Changing the World, One Elephant at a Timeby Amy Mayers, Communications for Change, for Elephant Aid International
The visionary behind The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is fomenting a quiet revolution in elephant care in Asia.
Carol Buckley, who co-founded The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, has taken her work to the global stage with her new organization, Elephant Aid International (EAI).
After 15 years as CEO of the Sanctuary, Carol decided to put her extensive knowledge and expertise to work for elephants around the world. In 2009, she founded EAI to broaden her work of educating people about elephants and helping elephants.
Carol’s philosophy: small changes can make a huge difference in the lives of elephants.
Carol teaching mahouts in Nepal–courtesy Elephant Aid International
Combining her wealth of experience observing elephant behavior, designing management systems that enable caregivers to ensure that elephants receive the best care possible under humane conditions and her keen insight into meeting the needs of elephants confined in captivity, Carol’s collaboration with veterinarians, field researchers and behaviorists is a formidable catalyst for change.
EAI’s approach in Asia, which starts with accepting the current realities of the lives of working elephants and existing methods of elephant care, has shown that change is possible even within a culture with centuries of embedded traditions.
Nepal: Chain-free means pain-free
Elephants in Asia traditionally are shackled in heavy, painful leg chains when they are not working. Confined in one spot for many hours, able to move only a few inches in any direction, elephants develop repetitive stereotypic behaviors such as bobbing and swaying.
Chained elephant in Nepal–courtesy Elephant Aid International
In 2013, EAI and Nepal’s largest environmental non-governmental organization, the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), completed Asia’s first 100 percent solar powered chain-free hattisar (elephant stable). Six captive-held Asian elephants, who collectively had lived more than 150 years shackled in chains, were set free to roam their spacious forested mini-sanctuaries equipped with state-of-the-art custom designed fencing.
Impressed with the success of the project, the government of Nepal formally invited EAI to revolutionize the country’s centuries-old elephant management system.
EAI designed and built 63 one-acre chain-free corrals at 15 hattisars located throughout Chitwan National Park, where 63 government elephants who work on anti-poaching patrols had lived for decades, shackled in chains.
Regardless of how many years they have spent in chains, every elephant—young or old, sick or healthy, aggressive or compliant, tusker or female—responds in the same positive way. As soon as they step out of their shackles, they revert to natural behaviors, dusting, scratching on trees and foraging. They are calm and comfortable; they know their corral is their safe haven.
In April 2015, with the project complete, Nepal became the first country in Asia who government has freed its elephants from chains.
India: First chain-free enclosure for a zoo
Sunder and family in India–courtesy Elephant Aid International
In May 2014, after a seven-year international campaign led by PETA India, India’s Supreme Court ordered the rescue of a badly abused bull named Sunder.
Sunder is a 15-year-old wild-caught elephant bull who spent six solitary years abused and neglected as a temple elephant.
In June 2014, Sunder was moved to the Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), which is located in Bannerghatta National Park in Bangalore (Bengaluru).
PETA India and BBP asked EAI to design and build a 122-acre chain-free enclosure—the first at any zoo in India—for Sunder and the 14-member family he joined at the park.
The 122 acres have all the desired components for captive elephants: open pasture, shaded forests and ponds. The elephants are free to roam and play during the day and at night have access to the adjoining national park forest for foraging and exploration.
In a first for Asia, EAI designed an emergency corral inside the enclosure to humanely contain a bull elephant in musth [a period of aggression in male elephants usually connected with the rutting season]. The corral is constructed of steel pipes and covers nearly one acre of land, with plenty of natural vegetation. The goal is to never have to use the corral but, in the event containment becomes necessary, the bull will remain chain free.
Compassionate elephant care
In addition to designing innovative facilities, Carol developed and teaches Compassionate Elephant Care (CEC), a system of caring for and training captive elephants without punishment and infliction of pain.
Traditionally, mahouts (elephant trainers) are indoctrinated in the belief that elephants must be controlled through dominance. CEC gives mahouts new skills to care for elephants humanely.
By focusing on positive reinforcement and healthy relationship building, CEC benefits the elephant while enhancing the status of the mahout with tourists concerned for the elephant’s well being.
The CEC method uses sound learning theory to teach behavior modification, combining academic instruction in areas such as elephant biology, physiology and psychology, with hands-on tutoring.
Foot care: Vital for elephant health
Doing a foot trim in Thailand, 2011–courtesy Elephant Aid International
Foot health is a vital concern for elephants living in captivity. Inactivity, poor husbandry practices, too much time spent standing and walking on unnaturally hard surfaces such as pavement and concrete can cause thin, uneven and bruised foot pads and cracked nails, leading to infection and osteomyelitis (a terminal disease that causes the toe bones to deteriorate).
EAI provides pedicures for captive-held elephants and trains mahouts in proper foot care to support overall health and prevent osteomyelitis.
Improving elephant welfare standards in Nepal
tourist safari rides, Nepal–courtesy Elephant Aid International
In 2014, EAI successfully petitioned the government of Nepal to end its elephant-back safaris.
Elephants are not designed anatomically to carry weight on their back. The howdah (saddle) they wear to carry safari riders rubs against their spine, causing huge subcutaneous abscesses that are difficult to heal.
After EAI documented the injuries elephants sustain during safaris, the government also created new guidelines for safaris run by private companies. The guidelines limit the number of hours elephants can work in a day and the number of safaris they can provide, and set a mandatory retirement age of 70.
Next: A new sanctuary for the U.S.
In 2014, EAI launched a search for land on which to create a new elephant sanctuary in the U.S.
Neither existing accredited sanctuary can take in additional elephants without expanding their facilities or staff capacities. As a result, elephants waiting for rescue languish in less than suitable situations for extended periods of time or are not rescued at all.
Using lessons learned by both U.S. sanctuaries, Carol’s experience in Asia and scientific knowledge gained over the past half-century about the needs of captive elephants, EAI will create a new generation of sanctuaries that will take elephant welfare to its next level.
Under Carol’s stewardship, the new sanctuary will provide rescue and rehabilitation for elephants in an elegantly simple and sustainable format and continue her mission of raising awareness of the lives of all elephants in captivity.
A center for research, teaching and learning
The sanctuary will also continue to contribute to the growing body of knowledge about captive elephant welfare through non-invasive, observational research and educational outreach.
And EAI will continue to be a positive influence for elephants in Asia by providing hands-on internships for mahouts.
Carol teaching mahouts in Nepal–courtesy Elephant Aid International
Partnering with Asian universities and governments, the sanctuary will host mahouts who want to increase their knowledge and learn new ways of working with elephants. The participants will combine study with hands-on experience, learning science-based elephant management techniques without the use of dominance and abuse.
When they return home, armed with polished skills and a new-found confidence, these mahouts will teach their peers, hastening change and creating new traditions in elephant care culture.
The future
Many challenges remain for elephants in captivity in the U.S. and around the world. But there are encouraging signs.
In 2013, EAI introduced what was then a novel concept in Asia: chain-free enclosures. By 2015, chain free had gone mainstream. Today, throughout Asia building chain-free enclosures is a real alternative to traditional methods
Here at home in the U.S., a new sanctuary led by Carol will bring renewed momentum to efforts to rescue elephants from zoos, circuses and private owners.
Just as a pebble tossed into a still pond makes ripples far beyond its small size, Carol and EAI will continue to have a major impact on the lives of elephants in captivity around the world.