and tough terrains. The camp of the ATR has nearly 18 kumki elephants and agile and healthy elephants would be deployed in Read more…
Protected animals seized at temple
July 24th, 2012
Authorities seized 47 protected animals, including crocodiles, at a Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi province on Monday. About 100 police and officials attached to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation went to Wat Phothisat Banpot Nimit in Muang district this morning to inspect possession documents for protected wildlife and carcasses after authorities raided Read more…
Asia fuels record elephant, rhino killings: WWF
July 23rd, 2012
Manila, July 23, 2012 (AFP) – China, Vietnam and Thailand are among the worst offenders in fuelling a global black market that is seeing record numbers of elephants and rhinos killed in Africa, environment group WWF said on Monday. Releasing a report rating countries’ efforts at stopping the trade in endangered species, WWF said elephant Read more…
Thailand abetting illegal ivory trade
July 23rd, 2012
China, Vietnam and Thailand are among the worst offenders in fuelling a global black market that is seeing record numbers of elephants and rhinos killed in Africa, the environment group WWF said on Monday. “Tens of thousands of African elephants are being killed by poachers each year for their tusks, and China and Thailand are Read more…
Time to ban ivory for good?
July 23rd, 2012
BANGKOK, Thailand — Smuggling boxes of elephant tusks is not so different from smuggling bundles of cocaine. Both are procured for a pittance and sold abroad for a fortune. Both enrich transnational criminal networks; in ivory’s case, the commodity is acquired in the African savannah and sold primarily in China. Both send mules and middlemen Read more…
The evil secrets of Thailand’s elephant tourism
July 22nd, 2012
There are few things more adorable than a baby elephant. Little more than 3ft tall and naturally curious, they are the undisputed stars of the scores of elephant camps created in the forests of Thailand to offer tourists the opportunity to get close to the world’s largest land animals. For many of the 850,000 Britons Read more…
Elephant suffers head injury during transportation, dies
July 22nd, 2012
Kottayam: An elephant that suffered serious head injury while being transported in a truck died late last night after writhing in pain for hours at Kumarakom near Kottayam. The tusker, Soman, had his forehead dashed against the cabin of the truck in which it was being carried when the vehicle hit a speed-breaker. The wooden Read more…
Flying elephants a pretty big deal
July 22nd, 2012
SAN ANDREAS – For elephants to fly, you have to do more than load trunks on a plane. Calaveras County’s Pat Derby, co-founder of the Performing Animal Welfare Society, has been working for two years to get three 10,000-pound elephants in the air. The elephants are scheduled to take off Aug. 2 in what could Read more…
Asian elephant at San Diego Zoo euthanized after developing infection
July 20th, 2012
SAN DIEGO (CNS) – One of the two elephants brought to the San Diego in a trade with counterparts in Tucson in February was euthanized due to an infection, the San Diego Zoo announced Friday. “Connie,” an Asian elephant believed to be 45, was put down after a thorough veterinary examination that included specialists, the Read more…
Elephants cause maximum loss of human lives
July 20th, 2012
Man-animal conflicts are common in various parts of the country. In India, wild elephants probably kill far more people than tiger, leopard or lion. But, surprisingly, human conflict involving leopard draws great amount of public attention compared to other animals. Other carnivores – tigers, lions and wolves, which have been known for causing a large Read more…
Jumbo Survey report to be released soon
July 20th, 2012
The comprehensive report on the first national survey of Sri Lanka’s wild elephants will be handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa within next few days. The initial report showed an elephant population of more than 5,800.The survey revealed that Sri Lanka had 5,879 wild elephants including 122 tuskers – male elephants with tusks – and Read more…
Elephant hit by train, battles for life
July 17th, 2012
JORHAT: A female elephant sustained severe injuries after being hit by a train at Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in Jorhat district on Monday evening. Forest officials said the pachyderm is now battling for life. The incident comes barely six days after a jumbo was killed when a train knocked it down in Karbi Anglong district. “A female elephant Read more…
158 elephant tusks in 6 crates seized at Thai airport
July 17th, 2012
Thai customs officials show 158 pieces of seized ivory in six crates during a news conference in Bangkok on Tuesday. (Apichart Weerawong/Associated Press) Thai customs officials have seized 456 kilograms of African ivory — 158 elephant tusks in six crates — at Bangkok’s international airport. Read more…
Lucy the Elephant turns 131; you’re invited to the party
July 17th, 2012
The Skinny: Lucy the Elephant is six stories high and is listed on the National Park Registry of Historical Landmarks. Lucy stands 65 feet high, 60 feet long, and 18 feet wide, weighs about 90 tons, and is made of nearly one million pieces of wood. Lucy, built in 1881, is five years older than the Read more…
Concerns raised over Sri Lankan elephant orphanage
July 16th, 2012
Watch Video> Video footage of tourist-elephant interaction at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka has been released, raising concerns over the herd’s welfare The video shows close tourist interaction with the elephants, which can make the elephants uncomfortable, and the elephants posing for photographs under duress. A mother and her calf are surrounded by Read more…
Two elephants join Phuket migrant labor force
July 16th, 2012
PHUKET: Two young elephants were approved to work in Phuket this week, bringing the total number of registered pachyderms on the island to 190, which is 14 more than the existing limit set by the Provincial Office in 2003. The increase in the number of elephants beyond the set limit was noted during the meeting Read more…
Cruel Exploitation of ‘Captive’ Elephants in Sri Lanka is a National Disgrace
July 15th, 2012
A statement made by the Diyawadana Nilame that the annual peraheras are facing a shortage of tuskers, has irked environmentalists who say no measures have been taken to breed the existing elephants. There are 150 tame elephants in the country. However, the issue of breeding tame elephants and tuskers has taken a backseat as private elephant Read more…
Views clash on what’s best for Manila’s lone elephant
July 15th, 2012
While an animal rights watchdog contends that Manila zoo’s lone elephant is suffering physically and psychologically, her “best friend” has come out to air sentiments to the contrary. The first has managed to internationalize the issue by gaining expressions of support from British rock star Morrisey, American pachyderm expert Henry Richardson, and, just last week, Read more…
African elephants are ‘picky eaters’
July 15th, 2012
Washington, July 15 (ANI): Despite its large size and fast-operating digestive system, the African elephant does not eat just anything, it selectively chooses species and parts of the woody plants that comprise its diet, a new study has revealed. In a new study, researchers have explored the dietary habits of the African elephant and investigated Read more…
Nobody’s Elephant
July 9th, 2012
Animal welfare activists have questioned the chief priest of a temple in Mirigama for illegally keeping a baby elephant released from the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage. Vishva, the baby elephant was given to the Ramanna Nikaya Maha Nayaka Weweldeniya Medhalankara Thera of the Sri Sasanawardhana Pirivena Maha Viharaya in Mirigama on 13 December, 2011 by former Read more…
Upali the elephant unpacks his trunk and says hello to the ladies at Dublin zoo
July 9th, 2012
DUBLIN Zoo is hoping for an elephant baby boom following one of the most anticipated arrivals at the Phoenix Park site for years. Meet Upali. At three metres tall and weighing more than 6,000 kgs – roughly the weight of ten Friesian cows – the 17-year-old Asian bull (adult male) elephant is now the largest Read more…
Efforts to reunite elephant with mother fail
July 8th, 2012
Efforts by the Forest Department to reunite a 15-day-old male elephant calf found abandoned near Anaikattii with its mother have failed. The calf is being fed it with baby food, glucose, tender coconuts, vitamins, and mineral supplements. A team of skilled elephant trackers ventured into the forest to search for its mother and came across Read more…
Bar elephants in rituals, HC urged
July 8th, 2012
A city-based NGO, People for Animals, has moved the AP High Court seeking a bar on lending any elephant from zoological parks and to prohibit use of the animals during Bonalu, Moharram and other religious rituals and processions. Founder-secretary of the organisation Vasanti M. Vadi, urged the court to direct the forest authorities and zoo Read more…
Elephant rescued after six-year ordeal
July 8th, 2012
MADURAI: The ordeal of a couple over the loss of a pet elephant for almost six years came to an end as the elephant was rescued from its trainers by the city police on Friday. It was one among the interesting cases handled by the police department. Lakshmanan from Pandiavellalar Street in Madurai is a Read more…
12yr jail for killing tiger, elephant
July 8th, 2012
Dhaka- Parliament has passed the Wildlife (Protection) Act -2012, mandating 12 years of imprisonment for killing a tiger or an elephant. Junior Minister for land Mostafizur Rahman on behalf of the Environment Minister raised the bill in which 1,307 species of plants and animals have been brought under protection. The bill was raised in parliament Read more…
Longtime Zoo Miami elephant euthanized after illness
July 7th, 2012
Machito, the African elephant who awed Zoo Miami visitors for more than three decades, has died after battling pneumonia for several weeks. Trainers made “the difficult yet humane” decision to euthanize the 32-year-old Machito on Wednesday after weeks of treatment and consultations with top elephant experts from around the world. “This is the first elephant Read more…
Work continuing on National Elephant Center in Fellsmere
July 6th, 2012
FELLSMERE — Well-drilling subcontractors Friday put the finishing touches on a water system that will one day allow up to 36 retired or transient elephants to drink and cool themselves off with their trunks on a 225-acre spread 3 miles north of downtown Fellsmere. “There’s a huge amount of water management going into all this,” Read more…
Rescue captive elephants, rights group asks Govt
July 4th, 2012
New Delhi: An animal rights group Wednesday asked the union environment ministry to step up efforts to rescue captive elephants housed in hideous conditions across the country and take strict action against the guilty. The Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) wrote a letter to Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan pressing for the Read more…
