We need an elephant thread.
Braving rain, anxious spectators who are mostly Noen Maprang villagers cheered aloud after park officials and rescue workers successfully pulled a 10-year old wild elephant from Klong Chompoo after it was stranded in strong current for more than 26 hours.
Rescue workers and park officials managed to tie a rope and a sling over the obviously exhausted pachyderm and pulled it up from the klong with the help of a backhoe at about 1pm on Wednesday (Oct 18).
The elephant was swept away by flash flood on Tuesday and trapped in a canal at Thung Salaeng Luang National Park.
Veterinarians quickly administered saline fluid and vitamin to the weakened elephant as it was allowed to rest on the muddy bank next to Klong Chompoo in Tambon Chompoo, Noen Maprang district of Phitsanulok.
The elephant was too weak to stand by itself and it was discovered that its right hind leg sustained wounds. After being administered with saline fluid and vitamin, its condition improved.
Officials tied a rope around the body of the elephant and tried to make it stand up with the help of the backhoe to prevent the wounds from getting worse. They are expecting the arrival of an elephant expert from the Elephant Conservation Centre from Lampang.
Quarky, Rivo, Ian Forbes and 1 others like this.
TARA, the 15-year-old elephant, that caught the headlines on social and print media after being pulled from a canal in Phitsanulok province, arrived at an elephant hospital in Lampang province yesterday morning.
The male elephant’s hind legs were injured after it was swept away by floods and got stuck in the canal for about 26 hours. A veterinarian said its chance of survival was 50-50 if he was unable to stand. The journey from Phitsanulok to Lampang took about 10 hours. He was taken to Pang Mae Wang, a nature site, about one kilometre from the elephant hospital.
Tara appeared to be tired when he arrived at 5am. The vet team used two backhoes to lift him from the truck at 7am and the process was slow because of his weight and injured legs. The work ended at 10am.
Due to Tara’s condition, the vets used bunches of rice straws to support its rear and began giving it saline water. Dr Taweepoke Taweepoke, a vet at the hospital, said that the team is now doing its best to enable the elephant to stand by itself again. “The healing process is now starting but we cannot say when it will recover, depending on its response to the treatment. However, I’m quite worried because there is a chance of it suffering from bed sores and other effects,” the doctor said. The team used an ultrasound machine to check the elephant’s injuries. Phoppapob Lunparat, director of the National Elephant Centre, said that he was confident the hospital was ready with the equipment and doctors to take care of the elephant. He called for moral support from everyone.
Last edited by Hatari; 22nd October 2017 at 05:39.
Unsure if he climbed the stairs or took the elevator?
Chanthaburi wild elephants ... "We're not wild now, but will be if you get any closer"
"Excuse me ... I'll just squeeze thru between these motorbikes"
Yes I've posted this one before ...from 2010, but have lasting memories of this bike ride somewhere near the Sa Kaeo and Chachoengso provincial borders, thought it was an advert for a zoo ... but no, I was pedalling through a wild elephant reserve. I went through there a few times after, despite the local warnings "one less stupid Farang, but there's plenty more where he came from"
One question, why, with all that bush/jungle, did they choose to crap on the road ...?
Territorial, warning to cyclists with their dung-roundabouts to slalom-cycle around?
Did keep me more alert ... "that one looks very fresh"
Shouldn't laugh ... But we'll never know the truth about the fruit ... was she mugged for the sugarcane and pineapples, or do they carry little snacks with them?
CHANTHABURI: -- A woman was found dead near a national park in Chanthaburi province’s Soi Dao district on Wednesday in what is believed to have been an attack by a wild elephant.
The body of Thongkhoon Khamphoonput, 58, was found beside a sugar cane plantation and a fruit orchard near Khao Soi Dao National Park in Ban Klong Phok village in Tambon Tabchang of Soi Dao district.
The woman was badly injured with two broken legs and bruises all over the body.
Elephant footprints were spotted around her body and there were traces of elephants eating sugar cane and pineapples at the scene.
Last edited by Hatari; 22nd October 2017 at 06:22.
A woman and a man tapping rubber trees were injured by wild elephants in separate incidents in Chanthaburi early Friday. Both incidents occurred in Keng Hang Maew district. Warin Inthasorn, 43, was working in Moo 6 village in Tambon Sam Phi Nong when an elephant approached and struck her with its trunk. Her left wrist, ankle and shoulder were injured. As she ran, her head-mounted lamp fell off, distracting the animal long enough for her to escape.
Saroj Kalaya, 51, of Ban Klong Krok village in Tambon Phawa ended up in the district hospital after another elephant struck him along the left torso.
LAMPANG: Veterinarians are preparing to conduct an autopsy and then bury a wild bull elephant which died after a dramatic rescue. Phlai Chomphu, who was between 15 and 20 years old, died on Saturday night, one day after the elephant was sent for treatment at the National Elephant Institute in Hang Chat district in Lampang from Phitsanulok.
Vet Nikorn Thongthip of the veterinary science faculty of Chiang Mai University said on Sunday the elephant died of kidney failure, likely brought on by extreme stress. "The veterinarian team have done their best to save this wild elephant," he told a media briefing.
