A Typical Day at the MEF!

Days here in the jungle start bright and early. Between 7 and 8 we head over to the elephant sleeping area to help the mahouts make the beds and clean up. Here we take a daily poo count. The poo, actually doesn’t smell, and it is surprisingly fun throwing balls of poo!

The elephants then head down to the river where they receive their morning bath. Coconut shells are used to scrub down their skin……….

After bath time, we make the elephants vitamin balls. Each elephant has their own prescription, and their vitamins are hidden inside food balls to ensure they gobble them up.

 

After we have enjoyed a delicious Sri Lankan breakfast, its 9.30, time for vet check. The elephants arrive one by one, to have their feet swept down and inspected for anything unusual or signs of footrot. Then they get their vitamins balls and a tasty slice of fresh fruit to wash them down.

 

The last couple hours of the morning are usually spent in the eco-garden, helping us to grow our own fresh fruit for the elephants. Here we plant all sorts from beans to sweet potatoes. All seeds are planted with elephant dung compost which has been proven to give ………. plants!

 

Throughout the day we take it in turns to man the fruit shack.Here tourists can buy a plate of tasty fresh fruit, to feed the elephants, with all the money going towards the elephants keeping and conservation. 

 

After lunch, its time to start preparing for enrichment. Enrichment activities are designed to stimulate the elephants both physically and mentally. We hide grass in rope bags hung up high for the elephants to reach with their trunks and find ways to get the grass from the bags.

 

Today, whilst Bandara was tucking into her high flying snack, Seetha joined the party and managed to demolish the pile of grass ready to feed the rest of the group!

These afternoons give the elephants time to socialise. It was amazing to watch Lakshmi feeding her daughter Pooja, and we all laughed as Pooja wouldn’t try and get the grass herself, but she would happily try and take it from her mothers mouth!

Afternoons are spent helping out on a range projects. At this moment in time we have volunteers making trips to local schools teaching the children several subjects, including English. We have a group of fantastic decorators revamping our gift shop, and we are starting to convert the office to a resource centre. These projects also extend out into the field, as we will have volunteers involved with our human-elephant conflict strategies and mobile veterinary unit call outs. Very exciting stuff!

 

The elephants then get treated to another relaxing bath before going to bed in the early evening.

 

We end our days with a group meeting, in which we can catch up and hear the interesting bits of each volunteers day and share ideas that we may have for the future. Life as a volunteer here, really couldn’t be any better!

Our Volunteers

We have a fantastic group of inspirational, hardworking and energetic volunteers here at the moment, each one with their own unique gift that they are bringing to the MEF.

The energy created by a good group of volunteers working together for the good of the world, can achieve anything! A big thank you for all of your hard work so far.

A Special Moment

Just wanted to share with you all a very special moment that happened a few days ago here at the MEF, a special moment between Anne-Bob and Rani.

Each volunteer here works with their elephant everyday, helping the mahouts with daily tasks, as well as washing, feeding and taking care of their elephant. We encourage volunteers to try and build a bond with their elephant during their time here. By remaining quiet around your elephant during the first few days, by feeding your elephant fruit to the trunk at vet check, and by not being all over your elephant, by giving them the time, space and respect that they deserve, your elephant will learn to trust you.

A few days ago, Rani showed Anne-Bob that she trusted her. After Anne-bob fed Rani some tasty fruit at her morning vet check, her trunk returned and rested on Anne-Bob’s hand. This is a sign of trust. Such a small gesture can go such a long way. This moment was so special, especially knowing the meaning behind it, a couple of volunteers, including myself, had tears in their eyes. Anne-Bob still has 6 weeks ahead of her here at the MEF, and is a hugely valued volunteer, and has shown us all what can be achieved with a little time and patience. This is a moment that she will cherish forever.

Lakshmi Painting

In todays painting session Lakshmi created a beautiful pink and gold painting for Neave.

Lakshmi and Rani are our two painting ellys. They enjoy a good painting session, as it stimulates their mind. Volunteers are working on designing a new paint brush, to make it easier for them to see what they are painting.

These paintings are for sale, with profits used in elephant conservation. Once our gift shop is redecorated and overflowing with wonderful locally hand-made crafts, we hope to create a gallery for this amazing elephant artwork. The artwork will also be available to buy from our AWF Truly Fair Trading website.

First Field Trip to Habarana

Today, one of the greatest threats to the Asian elephants survival is the human-elephant conflict. With human populations increasing and farmland expanding, elephant habitat across Sri Lanka is shrinking and becoming highly fragmented. As humans and elephants compete for resources, it brings them more and more into conflict with each other. All too often a hungry elephant may be drawn onto farmland by a range of tasty crops, and within a few hours, a year of hard work and potentially a farmers livelihood can be destroyed. To defend their crops, farmers shoot these so-called pests, despite the fact that it is illegal to kill an elephant in Sri Lanka. Last year in Sri Lanka, over 200 elephants and 48 humans died as a result of these conflicts. The costs to both sides in the human-elephant conflict is immeasurable.