Transfer suffering zoo elephant to sanctuary
July 3rd, 2012
There is now a raging controversy between animal welfare groups and the veterinarians of the Manila Zoo over the fate of Mali, the lone zoo elephant. The animal welfare groups want the elephant transferred to a sanctuary in Thailand because its zoo enclosure is too small and Mali cannot roam as elephants do in the Read more…
Clowns protest elephant conditions at Woodland Park Zoo
July 2nd, 2012
SEATTLE— Seattle police were called to Woodland Park Zoo Sunday morning after a group of protesters dressed in clown costumes blocked access to visitors, said an SPD spokesperson. The clowns were protesting the treatment of the zoo’selephants, police said. They were dressed in””white face paint, clown noses, and brightly colored wigs.” The clowns were reportedly Read more…
Tragic episodes of elephant capture ‘The Khedda’
July 2nd, 2012
Capturing wild elephants, earlier called khedda, was very popular in the erstwhile princely state of Mysore. This event was held to coincide with the visits of members of the British royal families and British Indian officials including Governors and Governor Generals to Mysore state. The khedda operations were conducted by the Forest department which had Read more…
Speeding truck kills one elephant and injures another in Noida
July 1st, 2012
It was a heart-wrenching sight as the carcass of an elephant lay amid a pool of blood hours after it was mowed down by a speeding container truck. Two female elephants were hit by the truck near Noida’s Mahamaya flyover in the early hours of Friday as they were being taken from Delhi Uttar Pradesh Read more…
Govt to curb ivory smuggling
June 30th, 2012
The National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department will list the African elephant as a protected animal under Thai law following widespread smuggling of African elephant tusks. Theerapat: Ivory gets delivered via the post Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, the department’s deputy chief, said it would be the first time Thailand will list a non-local wildlife species as Read more…
Angul boasts of highest number of jumbos
June 30th, 2012
ANGUL: The elephant population in Angul forest circle has gone up to 633 this year from 591 during the 2010 census. The animals were counted in an area of 16,738.65 sq km in Satkosia wildlife division and forest divisions of Angul, Dhenkanal, Athagarh, Cuttack and Athamallik. These areas are under the jurisdiction of Angul forest circle that Read more…
Manila Zoo wants to keep 38-year old elephant
June 26th, 2012
Manila: The manager and veterinarian of the Manila Zoo has argued against an animal rights group and other sectors, saying that its 38-year old elephant should not be sent to the wild or ordered to a retirement house for ageing animals. “Vishwamali or ‘Mali’ is healthy. Her cracked nails and overgrown cuticles could be treated Read more…
Why We Love Music: A Harmonica-Playing Elephant Explains
June 22nd, 2012
People moonlight as musicians, but they may not be the only ones. At the National Zoo, there is someone who recently revealed her secret love of music: Shanthi, the Asian elephant. Elephant keeper Debbie Flinkman says Shanthi loves making sounds. “Shanti is so interested in finding ways to make interesting noises that she will explore her Read more…
Activists closely watching suit over L.A. Zoo’s elephant exhibit
June 20th, 2012
Critics say the space in the zoo’s ‘Elephants of Asia’ exhibit is too small and the ground too hard for its three occupants. City attorneys scoff at the accusations. Billy, a 27-year-old Asian elephant, has spent much of his life at the Los Angeles Zoo. His maladies — including cracked toes and weary joints — Read more…
LA Zoo’s Elephant Is Overweight, Depressed And Sexually Frustrated, Says Lawsuit
June 20th, 2012
Billy the elephant, who has been at the LA Zoo for 23 of his 27 years, is overweight, depressed and sexually frustrated, according to a lawsuit put forth by real estate agent Aaron Leider. The animal rights community is closely watching the long-running lawsuit, which will be heard in court this week and began Monday in downtown Read more…
Navy saves Elephant’s Life
June 19th, 2012
Naval troops attached to SLNS Pandukabhaya of the North-central Naval Command saved the life of an elephant at Kudahalmillewa in Poonewa on 16th June 2012. The elephant had wandered into the village in the night and had fallen into an abandoned agricultural well. Read more…
Four jailed over Neelagiri (Pinnawala elephant) killing
June 18th, 2012
Four Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage employees who were found guilty over the killing of the elephant “Neelagiri” in the orphanage were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and fined Rs. 100,000 each by Kegalle High Court Judge Menaka Wijesundara. The accused had caused fatal injuries to the 19-year-old jumbo by assaulting it with a goad on November Read more…
Hussein’s death blow to elephant breeding programme
June 17th, 2012
An elephant bound for Antwerp Zoo died when it was being loaded into a van in Hamburg in Germany. Hussein was a male elephant and was coming to the Plankendael Animal Park in Mechelen in order to inseminate several female elephants. Plankendael is a subsidiary of Antwerp Zoo. Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp says that Read more…
Jumbo adventure in Mondulkiri
June 15th, 2012
Hidden among dense jungle, tucked in the northeast corner of Cambodia, an Englishman has created a home and a sanctuary for some of the country’s used and abused elephants. Take a road less traveled – indeed one that was only completed a couple of years ago – from Phnom Penh to Mondulkiri and Jack Highwood, Read more…
Sri Lanka holds mass baby elephant christening
June 11th, 2012
COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main elephant orphanage staged its biggest mass christening on Sunday by naming 15 baby elephants born in captivity, an official said. Thirteen babies born last year and two in 2010 were given names chosen from among thousands suggested by visitors to the Pinnawala orphanage, director Nihal Senaratne said. ‘An astrologer Read more…
County Board backs ban on elephant performances at Alliant Center
June 8th, 2012
Circuses and other attractions that use elephants for entertainment would no longer be welcome at the Alliant Energy Center under an ordinance the Dane County Board approved Thursday night that bans new contracts for performances with the animals. Animal rights advocates have said such shows are inhumane and abusive to elephants. Broadway Bo, Read more…
Elephant Ivory Stockpile Sales Help Create a Deadly New Currency in China
June 4th, 2012
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — In a world of economic uncertainty, elephant ivory has become a new investment vehicle in China, which coincides with an extraordinary surge in the number of elephants being killed for their ivory. A new ivory market investigation report released Monday by the International Fund Read more…
Four Sumatran elephants found dead in Indonesia
June 2nd, 2012
A handout photo taken by a village official on September 22, 2011 shows a dead Sumatran elephant after its tusk was forcibly removed, in Aceh Jaya district, Aceh province located in western Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Image by: AFP PHOTO / CONSERVATION RESPONSE UNIT Four Sumatran elephants have been found dead in Indonesia’s Aceh province, a local Read more…
Impressive elephant exhibit opens at Denver Zoo
June 1st, 2012
DENVER – The $50-million, state-of-the-art exhibit for Asian elephants, Malayan tapirs and greater one-horned rhinos has opened for animal enthusiasts at the Denver Zoo. Visitors can see elephants taking a dip in the water and gibbons flying through the air. The new exhibit has six huge yards, three animal crossings and water for animals to Read more…
French’s crusade for baby elephant
May 31st, 2012
Bona, an orphaned two-year-old Sumatran Elephant. HERVEY Bay animal crusader Amanda French has called on the Fraser Coast to help save a baby elephant in a campaign that took her all the way to Sumatra. Ms French is part of a team of three Queenslanders out to save Bona, an orphaned two-year-old Sumatran Elephant who Read more…
GPS satellite helping scientists track endangered Asian elephants
May 29th, 2012
Developers and poachers know no limits when it comes to the Asian elephant. This gargantuan mammal has been losing ground in its fight to survive. Not only is this creature prized for its tusks, but it has lost its natural habitat as new settlements, roads and crops increasingly pop up. Making things even worse is Read more…
Radio collar project to track elephants fails
May 27th, 2012
COIMBATORE: Hardly ten months after a 20-year-old female member of an elephant herd was fitted with a GPS (Gloabal Positioning System) enabled Radio Collar at Boluvampatty forest range near Thondamuthur here to study movement and behaviour of the gentle giants, Forest Department and experts from World Wide Fund (WWF) have initiated a massive search in Read more…
Elephant calf dies of sunstroke
May 24th, 2012
BARIPADA: Dry water bodies and shortage of water in the forest areas of the northern parts of Odisha have left the animals hungry for water. Falling pray to the rising temperature was a one-year-old elephant calf. Sources said the jumbo calf was found dead in the buffer zone of Similipal forest. Forest officials suspected intestinal Read more…
Sri Lanka customs seize 1.5 tons of elephant tusks
May 23rd, 2012
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA Sri Lankan customs officials say they have seized about 1.5 tons of elephant tusks in the largest ever such seizure in the country. Udaya Liyanage, a customs official, says the tusks were being transported through the capital, Colombo, in a container that arrived from Kenya and was bound for Dubai. The container Read more…
Elephant kills villager in Koraput
May 18th, 2012
KORAPUT: A tribal was trampled to death by an elephant in Koraput’s Narenga village. The incident took place when the victim, Chaitanya Muduli (37), was returning from his field on Tuesday evening. He was confronted by a herd of eight elephants. Though he tried to escape, he failed and died on the spot. “Muduli died Read more…
Two Elephants Chained and Kept in Isolation at Pinnawala
May 18th, 2012
Cruelty to two elephants at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphange is a cause of concern for animal rights activits. It has transpired that the elephants have been subjected to severe cruelty by their mahouts during a training program. These two particular animals had been separated form the herd, chained, and kept in isolation. Environmentalists claim that Mihiri who Read more…
Elephant sanctuary to set up in Sri Lanka North Central Province
May 15th, 2012
May 15, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government is to set up a sanctuary in the Anuradhapura District of the North Central Province as part of its elephant conservation programme. Wild Life and Agrarian Services Minister S.M. Chandrasena says the government is to establish the sanctuary at a cost of Rs. 250 million. The sanctuary is Read more…