Last edited by Hatari; 22nd October 2017 at 17:49.
Ian Forbes and Hatari like this.
Ian Forbes, Stillearly and Hatari like this.
I am a bit double on elephants..
On the one hand, they really are majestic animals in there natural habitat..
On the other hand, elephants are unpredictable and can be very aggressive.. More for the African type I have learned to fear (driving over the savanna on a motorbike you can only hope none of these animals takes offence with your presence or the noice you produce, and yes, they will outrun you!), but the Asian elephant had sort of a similar track-record.
In SEA, there is no room for genuine wildlife, unfortunately.. The animal I respect most (being an einzelgänger and needing a lot of space) is the Tiger, and they are all but extinct in Thailand..
The wild wild elephant will soon be too, but there is a large heard of domesticated and semi-domesticated elephants, which in my opinion deserve a clear status..
Keeping people out (for living and agricultural purposes) of national parks is one, connecting the parks is a necessity, and a clear divide about where nature rules and where humans rule is a must..
Unfortunately, I just can't see that happening..
A wild bull elephant went ferocious chasing motorists and villagers in Kaeng Harng Maew district of Chanthaburi yesterday, and destroying a pickup truck with its tusks.
Nobody was injured by the elephant which wildlife sanctuary officials said is a 10-year old adult elephant they called it “Plai Nga Bid”.
The incident was reported to wildlife officials by a local councillor of Tambon Khun Chong that a wild elephant has strayed out its herd was chasing villagers and motorists at Ban Klongyai Thai village.
Officials rushed to the scene where they met a rubber tapper who said he narrowly escaped death when the elephant attacked his pickup truck. He said the elephant charged at his truck with tusks piercing through the side windshield and using its trunk to pull the truck to crash on a tree.
And two days later, what chance the same offender?
Villagers in Tambon Khun Song Ngor of Kaeng Hang Maew district of Chanthaburi have been told today not to venture out into rubber plantations after a rogue male elephant killed two rubber tappers and seriously injured another early today.
The two dead victims were identified as Mr Thaweeporn Puangkratoke,41, and Mr Meechai Puraput, 47. Both were rubber tappers.
Thaweeporn’s relative, Ms Ladawan Rosfung, told police that there were four of them, including the dead victim, tapping rubber in a rubber plantation in Kaeng Hang Maew district early Friday when out of a sudden an elephant emerged at the spot where the victim was tapping rubber.
She said she and the others fled in panic in different directions. But when they felt the jumbos were gone they went back to where they tapped the rubber and found Mr Thaweeporn lying dead in a pool of blood.
The second victim, Mr Meechai, was in a rubber plantation about three kilometers away. The victim’s wife, Mrs Praison, who escaped unhurt told police that an adult elephant with long ivory tusks emerged from the wood and fatally attacked her husband. Another rubber tapper, Ms Bang-on Khaopo-ngam, was also attacked and was injured.
Mid 2016 a pair of wandering elephants paid a visit, 25-30km from their 'home', not aggressive though people keep their distance, sugar cane snacks and the continued on their walk. MsH says in her younger days they had elephants, deer, monkeys around the farm - now the landscape has changed, sugarcane, cassava, eucalyptus on all the flat land.
I love elephants, but the ones I see in captivity for tourists make me sad. When my son visited me in 2016 that is one of the main things he wanted to see. I rented him a motorbike and we visited several of the elephant parks near Chiang Mai. I always felt sorry for the ones that are chained to the ground. Elephants are very smart and I can only imagine how hard it must be on their minds to be chained to one spot. You can see it in their body motion as they rock from side to side.
We bought a whole watermelon and fed it to the elephants. It was interesting to note that while two elephants loved watermelon, a few others didn't. They ate one piece and went back to eating sugar cane leaves.
This bull elephant in Kanchanaburi had the largest tusks I have ever seen on an Asian elephant.
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Two people out running who were seen taking selfies with a wild elephant had put themselves in great danger, the Khao Yai National Park chief warned on Thursday.
The two runners were seen moving closer to a wild elephant and then taking photos on a road to the park on Sept 13 by Kamron Petprayoon.
Mr Kamron said he stopped his car to take pictures of the elephant from afar, and saw the two runners move closer to the beast for a selfie. He said the elephant then chased the two along the road.
The runners took off and only when they were in the distance did the elephant stop. It roared and stood in the middle of the road, blocking the traffic until park officials arrived to coax it back into the forest.
Last edited by Hatari; 27th October 2017 at 14:54.
Police are awaiting a forensic report from veterinarians about the death of an adult elephant allegedly electrocuted at a rubber plantation in Kaeng Hang Maew district of Chanthaburi on Sunday.
Kaeng Hang Maew district police, local administration officials and officials from Ang Rue Nai national park rushed to the rubber plantation in Ban Khao Kong, Tambon Pawa, after an elephant, aged between 8-10 years old, was found dead with its head and trunk straddling on electric wire which ran parallel to the fence.
He said that charges would be lodged against the plantation owner if forensic examination confirmed that the elephant was electrocuted.
Sadly it's a dilemma the world's been facing for long time - coexistence seems impossible sometimes !