Yesterday, Sandith took Wayne and I to the village of Habarana. This village, situated between 3 nature reserves, is a hotspot for human-elephant conflicts. Habarana and the surrounding area will be our focus for human-elephant conflict strategies and wild elephant conservation. Our first field trip put the conservation issue into reality for us. Driving from the village into the cropland, out into the depths of wild elephant country, we passed fresh elephant dung. To think, only a few hours before us, a wild elephant had been roaming this close to the village. A little further down the road, we sadly passed the skeletal remains of an elephant that Sandith told us had been shot.

Out of the car and walking further into the paddy fields, we could see the border of the forest, home to these magnificent wild creatures.

Farmers here, have built tree houses in which they sleep overnight, to keep a watchful eye for foraging elephants too close to their crops. 

 AWF and MEF volunteers will be working closely with these farmers and their community, to monitor these wild elephants. We need to understand these creatures, their patterns of movements and the thoughts and opinions of the people most effected, in order to help develop conservation strategies. 

Through working with the farmers, we hope to introduce some traditional remedies to help reduce human-elephant conflicts in this area, whilst providing an income to the local community. This project, starting in Habarana, can then be used as an example of human-elephant conflict strategies and can be introduced across the whole of Asia.

 The area here is outstandingly beautiful. The land on which the research station is to be built opens out to a lake covered by lotus flowers and backed by beautiful hills.

This truly is a beautiful place for an amazing project with extremely rewarding results!

River Safari

Whilst in Matara, on the south of the island, we had a leisurely cruise up the river in a small boat, with the same lovely fishermen that took us Blue Whale watching. We were led from Priyanthi’s home, across the road and between a couple shops, which opened out onto the calm and colourful river.

It was so relaxing, sitting back and enjoying the beautiful views as we traveled upstream, and being in the south of the island it is much hotter, so the breeze was delightful!

Along with the trees, the mangroves, the hills and the rest of the beautiful scenery, we also saw lots of birds of prey, another boat at a crossing with a bike on board, a peacock that flew across in front of the boat, and around 12 crocodiles!

Very relaxing and so much to see! It was a great afternoon!

Updates from the Pearl of the Indian Ocean

Even after 3 weeks here, we are still overwhelmed by how amazingly friendly the people are, by how incredibly beautiful the scenery is, by how fascinating and intelligent the elephants are, and by how inspiring the project is. This truly is an indescribably beautiful place and we feel so lucky to be a part of it.

 Travelling through the villages, the sounds, the smells, the scenery, and the faces of local Sri Lankans all smiling back at you, keep a constant smile on your face. Our home for the next year, set in the middle of Sri Lankan jungle, shared with elephants is more than I ever imagined it would be. Surrounded by green trees, stunning flowers, a whole array of colourful birds that never stop singing, Sri Lankan smiles, hardworking volunteers and of course, one of the most magnificent creatures on earth, I have to take a moment every now and again, to stop and pinch myself to check that I am not dreaming!

Our first few weeks here have flown by. We have a really good group of hardworking volunteers here at the moment. The atmosphere and energy from a good group of enthusiatic, dedicated people, can achieve anything. Already we have started work on the gift shop, the fruit shop, the resource centre and the eco-garden.

Leiah has make some beautiful signs over the donation box that sway in the wind and have increased our donation intake.

 Ilse is making an elephant tips pot to hang from the tree to encourage more donations from tourists.

 Bert, Anna, Kevin, Judy and Elizabeth are working hard in the eco-garden to construct a path around the different plants in order for tourists to walk around the garden and learn.

 Jade, Leiah and Beatriz have been working very hard to revamp the gift shop. Who knew how much difference a fresh coat of brightly coloured paint could make!

The local carpenter has made us two new bookcases and a nice big table for the resource centre. Exciting! And today, now the roof is fixed, we have cleaned down all the walls and started painting to convert the office into a resource centre overflowing with facts and information about elephants, Sri Lanka and all it’s nature, culture and beauty!

Having a wash… Mahout style!!

Everyday, we walk across the bridge
and there is always one of the
Mahouts having their daily wash
in the river. I often ask how the
water is? Several times they have
beckoned me to join them,
so today I thought ‘why not?’

   Chandana was telling me something
about leeches, and as I got closer he was
pointing at something in the water.
I was suspicious as I know what the
Mahouts are like, and when I was close
enough he pushed me over in the river!

 So here’s me having a wash!

New Ankle Straps

These new ankle straps have been made for the elephants to prevent them injuring themselves on their chains during musth. They are made to measure, and we hope over the next few weeks to be able to give one to each of the elephants here at the MEF. A previous kind volunteer paid for Rani’s and Raja’s. Below is Rani’s mahout fitting her new ankle strap.