Child killed as elephants run amok at Kerala temple
May 14th, 2012
Thiruvananthapuram: One child was killed and nearly 60 people injured, many of them seriously, when three elephants lined up for the aarattu (the holy bath of the presiding deity), ran amok at Koodalmanikkom temple near Thrissur. The aarattu is a ritual which marks the end of the 10-day annual festival at the temple, The incident comes close Read more…
Slideshow: Sneak peek at Denver Zoo’s new Elephant Passage
May 14th, 2012
DENVER – On Saturday, May 12, thousands of people got a sneak peek into the Denver Zoo’s largest and most ambitious project in its history. Guests got a first look at the $50 million, state-of-the-art exhibit for Asian elephants and 15 other species. The facility the first in the world designed to house up to Read more…
French nationals injured on safari ride
May 14th, 2012
Five French Nationals on a Habarana Elephant Safari were admitted to the Habarana Hospital after falling from the elephant they were riding. A hospital spokesman said four of them left the hospital as they had minor injuries while another was still getting treatment as his condition was serious. They had fallen from the elephant as Read more…
Elephant processions, percussion orchestras mark Kerala festivals
May 13th, 2012
Kavassery: Frenzied mass participation characterises annual temple festivals in Kerala that invariably include colourful processions of richly caparisoned elephants and panchavadyam (orchestra) by a combination of percussion instruments. Other highlights of the February-May festivals – known as pooram, arattu, vela or kummatti in different places – are spectacular fireworks displays at night and puja and Read more…
Rhinos and elephants act as ‘gardeners’ of tropical forests
May 13th, 2012
WASHINGTON: The progressive disappearance of seed-dispersing animals like elephants and rhinoceroses is putting the structural integrity and biodiversity of the tropical forest of southeast Asia at risk, researchers have warned. With the help of Spanish researchers, an international team of experts has confirmed that not even herbivores like tapirs can replace them. “Megaherbivores act as Read more…
Injured elephant shifted to rescue centre in Junnar
May 11th, 2012
The photograph of an injured elephant lying unattended, which was widely circulated in the media, has not only gained sympathy from animal lovers across the city but also managed to get the authorities into action. On Thursday, more than 50 people, including volunteers and officials from various departments, gathered at the site at Nigdi near Read more…
PHOTOS: 2-day old elephant presented at Berlin Zoo
May 10th, 2012
A baby Asian elephant was exploring his enclosure at Tierpark Berlin zoo on May 10, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The male elephant calf, who does not have a name yet, weighs 102kg and is 91cm tall. A baby Asian elephant was exploring his enclosure at Tierpark Berlin zoo on May 10, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. Read more…
Zoo caretakers consume alcohol bought to ‘calm down’ elephants
May 10th, 2012
ISLAMABAD: Elephant caretakers at Marghazar Zoo had claimed that they used alcohol to “calm down elephants during their mating season”, but the elephants never consumed any of the alcohol purchased. According to Express News correspondent Haider Naseem, it was found in an investigation that the elephant caretakers had been demanding alcohol supply to the zoo since 1992, however, it Read more…
Rocker Morrissey asks Filipino president to free elephant
May 10th, 2012
The former singer for The Smiths argues that Mali the elephant, in captivity since 1980, leads a life of ‘extreme loneliness, boredom and isolation. CAGED UP: Children flock around the enclosure of 37-year-old elephant Mali at Manila Zoo. (Photo: Jay Directo/AFP) MANILA — Rock icon Morrissey called on Philippine President Benigno Aquino on May 10, Read more…
Do elephants and whales predict tsunamis?
May 6th, 2012
The agitated bull elephant with tusks was seemingly leading me and my family to safety away from the sea and a possible tsunami. It was 7.20 a.m, several hours before a tsunami alert was issued at 2.30 p.m. on April 11, 2012 by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. I was on a game drive with Read more…
Elephant calf dies
May 6th, 2012
A female elephant, which was part of a herd that killed three persons recently at Tiruvannamalai, today delivered a calf but the baby died as its mother ran in panic with the umbilical cord intact after villagers burst crackers, forest officials said. Officials said the herd, comprising five female elephants and two male, are in a Read more…
WWF Indonesia calls for probe into elephant death
May 4th, 2012
Environmental organisation WWF called on the government Wednesday to investigate the death of a critically endangered Sumatran elephant allegedly poisoned at an Indonesian oil palm plantation. The body of a rare Sumatran elephant lies on road along a palm oil plantation in Aceh Jaya in Aceh province on May 1. Environmental organisation WWF called on Read more…
Shanthi Makes Musical Debut
May 4th, 2012
When the elephant keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo hear the sound of a harmonica, it’s not the radio they’ve left on. Instead, it’s the Zoo’s 36-year-old Asian elephant, Shanthi, who, unsolicited, has a propensity for coming up with her own ditties using whatever instruments the keepers have provided. This includes harmonicas, horns and other Read more…
Zoo staff under radar after elephant dies ‘mysteriously’
May 2nd, 2012
Caretaker of female elephant ‘Saheli’ weeps at Margazar Zoo in Islamabad. – Photo by Online ISLAMABAD: Performances of mahouts and veterinary staff of the Capital Development Authority were questioned after the death of a 20-year-old female elephant at Margazar Zoo on Tuesday. It is being alleged that ‘Saheli,’ the female elephant, was poisoned or given Read more…
Holding back elephants with electric fences
May 1st, 2012
VietNamNet Bridge – The Dong Nai provincial Natural Reserve is installing an electric system to prevent elephants from entering residential quarters to damage farm crops. However, analysts believe that this should not be a long term solution. The wild elephants in the sanctuary with the total area of 100,000 hectares are facing high dangers: the Read more…
Sumatran elephant found poisoned in Indonesia
May 1st, 2012
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) – A ranger says an endangered Sumatran elephant has died in a palm oil plantation in western Indonesia, apparently after being poisoned by villagers trying to protect their crops. Fewer than 3,000 of the animals are left in the wild and environmentalists warn they could be extinct within three decades unless Read more…
No mates for Burma the elephant
April 25th, 2012
AMANDA BEST/Fairfax NZ Burma, the elephant at Auckland Zoo, will be alone for at least another year while the hunt to find friends for her continues. The search is taking longer than planned. The 29-year-old Asian elephant has been the zoo’s only elephant for almost three years since her companion Kashin died in 2009. Auckland Read more…
Zoo to say goodbye to Asian elephants
April 19th, 2012
The Calgary zoo says they will be moving their Asian elephants to another facility, saying their facility is too small and doesn’t have enough year-round space. The Calgary Zoo has made the decision to move their group of Asian elephants within four to five years to a facility with more year round space. The move Read more…
Training Program for Mahouts at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
April 16th, 2012
An exclusive training programme for Sri Lankan Mahouts was launched by the government for the first time on 3 April. The first ever such programme was held at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage. The training program is aimed at minimizing or ending cruelty to elephants caused by mahouts. According to government sources this is the first Read more…
Tusker dies in fight over female elephant
April 15th, 2012
Jalpaiguri: A tusker was killed when it got into a fight with another tusker reportedly over the possession of a female elephant at the Buxa Tiger Reserve on Friday night. The carcass of the tusker was found on Saturday. Foresters believe that the tuskers saw a female elephant at Compartment No. 5 in Poro beat Read more…
Elephant struck by thunderbolt
April 14th, 2012
An elephant belonging to the Kotte Rajamaha Viharaya has been killed yesterday after being struck by lightening sources said. The Police confirmed that they had received information regarding the incident. According to our source the mahout of the elephant had taken the elephant to his house in Ingiriya in order to observe religious rituals as Read more…
See the Elephant Face on Mars
April 11th, 2012
A lava flow in Mars’ Elysium Planitia region takes on the appearance of an elephant in this picture from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captured on March 19 and released April 4. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured an elephant on Mars — well, actually, it’s an elephant-shaped lava flow in Elysium Read more…
Long-awaited elephant baby dies
April 11th, 2012
Long-awaited elephant baby dies The first baby elephant to be born at Leipzig zoo in a decade died on Monday morning shortly after the birth. Keepers said they were “saddened and disappointed” by the death, after the excitement surrounding the pregnancy of first time mum, 26-year-old Asian elephant Hoa. Hoa, who keepers at the Saxony Read more…
Honolulu Zoo Accreditation Renewed, includes new elephant enclosure
April 10th, 2012
The following information is provided by the City & County of Honolulu: Mayor Peter Carlisle today announced that the Honolulu Zoo’s accreditation has been renewed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the nation’s leading accrediting organization for zoos and aquariums. The AZA accredits only institutions that have achieved rigorous standards for animal care, Read more…
Elephants hunt for Easter eggs at the Knoxville Zoo
April 8th, 2012
Easter egg hunts aren’t only for children. The elephants at the Knoxville Zoo took part in their own version of an Easter egg hunt, Sunday. It didn’t take long for the elephants to scoop them up with their trunks. Zoo keepers say they were careful about what kind of treats they hid in the eggs. “Most of the eggs are Read more…
Oregon Zoo prepares to celebrate half a century with its most beloved elephant, Packy
April 7th, 2012
RANDY L. RASMUSSEN/The OregonianPacky has watched nearly 50 years tick by at the Oregon Zoo. For the 50th time, faithful readers, the story begins like this: On July 19, 1960, Belle and Thonglaw did what birds, bees and Asian elephants do. Eighteen months later, while the pair was ensconced in Portland’s zoo, their secret slipped out: Read more…
Elephant Sanctuary Coming to Florida, USA
April 6th, 2012
