New Sanctuary Will Give A New Home to Retired Logging Elephants

FOUR PAWS International is developing an incredible, expansive elephant sanctuary in Myanmar. This centre will allow elephants formerly used for labour or tourist activities to retire, living the rest of their lives in peace and comfort.

Myanmar contains around 2,000 wild elephants and around 6,000 working elephants, most of whom are used in the timber trade. In order to protect Myanmar’s dwindling forests, new environmental regulations were introduced, leading to reforms in the logging industry which resulted in ‘unemployment’ for many of these animals. As a consequence, an estimated 1,000 elephants are no longer needed for industry and are destined to wind up dead or used in cruel tourist attractions.

“It’s harsh, but for their owners, these elephants are now useless and a financial burden. The animals are therefore killed or sold into the tourism industry,” said Dr Amir Khalil, veterinarian for FOUR PAWS. “These magnificent, endangered animals do not deserve death or an equally cruel career change. At our first elephant sanctuary, the animals can recover from the exertions of their past and, ideally be reintroduced to the wild.”

FOUR PAWS has a solution for this problem. They have started creating Elephant’s Lake, a sanctuary area covering 6,880 acres of land. When complete, it will be one of the largest elephant sanctuaries in Southeast Asia and a new home for former logging, orphaned or injured elephants, starting from the end of 2018.

A press release from Four Paws states that: “The goal of Elephant’s Lake’s comprehensive rehabilitation program is to bring together new prides and subsequently release the animals into the adjacent North Zar Ma Yi Forest Reserve. If this is not possible, the elephants will remain at the sanctuary for the rest of their lives.”

Early this year, Myanmar published the first-ever Myanmar Elephant Conservation Plan (MECAP). Produced in coordination with many renowned wildlife advocacy groups, the document outlines policies that will ensure the survival of elephants in the country over the next century.


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Winkabaw Camp needs milk for orphaned baby elephants

If you decide to go on a weekend excursion to Winkabaw Elephant Orphanage Camp in Bago Region, it would greatly help bringing along a pack or two of milk powder for its voracious baby pachyderm residents, a senior camp official appealed.

U Myint Soe, officer in charge of Winkabaw Elephant Camp told The Myanmar Times last week, that his seven wards each consumes between two to three bags of milk powder daily.

“There are no regular donations. We just receive K1000 to K4000 per day. And if you ask whether donations (of milk powder) could be used, I’d say they are always needed,” said U Myint Soe.

“The calves must be protected and cared like orphan kids,” he added.

Since opening last year, it has cared for seven orphaned baby elephants, of which two are domesticated and five are wild. Because they need to be fed milk powder, a donation box has been placed at the camp for donations, U Myint Soe said.

“They (baby elephants) are marked with numbers. No.1 needs 3 bags of 600 grammes a day. Others need 2 bags. A 600g milk powder bag costs around K10,000 and K16,000 for 800g,” he said.

Among its seven wards, two were domestic ones and arrived at the camp after their mother died and the five wild ones just escaped from the hands of elephant poachers in Ayeyarwady Region.

Five attendants take care of the seven orphans in the camp and although there is no difficulty in taking care of the calves, it is necessary to be careful as they can’t be hurt, according to U Myint Soe.

Aside from the orphan baby elephants, there are more than 10 elephants in Winkabaw.

Winkabaw Elephant Camp opened in 2016 and is located at Bayargyi-Bawnakgyi Road, 22.5 kilometres north of Bago and about 6.5 kilometres west of Bayargyi township.

“Most baby elephants were left at the camp after their mothers were killed and they cannot live like a normal wild elephants. So, we have to take care as much as we can. When they are adults they can find their own food but we need to train them to stay naturally,’’ said Dr Myo Min Aung, a veterinarian.’’

Visitors can closely watch how the baby elephants are being taken cared by their attendants.

“During school days, about 20 to 30 people visit the orphanage but during holidays, hundreds of people come here,” U Myint soe said.

The camp is open daily from 7am to 6pm. Those who want to visit can contact 09-431 216 47, 09-778 132 360 and 09-250 90 80.

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Wingabaw receives another baby elephant

Yet another orphaned elephant has arrived at Wingabaw Elephant Camp, located in Bago Region.

The recently orphaned 5 months old baby elephant, nicknamed “Pan Nu May” which loosely translates into “flower girl”, is the fourth orphan the elephant preservation camp had taken in.

Pan Nu May’s mother had passed away from old age but the other three baby elephants weren’t so lucky with their parents having been hunted down by poachers.

“The latest baby elephant amongst us is Pan Nu May, and she’s from Dawei. It has been around two weeks since her mother died. There is one called Mary, named so because she came to us on Christmas Day, and she was found amongst a pack of cattle in Ayeyawady Region. Poachers got to her mother and skinned the poor creature. Another elephant called Ayeyarmay was given to us by a farmer couple who had taken care of her since she was found alone and lost in the forest. The last one, Yu Yu Htay, was sent to us from Nay Pyi Taw when the mother died from stomach flu. We have to rely on milk powder because all four are still at a milking age,” said a Wingabaw Elephant Camp staff member.

Wingabaw opened in November 2016 and now attracts around 400 visitors per week.

Locals pay Ks 5,000 for entry, while foreigners pay Ks 20,000.

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