These straps cost around £45 each. We have 2 more being donated by a previous volunteer, one for Lakshmi and one for Pooja, and the Dogstar Foundation are donating 2 more. Wayne and I have decided to pay for Bandara’s and the current group of volunteers are going to all chip in to pay for the last one.

Can’t wait to be able to post the photos of all the elephants with their new ankle straps!

Birds of Sri Lanka

There is nothing like waking up to the sound of birds singing in the morning. Its only 7am, but its encouraging enough to get you up and out of bed to join in with the already wide awake world.

Paul, our bird man, please may you identify this beauty for us?

 

Ps: Anyone who knows Wayne, ask him about his daily 5am wake up call!

Blue Whale Watching!

In Matara, located on the south of the island, there is the chance to see the Blue Whale, the largest living animal
on earth!

We stayed in Matara for a couple of days sussing out things for our volunteers to do and enjoy on their weekends off. Things like; whale watching, river safari’s, fishing or simply staying at the beautiful beach house we’re renting.

 Ed sorted out for Halina and I to go Blue whale watching, which is amazing… aside from the fact I get a tad sea sick! To make matters worse I hadn’t brought along my ‘seabands’ to wear on my wrists to stop it either!

We got up at 4:30am and got a tuktuk to the port where we were met by two lovely fishermen, and we set out to sea at the break of dawn. It was a calm morning on the river with hundreds of birds in the trees, probably thinking ‘what the hell are you doing up so early?!!

Firstly the fishermen cleverly navigated us out from the river mouth, through the oncoming waves!

The journey out to sea was great, zipping across the ocean, watching the flying fish flying around, I never knew they could fly so far!

As we were traveling pretty quickly we felt fine, it was once we slowed down to try and spot the whales that we both started not feeling so good. The sea was rough! It was probably quite funny to see, we were both sat on the boat digging our thumbs into our wrists trying to imitate the ‘seabands’!

 After a few hours we decided it was time to head back, and although we could barely speak Sinhalese and the fishermen could barely speak English, we managed to communicate enough to get across we weren’t feeling too great and we headed back.

It was a shame as we didn’t see any Blue whales this time round, but we did see plenty of dolphins chasing the boat and jumping all around us, which made it well worth it!

Next time Blue Whales, next time!

Tour of the Poo Paper Factory

Wayne and I and a handful of volunteers were lucky enough to get a guided tour by Joseph around the Maximus Poo Paper Factory next door.

He was kind enough to teach us about all the processes involved in turning a pile of elephant dung into stunning notepads, albums etc made from poo paper.

All the poo you see here is from the elephants at MEF. Not wanting to give away the secret, we shall not spoil the fun and let you learn from Joseph himself.

 The tour and hearing from Joseph about his dedication to the elephants at the MEF and to elephant conservation across Sri Lanka was truly inspiring!

AWF Adam’s Peak Challenge

AWF and Millennium Elephant Foundation (MEF) volunteers are climbing Adam’s Peak in order to raise money to build an enclosure for the elephants.

Though not the highest mountain of Sri Lanka, the striking pyramid of Adam’s Peak (7,360 ft) is certainly the most remarkable.

A depression in the rocky summit resembles a huge footprint, which has been venerated as a sacred sign from remote antiquity. This was identified by Buddhists as the Buddha’s footprint, by Hindus as that of Shiva, and by Muslims as Adam’s. Later the Portuguese attributed it to St. Thomas the Apostle.

Elephant Enclosure

We want the elephants at the MEF to have the best life possible.

We are helping the MEF raise funds to build an enclosure for them, allowing them to lead more natural lives and make their own decisions. The design will give the elephants approximately 325100 feet to roam around and give them 24 hour access to the river.

Within the enclosure the elephants are free to play, socialise and explore their environment.

The enclosure will also include ‘musth’ pens. Male elephants go through a period of time called ‘Musth’. During this time they have a rush of testosterone and become very aggressive. To prevent them harming themselves or another elephant they will be confined in these pens. The size of the pens has been carefully considered as while we want the males to be able to move around we do not want the pens so big as they can charge and hurt themselves.

With their new social life there may one day be a need for ‘nursing pens’. A musth pen will be converted for a new mother and baby to protect the little one and give the pair time to bond.

The enclosure will cost over £50,000! Any donations welcome. You can donate here: http://www.justgiving.com/awfasianelephantproject

Or, help us fundraise, any ideas welcome, create your own justgiving page and link it to our AWF Asian Elephant Project Team page: http://www.justgiving.com/teams/awfasianelephantproject

Or, join our volunteers in completing the AWF Adam’s Peak Challenge: http://awf-volunteeringabroad.org/fo…hant-Enclosure

Thank you for your support!