FELLSMERE — Some 75 federal, state and local officials, along with elephant-care professionals and Fellsmere residents, converged Wednesday on the National Elephant Center’s future site to help its officials break ground. “This is the greatest step made for elephants in my 36 (career) years,” center Executive Director John Lehnhardt said, his voice catching. Lehnhardt recalled Read more…
Swiss Boutique 27 supports Bona
April 6th, 2012
Swiss trendy shoe company has decided to ‘chip in’ and help a two year old orphaned Sumatran elephant named Bona. Bona was found in March 2012, caught in a snare in a palm oil plantation. The little elephant was alone, injured and malnourished. Luckily, she was brought to the Seblat Elephant Conservation Center in Bengkulu Read more…
Urgent donations needed to help orphaned baby Bona
April 6th, 2012
Elemotion Foundation joins Elephant E-ctivism, EARS Asia organization, and other elephant supporters to raise fund for a Sumatran orphan… From elephant E-ectivism: “In Sumatra, a two-year- old orphan elephant named Bona needs our help. Her condition is poor and urgent supplements are required to keep her alive without her mother. Please help us to help Read more…
The elephant walk- Resolving Human Elephant Conflict
April 4th, 2012
Special ArrangementElephants at a tea estate in Valparai Photo: R. Ganesh, NCF M. Ananda Kumar of Nature Conservation Foundation has found ways to deal with human-elephant conflict in Valparai. Akila Kannadasan reports What happens when an unsuspecting herd of elephants encounters human beings? “It’s a shock to both the sides,” says M. Ananda Kumar, a Read more…
Spaniard fighting for his life after Baby the elephant crushed him in Cork circus
April 2nd, 2012
A Spanish circus worker is fighting for his life in a Cork hospital after runaway elephant Baby crushed him. New details have emerged of the horrific incident at Courtney’s Circus on Saturday. Baby, the elephant who hit the headlines worldwide when she ran away from the circus last week, accidentally crushed Justino Munez as he Read more…
Electric fence is no solution to human-elephant conflict
April 2nd, 2012
Surrounded by thick forests, reserves and national parks, Chamarajanagar has had its share of human-elephant conflicts (HECs) during the elephant migration periods. In the fringe areas of Chamarajanagar’s 11 taluks, HECs have become frequent and too dangerous for both elephants and human beings. “These man-animal conflicts in my constituency have led to a loss of Read more…
Elephant rescued from 36-feet pit after three days
March 30th, 2012
COIMBATORE: A cow elephant trapped in a 36 feet pit in the Periyanaickenpalayam forest range for three days was rescued on Thursday. The spot is not accessible by vehicles as it is located on a hillock at Perumal Mudi. It can be reached only on foot after trekking up about four kms through the forest. M Nazir, Read more…
Elephant heads to shopping mall after escaping circus
March 30th, 2012
Shoppers in Ireland got a large surprise when a 5,500 pound elephant ran away from her circus and wandered around a parking lot. Drivers called police on Tuesday after seeing the 40-year-old animal – called ‘Baby’ – wandering between cars parked outside stores in a suburb of Cork, according to a report in the Irish Examiner. Read more…
Kerala forest department issues ID cards for tamed elephants
March 29th, 2012
Thrissur (Kerala), Mar.29 (ANI): Officials from the Conservator of Forests and Wildlife in Kerala have issued identity cards for domesticated elephants. These cards depict the pachyderms’ photographs and information about physical appearances alongside details of their mahouts and owners, including the temples. With this programme, Kerala has become the first state in India to have Read more…
Who will speak for Lucy the elephant?
March 29th, 2012
Lucy, a 35-year-old Asian elephant, was captured as a baby in Sri Lanka in 1977 and has been captive at the Edmonton Valley Zoo ever since. For 18 years, she had the company of an African elephant named Samantha, but in 2007, Samantha was sent to another zoo on a long-term breeding loan. Lucy now Read more…
Africa- Elephant rescues baby from hyenas
March 29th, 2012
Kicking off … elephant charges the hyenas James Weis / BNPS THIS is the moment a protective mother elephant fought off a pack of savage hyenas attacking her calf. During the bloody encounter with up to 18 hyenas the vulnerable baby – who had been momentarily separated from the herd -had its tail BITTEN OFF. Victim Read more…
Accusations fly over poor health of seized elephants
March 28th, 2012
Blame for the death of one elephant and the poor health of 15 others confiscated from an elephant park is being passed between the park operators and state officials. Operators of the Saiyok Elephant Park in Kanchanaburi’s Sai Yok district insist the animals were healthy when they were seized by authorities, while state vet Sittidet Read more…
Psychologist Says Elephants Suffer Post-Traumatic Stress
March 27th, 2012
African elephant in Masai Mara National Park. Kenya. Africa (Kike Calvo via AP Images) Since mid-January, poachers have killed as many as 200 of the free-roaming elephants in Bouba Ndjida National Park in northern Cameroon. Although sales are banned in most countries, a growing demand for elephants’ ivory tusks is behind the slaughter. The poachers Read more…
Loss of stillborn baby elephant saddens staff at Twycross Zoo
March 26th, 2012
Keepers and staff at Twycross Zoo in Warwickshire in mourning after the death of the newborn Asian elephant calf. In the early hours of Sunday, March 25, Tara went into labour and delivered a stillborn female calf at 3.00am. Elephant at Twycross Zoo Keepers and a vet team had converged at Twycross to help Read more…
Human-elephant Conflict In Southwestern India
March 24th, 2012
Human-wildlife conflict is a rapidly expanding area of research, with conservationists working hard to understand the circumstances under which tensions are highest between people and their wild animal neighbors. A number of factors contribute to rate and intensity of conflict, including population densities of both humans and wildlife, habitat structure, weather, time of year, and Read more…
In reply to the official statement of DNP to embassies worldwide
March 24th, 2012
After one month of sending letters and questions raised by supporters of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) and Elephant Nature Park (ENP) to Thai embassies around the world, with numerous stories on local television in Thailand and on international TV the Department of National Parks has come out with an official reply to concerned citizen, Read more…
WFFT’s confiscated wild animals die at the hands of DNP negligence!
March 20th, 2012
March 20th, 2012 – Bangkok, Petchaburi, Lampang Reports that 2 gibbons and 1 elephant have died at the hands of incompetent officials of the Department of National Parks (DNP) have been basically confirmed by staff at the Lampang elephant conservation center and a wildlife-breeding center of the DNP in Ratchaburi. Although the DNP has been Read more…
LOVE BRAND & Co. Endeavours to save the Asian elephant from extinction with? Elephant Family?
March 19th, 2012
Love Brand & Co., the brainchild of young London designer Oliver Tomalin, the new socially responsible lifestyle brand, set up only last year, plans to expand through a series of ready-to-wear products, each intrinsically dedicated to a relevant charity. The first, ‘Trunks for Trunks’ (swimming trunks for endangered Asian elephants) inspired and motivated by the Read more…
Elephants checked at sites in Phuket
March 18th, 2012
Police from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division have confirmed that 27 out of 37 elephants seized from elephant camps in Phuket for inspection have the same identity as that stated in their official papers. Police seized the 37 elephants from four camps for inspection on February 27. Of the 27 “confirmed” elephants, Read more…
Elephants in need of help
March 17th, 2012
Although ceremonies were held around the country this week to mark National Elephant Day and pay respect to our national symbol, they were not the joyous occasions they should have been. Blame that on the dawning realisation that elephants in the wild are being so badly treated they are in serious danger of becoming extinct. Read more…
Phuket baby elephant probe hinges on DNA maternity tests
March 17th, 2012
A tourist feeds ‘Popeye’, one of the baby elephants seized in the raids last month. Photo: Atchaa Khamlo PHUKET: Officers who led the raids on three elephant camps in Phuket late last month are back on the island to continue their investigation into whether all the elephants at all three camps were legally obtained. The investigation focuses Read more…
Army vets treat injured wild elephant
March 16th, 2012
New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) Army veterinary doctors in Assam recently performed the difficult task of successfully treating an adult wild elephant after it pierced its foot with a six-inch long glass shrapnel. The Advance Field Veterinary Hospital (AFVH) in Misamari regularly helps the ailing animals brought there by forest officials and villagers. Recently the Read more…
Sri Lanka to confine wild elephants in a kraal in North Central Province
March 15th, 2012
Mar 15, Colombo: In a measure to minimize human-elephant conflict, the Sri Lankan government plans to establish a Wild Elephant Confinement Centre in the North Central Province. The Cabinet of Ministers, acting on a proposal submitted by the Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Agrarian Services and Wildlife Minister S.M. Chandrasena, has approved the establishment Read more…
Russian and Korean Researchers Will Inject Mammoth DNA Into Elephant Eggs, Resurrecting 10,000-Year-Old Beast
March 14th, 2012
Woolly Mammoth Recreation Wikimedia Commons First a plant from the past sprouted new life — now researchers in Russia and South Korea are moving forward with a plan to resurrect the Ice Age woolly mammoth. Scientists in both countries inked a deal Tuesday to share technology and research that could lead to the birth of a mammoth clone, Read more…
Recent wildlife seizures open lid on burgeoning industry
March 12th, 2012
Authorities suspect corruption among officials helps smugglers. A series of large hauls of live and dead wild animals _ and especially tigers _ over the past two months has blown the lid off the illegal wildlife trade and unlicensed breeding of exotic animals in Thailand. Pol Maj GenNarasak Hemnithi, chief of the Natural Resources and Read more…
Furore intensifies over elephant trade in Thailand
March 12th, 2012
Repeated government raids on respected wildlife sanctuaries have damaged Thailand’s image at home and abroad. They may also have undermined the position of the National Parks chief, whose judgment has been called into serious question since revelations that killings of mature elephants in Kaeng Krachan recently were orchestrated to supply babies to elephant tourist Read more…
Lawrence Anthony, Baghdad Zoo Savior, Dies at 61
March 11th, 2012
Suki Dhanda Lawrence Anthony in South Africa in 2009. He helped set up game reserves to protect animals. Lawrence Anthony, who abandoned a career in insurance and real estate to play Noah to the world’s endangered species, most spectacularly in rushing to the smoldering Baghdad Zoo after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, died Read more…
Elephants using ‘survival’ corridor
March 11th, 2012
The Japanese students pose with the elephant’s footprints as evidence of the newly established corridor being used by the elephants in their migratory movements. KOTA KINABALU: The fragmentation of the forest habitats is one of the key challenges to ensure the survival of the Bornean elephants in Sabah. The ‘Melapi elephant corridor’ in Sukau has Read more…
Elephants say goodbye to the whisperer
March 11th, 2012
The elephants at Thula Thula make their way to say goodbye to Lawrence Anthony, the man they loved. According to his son, the elephant herds arrived en masse and waited around the house for two days this week. Pictures: Supplied. For 12 hours the huge beasts slowly made their way through the Zululand bush Read more…
Wild elephants get free meals
March 10th, 2012
Free “canteens” have been set up for wild elephants to reduce the friction with villagers caused by their return to the improved environment of Pu’er in Southwest China’s Yunnan province, said Shen Peiping, Party chief of Pu’er. A free canteen was set up last year on an abandoned 20 hectares in Pu’er’s Mengkuang village, where Read more…
The elephant whisperer whispers no more
March 10th, 2012
Lawrence Anthony, who has died aged 61, was a South African conservationist, known as “The Elephant Whisperer”, and made world headlines in 2003 when he arrived in war-torn Baghdad to rescue the animals in Saddam Hussein’s zoo. In his native South Africa, Anthony was a key figure in promoting the concept of joining tribal lands Read more…
SAFARI PARK ELEPHANTS ARRIVE AT TUCSON ZOO
March 10th, 2012
The last of the five African elephants that San Diego Zoo Safari Park had agreed to send to a Tucson zoo arrived safely this week. The latest arrival at Reid Park Zoo consisted of Litsemba, a female African, and her calves, 5-year-old Impunga and 1-year-old Sundzu. Last month, the Tucson zoo took delivery of the Read more…
Jada Pinkett Smith supports circus elephants
March 10th, 2012
MARYLAND — Jada Pinkett Smith is speaking out against the abuse of elephants in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus shows. As the show heads for her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, Pinkett Smith expressed concern about protecting the elephants from the Baltimore-banned practice of using bullhooks. In a letter to the Mayor, Pinkett Smith emphasizes how important Read more…
Born Free- Mihiri Campaign
March 8th, 2012
A seven year old elephant at the Pinnewala Elephant ‘Orphanage’ in Sri Lanka has recently been seen with multiple wounds to her legs and head, believed to be caused by a brutal training regime. The young female Mihiri was born at the facility in 2005, and has always lived there. Photos taken on Wednesday 29th Read more…
Elephant conservation projects remain on… paper
March 6th, 2012
VietNamNet Bridge – An action plan to conserve elephants in Nghe An, Dak Lak and Dong Nai was approved by the Prime Minister six years ago, in 2006. However, no considerable progress has been made so far. Local authorities slow in taking actions The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said that the elephant Read more…
Bloodhounds used to sniff out people killing elephants for ivory
March 5th, 2012
Faced with a huge increase in elephants being killed for their tusks, governments and wildlife groups have been looking for new ways to stem the massacre. Africa’s oldest national park on Monday said it had begun using a new tool to track down poachers: bloodhounds. While the suspects in one killing got away, Virunga National Park said Read more…
(Vietnam) Scientists say elephants seriously endangered
March 5th, 2012
VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam has been well known as a country with many elephants that can be found throughout the country. However, big international conservation organizations have repeatedly given warnings that elephants are in danger of extinction. One of the biggest threats to the life of elephants is the conflict between elephants and local residents. Read more…
Causes and Correlates of Calf Mortality in Captive Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)
March 3rd, 2012
Juvenile mortality is a key factor influencing population growth rate in density-independent, predation-free, well-managed captive populations. Currently at least a quarter of all Asian elephants live in captivity, but both the wild and captive populations are unsustainable with the present fertility and calf mortality rates. Despite the need for detailed data on calf mortality to Read more…
Video, Lek Chailert speaks about recent raid, Feb. 28th, 2012
February 29th, 2012
Watch Video>
Message from ‘Lek’ about another raid today at ENP, including an arrest warrant
February 28th, 2012
Dear Friends and supporters Elephant Nature would like to inform you again about the Department of National Parks (DNP) raideat Elephant Nature Park. On 06 February I asked the department why we had been raided and was told by the official that they had a hotline call reporting that Elephant Nature Park has 70 wild Read more…
Two baby elephants seized in Phuket
February 28th, 2012
PHUKET: — Two baby elephants seized in Phuket today will be sent to an elephant reserve in the Northern Thailand province of Lampang. Meanwhile, investigators are continuing their probe into whether three elephant camps near Phuket’s Big Buddha image are encroaching on protected forest land. The transfer of the two baby male elephants – Popeye Read more…
500 elephants killed in Cameroon park
February 27th, 2012
Bouba Ndjida, Cameroon - “As of today we estimate that 480 elephants have been slaughtered in our park,” said Mathieu Fometa of the Bouba Ndjida National Park in northern Cameroon, near the border with Chad, where the animals roam freely. “Formally, we did count 458 carcasses,” he said, but he cautioned that “these figures may be Read more…
Scientists uncover oldest ever elephant tracks. . . perfectly preserved after seven million years
February 26th, 2012
Trudging across the desert, this is how an elephant herd would have looked seven million years ago. Scientists were able to recreate the scene in stunning detail after discovering the oldest ever set of footprints from when these animals roamed the Earth. And they have worked out that the ancient creatures – which were around Read more…
Three arrested for illegally possessing elephant meat and ivory
February 23rd, 2012
Three people have been arrested for purchasing elephant meat and ivory from poachers who allegedly hunted the pachyderms in Phetchaburi province’s Kaeng Krachan national park. Police arrested Manoon Ruengworraset, his son Withoon, and Panya Samranphis for possessing carcasses of protected animals without permission, after a raid at their homes turned up several organs of elephants, Read more…
Animal Activist: Intimidation won’t shut me up
February 19th, 2012
Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand director Edwin Wiek says his exposure of powerful figures involved in the illegal elephant trade led to him being harassed and his wife arrested, but he refuses to remain silent. I have been under pressure before, but _ well this is just incredible,” says Edwin Wiek, a Dutchman who has dedicated Read more…
Two held in killing of wild elephant in Phetchaburi; ivory buyer sought
February 19th, 2012
Phetchaburi police have asked the provincial court for permission to detain without bail two suspects accused of killing an elephant in Kaeng Krachan National Park while they search for the person who hired them and the intended buyer of the elephant’s ivory and other parts. After a 9am press conference at police headquarters, suspected wild-elephant Read more…
Poachers Kill 200 Elephants During Six-Week Spree in Cameroon
February 18th, 2012
Poachers have killed more than 200 elephants in Cameroon in just six weeks, in a “massacre” fuelled by Asian demand for ivory. YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Poachers have killed more than 200 elephants in Cameroon in just six weeks, in a “massacre” fuelled by Asian demand for ivory. A local government official said heavily armed poachers Read more…
Activist says 60-70 parks staff raided his house
February 17th, 2012
A wildlife activist has claimed dozens of national park officials raided his home for no proper reason and harassed his family. Edwin Wiek, founder and secretary-general of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), said 60 to 70 officials of the National Park, Wildlife and Plants Conservation Division raided his home at 11am on Monday. Mr Read more…
Thai officials raid wildlife sanctuary
February 17th, 2012
Animals are seized at a raid at the Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand (credit: wfft) Officials from Thailand’s National Park, Wildlife and Plants Conservation Division have raided a wildlife sanctuary and seized rescued animals. The raid is part of an ongoing series of actions that seems to be targeting NGO’s – especially those who are campaigning against poaching and Read more…
Letter from Elemotion Foundation concerning elephant sanctuary ‘raids’
February 17th, 2012
In light of the developing story concerning the raids of two wildlife rescue establishments, Elemotion Foundation would like to express its support for Elephant Nature Park (ENP) and Wildlife Friends of Thailand (WFFT). On Wednesday, February 8th, ENP was inundated by as many as 100 government officials on false claims of harboring wild elephants and Read more…
Judge blocks Fulton elephant bullhook ban in Atlanta
February 14th, 2012
The circus is coming to Atlanta, and the troupe will bring its elephant bullhooks with it. Phil Skinner, pskinner@ajc.comRichard Miron (center), from Marietta, holds up sign supporting a ban on elephant bullhooks before the Fulton County Commission meeting on June 1, 2011. A Fulton Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday that blocks Read more…
Elephants strike terror in Pathanamthitta, Palakkad
February 13th, 2012
Two elephants ran amok in Palakkad district and another in Pathanamthitta during temple festivals on Sunday. Four persons were injured in Palakkad, while in Pathanamthitta, the elephant damaged two vehicles and uprooted trees. The pachyderm, Narayanankutty, ran amok at the annual ‘parackezhunnellippu’ ceremony of the Puthenkavumala Mahadevar temple, at Nellad, near Vallamkulam, in Pathanamthitta at Read more…
Injured elephant given mercy killing in Jaipur
February 12th, 2012
The nation may not have legalised euthanasia (mercy killing) for humans but in a first of its kind incident in the state, an elephant was given mercy killing in Jaipur. The female elephant Sita was down after she broke one of her legs and seeing her pathetic condition the wild life department granted permission for Read more…
Do speedy elephants walk or run?
February 12th, 2012
With their awkward, lumbering gait, elephants moving at high speed are not the most graceful of animals – but are they walking or running? Now scientists believe they have an answer: new research confirms that they do both – at the same time. By observing elephants moving across a hi-tech track, the team found the Read more…
From Africa: Elephant Killing
February 12th, 2012
WARNING: Disturbing images. I received a very disturbing call this morning from Rodrigue, the Sector warden for the Rwindi area. An elephant was killed during the night by poachers on the main road to Goma. He immediately went in with a section of rangers and launched an investigation. The elephant was shot eight time, Read more…
Tiger skins and elephant tusks seized
February 11th, 2012
PETALING JAYA – Tiger skins and elephant ivory tusks were among wildlife parts seized by the Wildlife and Natural Parks Department (Perhilitan) in a successful bust. A team of 12 Perhilitan officers from Kedah raided two houses in Mukim Tokai, Pendang, and Kota Sarang Semut, Kota Setar at around 3.15am yesterday. The team seized eight Read more…
Top Ten Worst Zoos For Elephants
February 10th, 2012
In Defense of Animals released its 8th annual list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants. Their advocacy for elephants in zoos has called attention to the suffering many of these magnificent creatures endure. Zoos were rated in three categories: lack of space for elephants to roam, unsuitably cold climates and unnatural living conditions. “IDA’s Ten Read more…
6-week-old lone elephant calf dies in Zimbabwe
February 10th, 2012
(AP) HARARE, Zimbabwe — Conservationists in Zimbabwe said Wednesday round-the-clock efforts to save a baby elephant, separated from his mother on a busy highway, have failed. The six-week-old calf who has been hand fed for three weeks has died, apparently from pneumonia. Conservation expert Gordon Putterill said that elephants are notoriously difficult to hand rear, Read more…
Elephant picture explains mystery of ‘leaking jacuzzi’
February 10th, 2012
A mystery “leak” draining a jacuzzi in South Africa has been explained after tourists caught an elephant drinking from the pool. An elephant nicknamed Troublesome is snapped taking a drink from the pool at Etali Safari Lodge, South Africa. Susan Potgieter, owner of the lodge, said: “When I first saw the photograph of her drinking Read more…
Pygmy elephant calf rescued in Borneo
February 10th, 2012
Malaysian wildlife authorities said they had rescued a pygmy elephant calf on Borneo island and expressed hope a planned sanctuary would provide protection for the endangered animals. A pygmy elephant calf on Borneo island, in Malaysia’s Sabah state. Malaysian wildlife authorities said they had rescued a pygmy elephant calf on Borneo island and expressed hope Read more…
TAT to promote elephant-back wedding for Valentine’s Day
February 8th, 2012
SURIN, 7 February 2012 – The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is set to promote the wedding ceremony on elephant back, which will be held in Surin province on Valentine’s Day, to become a world-class attraction of Thailand. TAT Northeastern Region Office Director Pattamat Wongpattanasiri stated that the TAT will join forces with the Surin Read more…
Tokyo zoo celebrates Asian elephant Hanako’s 65th birthday
February 6th, 2012
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Inokashira Park Zoo in western Tokyo held an event Sunday to mark the 65th birthday of Japan’s oldest Asian elephant, Hanako. A Thai Embassy envoy and mayors of two local cities took part in a ceremony while around 350 visitors joined zoo staff in celebrating. Hanako is now the fifth oldest elephant Read more…
New ID cards planned to protect elephants
February 5th, 2012
BANGKOK: — A new type of identity card should be issued for elephants, which should have embedded microchips, an updated photograph every six months and an updated record of every unique change, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said yesterday. The proposal will be taken to the Interior Ministry, and if it is okayed, permission Read more…
Elephant Took 24 Million Generations To Get Huge, Evolution Study Says
February 5th, 2012
How long did it take evolution to turn a mouse-sized mammal into one the size of an elephant? A thousand generations? A million? Actually, it’s 24 million generations. That’s the “speed limit” of large-scale evolution, according to a team of biologists and paleontologists at Australia’s Monash University. Their research, based on the fossil record and Read more…
It takes 3 to make elephants happy at zoos
February 4th, 2012
To retain accreditation, U.S. facilities will need to meet new standards. Fewer U.S. zoos of the future may have elephants but those that do would have happier animals under a new policy requiring American zoos with two elephants to add space for a third in case one dies. Starting in 2016, the Association of Zoos Read more…
Sombo Retires thanks to EarsAsia
January 30th, 2012
A new life for Sombo! A decision was reached for all parties concerned and Sombo starts her new life on a beautiful plot of land on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. On Monday 30th January 2012, Louise Rogerson from EARS, Mr Sin Sorn’s son and their mahout, walked Sombo throughout the night when the roads were Read more…
Cambodia’s star elephant retires
January 30th, 2012
Phnom Penh – Cambodia’s best-known elephant has retired following a campaign to get her medical attention, media reports said Monday. Sambo, aged 52, is a familiar sight in Phnom Penh, where she provides regular rides to tourists through the city streets. The pachyderm has now retired after 30 years in the capital, The Cambodia Daily Read more…
How elephants cool off at night
January 28th, 2012
Great photo report from BBC Nature. View Photos>
Preecha: We can’t act over elephants
January 28th, 2012
The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry will not act on a request to remove elephants from the list of transport animals, minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk said yesterday. He said the issue concerns other ministries and his ministry has no authority to interfere. The list is supervised by the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry’s Livestock Department. Mr Preecha Read more…
Thailand to build DNA database to protect elephants
January 27th, 2012
Thailand Natural Resources and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk has vowed to solve within a year issues related to Thailand’s elephants. Preecha planned to build a DNA database on 4,000 or so domesticated elephants in order to stop people taking over identity papers of deceased pachyderms and replacing them with elephants taken in the wild. After Read more…
The elephant who got a contact lens after twig poked her eye during Zoo scuffle
January 26th, 2012
An Asian elephant has been given back her sight – and become the first in Europe to be fitted with a contact lens. Win Thida, 44, was injured in a scuffle with a fellow elephant at Amsterdam’s Artis Zoo when she was poked in her left eye by a twig. Dutch vet Anne-Marie Verbruggen was Read more…
AP Exclusive: New practice of eating elephant meat in Thailand adds to extinction threat
January 26th, 2012
BANGKOK — A new taste for eating elephant meat — everything from trunks to sex organs — has emerged in Thailand and could pose a new threat to the survival of the species. Wildlife officials told The Associated Press that they were alerted to the practice after finding two elephants slaughtered last month in Read more…
55th birthday for Perth Zoo’s Tricia the elephant
January 25th, 2012
TRICIA is 55 years old, her favourite fruits include watermelons and bananas, and she enjoys long walks around Perth Zoo. Tricia the Asian elephant has celebrated her milestone birthday with a 1.5m fruit and bran cake, decorated with tree branches. She first arrived in Perth from Singapore in 1963 and is the longest resident at Read more…
Elephant herd grieves for baby who died of a heart defect
January 24th, 2012
This is the moving moment a grieving herd of elephants said their goodbyes to a little calf who tragically died of a serious heart defect. Baby Lola was due to be the world’s first elephant to have heart surgery to remove a blood clot. Read more…
KC Zoo’s oldest elephant, Penney, dies at 51
January 24th, 2012
FILE PHOTO Penney enjoying a cooling treat one summer Penney, the Kansas City Zoo’s oldest elephant at age 51, died this morning, the zoo announced in a statement today. Despite her advanced age, Penney had no health problems other than arthritis, the zoo’s statement said. An African elephant, Penney was born in the wild. She Read more…
Sumatran Elephant Now Critically Endangered, WWF Says
January 24th, 2012
The Sumatran elephant subspecies is now listed as critically endangered, WWF says, after losing nearly 70 percent of its habitat and half its population in one generation. AsianScientist (Jan. 3, 2012) – An immediate moratorium on habitat conversion is needed to secure a future for Sumatran elephants, conservation organization WWF says. The Sumatran elephant subspecies Elephas maximus Read more…
Elephant-trapping trenches draw flak
January 23rd, 2012
Environmentalists are upset with the Forest department for digging trenches to keep wild elephants at bay at the Kallar jungles, an elephant corridor in the Nilgiris foothills bordering Metupalayam on the south. Stating that digging the trenches along the Ooty NH at Kallar was not scientific and that the Forest department was only looking for Read more…
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage at Stake
January 22nd, 2012
Environmentalists claim the future of the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is at stake as many elephants are being sold or donated to private parties. This claim was made at a joint press conference hosted by several environmental organisations at the National Library auditorium on Wednesday (18). Speaking at the press conference, Sajeewa Chamikara of the Environment Read more…
Munich baby elephant dies before operation
January 22nd, 2012
A three-month old elephant at a zoo in Munich died on Saturday of a pulmonary embolism, just before she was due to receive a heart surgery for a congenital defect. Lola would have become the first elephant in the world to have the surgery, a complicated operation planned by a team of vets and Read more…
Abandoned baby elephant rescued
January 22nd, 2012
An abandoned male baby elephant, believed to be a few weeks old, was rescued by the Sabah Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Rescue Unit at a plantation, about 40 kilometres from the Lahad Datu town, on Saturday. Dr Diana Ramirez (second right) and her team of Wildlife Rescue Unit rangers performing a medical examination and feeding Read more…
Chief says Karen not poaching elephants or bribing officials
January 20th, 2012
The chief of Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan district denied yesterday there was any need for Karen people to bribe officials, after a senior official’s comment that Karen poachers were trying to smuggle elephants to get money to pay for identity cards. Sutthipong Tanboonyasiridech dismissed the bribery comment made by Damrong Pidech, chief of the Department of Read more…
Park workers did not break law, boss says
January 18th, 2012
The National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department director-general insists his five subordinates who burned elephant carcasses and extracted their tusks did not break the law. On Saturday, police arrested four of five suspects, all of whom are employees of Kaeng Krachan National Park. They are Surin Maikaew, Mana Nokkaew, Jinda Phuangmalai and Phol Thomya. Read more…
Row erupts over mystery of elephant deaths
January 15th, 2012
The brutal slaying of wild elephants in Kaeng Krachan National Park has taken a nasty turn with five officials suspected of being involved. At least five elephants were killed last month but so far only two carcasses have been found _ one was a young male and the other was also a male aged about Read more…
Lonely elephant ‘could die of sadness’
January 14th, 2012
The only elephant in Barcelona zoo could die of sadness unless she is moved to a bigger enclosure with other elephants, animal rights campaigners have warned. Susi the elephant at the Barcelona Zoo in Spain Photo: AP Susi, a 36-year-old African elephant cow who was born in the wild on the African savannah, has reportedly been Read more…
5 park officials wanted for poaching elephants
January 14th, 2012
PHETCHABURI: Police have issued warrants for the arrest of five national park officials suspected of being involved in elephant poaching in Kaeng Krachan National Park in the province. Five elephants were recently found shot dead and their carcasses burnt in the park. Police are investigating whether some state officials are involved in the killings of Read more…
Sabu, 29-year-old Asian bull elephant, dies
January 13th, 2012
SAN ANDREAS, Calif. – Sabu, a 29-year-old Asian bull elephant, has died at a Northern California wildlife sanctuary. The nonprofit Performing Animal Welfare Society or PAWS said in a statement Friday that Sabu collapsed in his sleeping stall Wednesday at the ARK 2000 sanctuary in San Andreas. The organization says preliminary results from a necropsy determined Sabu’s Read more…
Conservationist wins Polish award for work with elephants
January 10th, 2012
A Poland-based foundation has given an award to a Thai activist who founded a nursery for disabled or injured elephants in Chiang Mai, the Thai embassy in Warsaw said yesterday. In its citation for granting the Good Deed Award to Saengduen Chailert, Fundacji Zacny Uczynek said the Elephant Nature Park in Mae Taeng district had Read more…
Malaysia seizes half a tonne of ivory
January 9th, 2012
Malaysian Customs Department in Port Klang has seized close to half a tonne of ivory exported from Cape Town, South Africa; the third ivory seizure at this port in just over six months. Malaysia was listed as the final destination, making this an unusual development, as in all previous large ivory seizures in Malaysian ports, Read more…
Peta FactSheet: Elephant Incidents in the US
January 9th, 2012
The following is a partial listing of dangerous incidents involving captive elephants in the United States since 1990. These incidents have resulted in 15 human deaths and more than 135 injuries to humans. Contact PETA for documentation. January 14, 2011/Knoxville, Tennessee: A keeper at the Knoxville Zoo was crushed against a wall by an 8,000-pound African Read more…
Elephant Runs Amok
January 9th, 2012
TRIPUNITHURA: Tension prevailed as an elephant, brought for a festival, ran amok across the town for around one-and-a-half hours, in the Sunday afternoon. Thottakkaattu Ramachandran, brought to Kannankulangara as a standby for the festival, ran from Kannankulangara to the crowded Statue Junction, before running towards Tripunithura Junction. “The tusker got frightened as the crowd followed Read more…
Where have all the Elephants gone…
January 8th, 2012
Research Update from the Sri Lankan Wildlife Conservation Society: It was the second week of October 2011 and we were beginning to feel that something has drastically changed in the area that we call the Tree Hut Corridor. Normally on any given day we could guarantee that there would be elephants by the tree hut from Read more…
Thai elephant killed, mutilated ‘for restaurants’
January 6th, 2012
BANGKOK – Thai wildlife officials on Thursday said body parts from a dead wild elephant found without its tusks, tail and penis were likely destined for restaurants in tourist areas. The creature, which was discovered in Kaeng Krachan National Park near the Myanmar border in central Thailand on Monday, is believed to have died at Read more…
Two elephants euthanized at San Diego Zoo
January 6th, 2012
Two ailing and aged elephants at the San Diego Zoo had to be euthanized this week, zoo officials announced Friday. The two Asian elephants were suffering and their chances for recovery were virtually nil, officials said. Cha Cha, estimated to be 43 years old, was euthanized Wednesday. To allow other elephants to see her a final time, Read more…
Elephant tramples forest employee to death
January 4th, 2012
A driver of forest department was trampled to death by a wild elephant at Gulusuguda forest in Orissa’s Sundargarh district, officials said on Wednesday. Chief Conservator of Forests, Rourkela, Subash Chandra Swain said a squad from Sundargarh went to Birtola village under Sundargarh sadar police limit on getting information that villagers spotted a herd of Read more…
Close the barn door before the elephant arrives
January 3rd, 2012
In many Asian cultures, the elephant is a symbol of wisdom. Moving a single elephant to a barn in Hope, Maine, would be a symbol of stupidity. Jim Laurita, a veterinarian, has built a steel building with a concrete floor on his property in Knox County and hopes to acquire Rosie, a 42-year-old circus elephant suffering Read more…
Paignton Zoo elephant Duchess recovering after eye surgery
January 2nd, 2012
Duchess has the eye conditions glaucoma and cataracts An elephant in a south Devon zoo is recovering well after receiving surgery to remove an eye. Paignton Zoo’s four tonne African elephant Duchess became the first in the UK to undergo the operation. Duchess had been plagued by pain after glaucoma and cataracts had left her Read more…
This keeper should remember that elephants never forget.
January 1st, 2012
Zookeepers in Germany appear to have come up with a novel way of getting reluctant baby elephants to behave. These pictures, which some may find disturbing, show a young man dragging a resistant calf by the trunk to get it on to the weighing scales for a check-up at Wuppertal Zoo in Germany. Uli is Read more…
Elephant calf falls to death
December 31st, 2011
A 2-year-old calf, which came in a herd of 60 elephants, fell accidentally into irrigation well and died near Hosur on Friday. Forest officials said that the male calf along with 60 other elephants strayed into a field in a village near Hosur. It accidentally fell into the 20-feet well, which had no water. Though Read more…
Efforts to help save elephants end in failure
December 29th, 2011
DONG NAI – Half of the wild elephants in Dong Nai Province have been wiped out in recent years, despite steps taken by the Prime Minister to save them. A project that he initiated five years ago to provide them with sanctuary in three “elephant” provinces by the year 2010 failed to get underway in Read more…
Elephants Increasingly At Risk Of Extinction, Group Says
December 29th, 2011
JOHANNESBURG — It’s been a disastrous year for elephants, perhaps the worst since ivory sales were banned in 1989 to save the world’s largest land animals from extinction, the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said Thursday. A record number of large seizures of elephant tusks represents at least 2,500 dead animals and shows that organized Read more…
Elephant’s sixth ‘toe’ discovered
December 26th, 2011
A mysterious bony growth found in elephants’ feet is actually a sixth “toe”, scientists report. For more than 300 years, the structure has puzzled researchers, but this study suggests that it helps to support elephants’ colossal weight. Fossils reveal that this “pre-digit” evolved about 40 million years ago, at a point when early elephants became Read more…
She’s having a ball! Anne the elephant…
December 24th, 2011
She’s having a ball! Anne the elephant beaten and stabbed by sadistic keeper, enjoys Christmas sanctuary paid for by big-hearted Daily Mail readers There aren’t many humans of her age who would still be up for a game of football on a grey December day. But 59-year-old Anne the elephant is enjoying a magical new Read more…
San Diego elephant fatally attacked by another elephant, necropsy shows
December 22nd, 2011
Umoya, a 21-year-old female African elephant with two calves, died after ‘aggressive interaction’ with another elephant at San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Umoya, center, a female African elephant, was found dead Nov. 17 at San Diego… (San Diego Zoo Safari Park) Reporting from San Diego — A postmortem examination has confirmed that Umoya, a 21-year-old Read more…
The Elephant in the Room: How Contraception Could Save Future Elephants from Culling
December 22nd, 2011
In South Africa they have a problem, a big one: too many elephants. For most of the 1900s extensive poaching threatened to wipe out the country’s elephants. In response, conservationists established reserves throughout the region and relocated as many herds as they could. Now those herds are doing quite well. So well, in fact, that Read more…
Elephant electrocuted
December 21st, 2011
Erode (TN), Dec 22 (PTI) A female elephant was electrocuted near a village in Sathyamangalam forests, the second such incident in over a week, officials said today. The carcass of the 15-year-old pachyderm was found yesterday near a farmer”s land in Pudupeerkadavu village where banana crops were being cultivated. The farmer had put up an Read more…
Goods train mows downs 7 elephants
December 18th, 2011
JALPAIGURI: A goods train speeding at 70kmph through the Dooars, large tracts of which are a go-slow zone, ploughed into a herd of elephants on a clear, moonlit night, killing seven of them – the highest number of elephant deaths in a single railway accident in the country. What became immediately clear within hours of Read more…
Malaysia seizes hundreds of African elephant tusks
December 13th, 2011
Malaysian authorities say they have seized hundreds of African elephant tusks worth 4 million ringgit ($1.3 million) that were being shipped to Cambodia. Customs official Azis Yacub says inspectors at Port Klang harbor found the tusks hidden in containers of handicrafts from Kenya’s Mombasa port. The shipment was headed for Cambodia’s beach resort area of Read more…
Zimbabwe keen to sell elephants to reduce overpopulation: official
December 13th, 2011
HARARE, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) — Zimbabwe is keen to sell some of its elephants to reduce over population, a senior wildlife official said on Monday. Zimbabwe has excess elephants estimated at around 100,000 and selling of the animals to other countries would significantly help the country reduce the numbers to manageable levels, Parks and Wildlife Read more…
Thailand a hub for growing illegal ivory trade
December 4th, 2011
ELEPHANT-SIZE LOOPHOLES SUSTAIN THAI IVORY TRADE June 2009. Legal loopholes and insufficient law enforcement mean that Thailand continues to harbour the largest illegal ivory market in Asia, says a new report from the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. The report also raises concerns that legal provisions governing trade in domesticated elephants are providing cover for illegal trade Read more…
Physical Evidence Of Elephant Intelligence
December 1st, 2011
The old adage that an elephant never forgets may be exactly that, an adage. But sometimes there is a grain of truth in tired bromides. Elephants have long been regarded as intelligent animals and there is evidence that elephant intelligence is on equal footing with many of the higher mammals. Elephants, for example, exhibit many Read more…
German tourist fatally injured after falling from elephant’s back
November 30th, 2011
Krabi – A German woman has been fatally injured after she and her husband fell from an elephant’s back during a ride on a forest track in this southern province. Police said the accident happened in Tambon Krabinoi in Krabi’s Mueang district at 6 pm on Tuesday. Police said Kertstin Kretz Schmar, 42, died at Read more…
Paul barton hauls a piano up Thailand mountain to play Beethoven to blind elephants
November 28th, 2011
Source: The Daily Telegraph A MAN has hauled a piano up a mountain in Thailand to play Beethoven for blind elephants. Paul Barton performed the inspiring feat at the Kanchanaburi reserve in order to raise money for the disabled animals. The 50-year-old Briton, who moved to Asia with his wife in 1995, said that performing for the elephants Read more…
Pregnant elephant shot dead in Nagarahole
November 26th, 2011
Range Forest officer Kiran suspected that elephant may have strayed into Penjalli division in search of food and fell victim to farmers’ bullet. He further said the elephant was spotted in the morning behind a school built for the children of Nagapura tribes. “Since the classes were on, we did not chase it to the Read more…
Elephant Dies at San Diego Zoo Safari Park
November 18th, 2011
Sad news from San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park: One of its African elephants has died after an apparent fight. According to the North County Times, our media partner, 21-year old Umoya was found lying on the ground before the park opened Wednesday. Umoya had severe injuries and couldn’t get up according to a zoo spokesperson. Read more…
Animals stay put at Safari World, Zoo management sure evacuation unnecessary
November 8th, 2011
One of the country’s largest zoos, Safari World, has rejected a proposal to evacuate wildlife from the flooded site, saying “the deluge is under control”. Safari World Plc founder and chief executive Pin Kewkacha said yesterday there was no need to seek assistance from authorities. The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation earlier Read more…
Another elephant killed by train, herd blocks track
November 6th, 2011
JALPAIGURI: A sub-adult female elephant was killed after being hit by the speeding Ranchi-bound Guwahati-Ranchi Express at the railway track that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar Junction railway stations on Saturday evening. To protest against the death of the jumbo, other elephants of the herd blocked the track for more than an hour. The Read more…
Wild Asian elephant kills villager in SW China
November 6th, 2011
KUNMING – A villager was killed by a wild Asian elephant in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture in Southwest Yunnan province, the local government said on Sunday. Local police confirmed the death of Cao Xiaoer, a resident of Xinshan village in the prefecture, was caused by a wild elephant, said a statement issued by the prefecture Read more…
Dusit Zoo puts evacuation plan in place
November 4th, 2011
The zoo, which is on Rama V Road, is currently home to 250 species with 1,200 animals spread over 118 rai of land. The authority has prepared sandbags to block the water at the doors of the animals’ cages as well as food for about two weeks. Water in ponds in the zoo compound had Read more…
Elephant Tarra Mourns Bella the Dog
November 1st, 2011
You may have heard about the odd couple in Tennessee. Yes, the YouTube sensation from a few years ago that seemed to keep re-entering your inbox from everyone who knows your email address. Bella, a stray dog and Tarra, a retired Asian elephant who live at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee became best buds. They were considered Read more…
Elephant returns to his enclosure
October 31st, 2011
A 45-year-old elephant which was pushed by another into the empty moat surrounding their enclosure at Emmen zoo on Sunday climbed out of his own accord in the early hours of Monday morning, the zoo authorities said. Thousands of visitors were evacuated from the park after the elephant, named Radza, fell into the ditch, because Read more…
U.S. Court Turns Blind Eye To Circus Abuse
October 29th, 2011
CIRCUS ELEPHANTS) While Global Animals around the world have taken a stance against circus elephant abuse, a recent federal court ruling has turned a blind eye to the lives of circus animals. The U.S. Court of Appeals again dismissed a lawsuit brought by animal activists against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for mistreatment of Read more…
Elephant gives birth after a two year pregnancy – the longest ever recorded at a British zoo
October 28th, 2011
Elephants are notorious for their long memories, but now they will be renowned for their lengthy pregnancies. Long-suffering Asian elephant Azizah was carrying her baby for 700 days – 84 longer than the average – and finally gave birth at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire, last Tuesday. It is believed to be the longest pregnancy ever Read more…
Toronto Zoo elephants to be sent to sanctuary
October 26th, 2011
Toronto city council voted late Tuesday to send its three elephants to a sanctuary in California. The motion was backed by Coun. Michelle Berardinetti, who feared the elephants would be moved to another enclosed space instead of the sanctuary, which she said has more than 30 hectares of roaming space. The motion passed by a Read more…
Circus elephant tramples 11-year-old girl to death in Vietnam
October 21st, 2011
msnbc.com staff and news service reports updated 10/17/2011 7:27:41 AM ET HANOI, Vietnam — A circus elephant trampled to death a girl who was attempting to feed it, police in Vietnam said Monday. Police officer Pham Ngoc Tien of Lao Cai province said the elephant was part of a troupe from Hanoi on a 10-day tour of the Read more…
Jumbos get food delivery
October 14th, 2011
The Lampang-based National Elephant Institute (NEI) has sent two truckloads of food to more than 70 hungry elephants in Ayutthaya province. The elephants, used for tourist rides in historical parks at Wang Chang Ayutthaya Lae Paniat elephant centre in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, are facing a food shortage after farms supplying feed were left under Read more…
The great escape: ‘Arrested’ Indian elephant freed in dawn raid on police compound
October 10th, 2011
An arrested elephant was freed by Wildlife officials after a last-minute court order was granted to free him from police custody. Bull elephant Bhola, 35-year-old was injured and had been remanded by police in Loni, India, on Saturday, October 30, after attempts to move the creature into a neighbouring state. Kartick Satinarayan, co-founder of the Read more…
Dramatic rescue of blind elephant Bhola after years of abuse in Delhi
October 10th, 2011
FOLLOWING years of horrific cruelty, elephant Bhola is happy again – thanks to help from British vets. The five-tonne bull was regularly whipped and beaten with an iron rod by his owners. It left him sightless – blind in one eye, with a cataract in the other. He was made to walk for hours on Read more…
At last, Anne the elephant’s suffering could be over as Whipsnade Zoo offers her a home
September 19th, 2011
Brian Blessed takes protest against use of wild animals in circuses to Downing Street Hopes were rising last night that Anne the circus elephant could be freed from her cruel captivity within days. A specialist vet from Whipsnade Zoo and RSPCA officers were allowed to visit Anne to check her over after shocking secret footage Read more…
Mahout faints while riding elephant, 108 emergency officials get him off
September 16th, 2011
In a bizarre incident, a man sitting on an elephant was stoned by some children in Memnagar for no known reason. The man fainted on the elephant itself. What, however, followed was a scene that resembled a comedy Bollywood flick. The officials of 108 emergency service had to use two ambulances to get the man Read more…
Flood-hit elephants evacuated
September 14th, 2011
More than 100 elephants in Ayutthaya were quickly evacuated to safer locations after a sudden rise in the water levels of the Lop Buri and Pa Sak rivers. Elephant camp manager Itthipan Kaolamai said on Monday water from both rivers surged into Wang Chang in tambon Suan Prik, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district. The water Read more…
Hunters Can’t Bring Elephant Corpses to U.S.
September 1st, 2011
WASHINGTON (CN) – Americans who hunted and killed endangered African elephants in Zambia cannot bring trophies of their prey back home, a federal judge ruled. “Plaintiffs paid a princely sum for the opportunity to shoot African elephants in Zambia and then they wanted to import the animals’ corpses back to the United States,” Chief U.S. Read more…
Indian army rescues elephant trapped in a water tank
August 13th, 2011
Soldiers in India have used a bulldozer to rescue a young wild elephant that was trapped in a water tank inside a military area. The three-year-old elephant was only able to clamber out of the sunken pit when the digger destroyed some of the tank’s surrounding wall. A group of elephants were crossing the area Read more…
