A new solar-powered system to monitor elephants has been developed in India. Surveillance cameras run 24/7 and alert farmers via mobile networks to take action to prevent human-elephant conflict. More info: https://amma.org/news/amrita-university-introduces-innovative-ai-system-to-monitor-wild-elephant-movements/     https://youtu.be/kril9OK3RAw?feature=sharedhttps://youtu.be/kril9OK3RAw?feature=shared

A new issue of Gajah has been completed and can be accessed on the AsESG’s website: https://www.asesg.org/gajah58.php . Gajah is the journal of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group ( www.asesg.org ) and is open-access.

They are all low-cost methods to deter elephant crop-raiding in India! Hello, Friends, Please find below two short films sent to us by Dr. Prachi Mehta of the Wildlife Research and Conservation Society   (WRCS) in India. They were made during WRCS' Community-based Conflict Mitigation (CBCM) Model project. About the Films These films tell the the story of two powerful species, Elephants and Humans, in the picturesque landscape of Uttar Kannada (North Kanara) district of India. They showcase efforts to empower and train farmers to protect their agricultural crops from hungry wild elephants using simple, low-cost measures, including forest alarms, repulsive smelling concoctions, the sound of bees, and strategically placed watch towers. Implementing a community-based model involving farmers requires trust-building and constant hand-holding and is being done with long-term collaboration and support from Asian Elephant Conservation Fund (AECF), USFWS. This project is being implemented in close association with Karnataka Forest Department.  Dr. Prachi Mehta is happy to address any suggestions or questions you may have. Watch now! " Living with Elephants -The Uttar Kannada Story" (2023): 12 minutes  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOwQEqmVExo&t=7s 2. Living with Elephants (2020) on Nat Geo WILD: 6 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBJX1EVHrlw Dr. Prachi Mehta, Executive Director, Research ~ Wildlife Research and Conservation Society, India.

Join our research by sending us a small sample of the milk products you use! Written by Dr. Laura Galante We need your help to study the milk formulas used to feed orphaned baby Asian elephants. Our project, based at Swansea University in the UK, aims at checking if these formulas have all the right nutrients to help calves grow healthy and strong. If your elephant care centre uses milk formula for Asian elephant calves, we’d love your help by sharing a small sample of the products you use. Every contribution can make a big difference! Read more ~ Why this research is so important Baby Asian elephants who lose their mothers or can’t get enough milk from her need special food to survive. Something that is as similar as possible to their mother’s milk. But we still don’t know if milk formulas given to them contain everything they need to grow healthy and strong. Some important nutrients might be missing. At Swansea University in the UK we are looking at different brands and types of milk formulas used in Asian elephant care centers to find out what’s inside them and how similar they are to milk from Asian elephant mothers. With this information we can work towards improving these products and help give orphaned calves a better chance at life. To learn more or take part by sharing a sample of the milk products you use, please contact me (the principal investigator of the study), Dr Laura Galante at laura.galante@swansea.ac.uk . Thank you for sharing and caring! Feeding milk formula to an orphan Asian elephant in Vietnam. Photo credit: Dr. Susan Mikota Feeding milk formula to orphan Asian elephants at the Elephant Transit Home in Sri Lanka. Video by Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund

New vaccine against deadly herpes virus in elephants is being tested in practice! We've just received good news from ECI friend and colleague, Dr. Willem Schaftenaar. The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, in collaboration with Rotterdam Zoo, Eindhoven Zoo, Amersfoort Zoo, Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen and ARTIS have started testing a vaccine to protect young elephants from the deadly elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) this week. This virus has been causing high mortality rates among young elephants worldwide for years, both in zoos and in the wild. Now, there's hope. Read the full announcement here. Learn more at EEHV| Elephant Medicine https://www.elephantmedicine.info/eehv-hd Small hemorrhages on the tongue of a 3-year-old Asian elephant calf with EEHV-HD.  Courtesy of Khajohnpat Boonprasert, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.

Susan Mikota (Elephant Care International Director of Veterinary Programs and Research) and Dr. Sarad Paudel (Assistant Professor College of Veterinary Medicine, Long Island University) will present a Webinar for the Wildlife Disease Association on Oct 17 2024. The Webinar starts at 7 AM CST and is open access. Scan the code to join.

The IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group has released 2024 Guidelines for the rehabilitation of captive elephants as an option for augmenting wild populations. You can download the document here: https://www.asesg.org/images/WG%20report-%20Rehabilitation%20of%20elephants.pdf

Twin births are very unusual in elephants. Recently, twin elephants were born at the Wingabaw Camp in southern Myanmar. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbILipIPRwY

NEW GUIDELINES FOR HAND-RAISING ORPHAN ASIAN ELEPHANTS Elephant Care International and Work for Wild Life International announce the launch of an urgently-needed, professional resource to help save the lives of orphan Asian elephants. Hand-Raising Orphan Asian Elephants, A Practical Guide for Asian Elephant Range Country Care Providers  is an open-access online resource that provides vital information for elephant veterinarians, veterinary technicians, care-givers, villagers, mahouts, and others tasked with caring for an orphaned Asian elephant. LINK TO GUIDE: https://www.elephantcare.org/raisingorphanelephants PRESS RELEASE: https://www.elephantcare.org/raisingorphanelephants/press-release Topics Covered in the Guide: Chapter 1: First Encounter Chapter 2: Physical Examination & Preventative Healthcare Chapter 3: The Nursery Area Chapter 4: Feeding Milk Chapter 5: Digestive Physiology/Gut Flora Chapter 6: Feeding/Introducing Solid Foods Chapter 7: Growth & Behavioral Development Chapter 8: Medical Problems & Treatment Chapter 9: Medical Procedures Chapter 10: Training for Veterinary Procedures Chapter 11: Guidelines for Release of Orphan Elephants to the Wild Appendix Why did our Team Create This Guide?   Hand-raising orphan elephants is challenging, especially if they have been injured. Even facilities with experience are not always successful. Many orphan elephants die.   To date, there has been no comprehensive resource to provide practical and science-based information on how to care for wild Asian elephant calves that have been orphaned. Until now!   Written by an international team of Asian elephant health and welfare experts –with decades of hands-on experience in Asia—this new resource provides veterinary protocols, step-by-step instructions, photos, videos, and a variety of healthcare and welfare tools and options (and much more!) to ensure young orphan elephants have the opportunity to thrive. And be returned to the wild! Our International Team: Dr. Susan Mikota, Veterinarian Elephant Care International (US) Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund, Work for Wild Life International (US) Dr. Vijitha Perera, Veterinarian, Elephant Transit Home (Sri Lanka) Dr. Willem Schaftenaar, Veterinarian, Advisor to the Elephant Taxon Advisory Group (Europe) Dr. Khyne U. Mar, Veterinarian (Myanmar and the UK) Dr. Ellen Dierenfeld, Nutritionist, Research Advisor (US) Dr. Bhaskar Choudhury, Veterinarian, Wildlife Trust of India (India) Funding for this project was provided by the Coville-Triest Family Foundation. Thank you!

“Hand-raising Orphan Asian Elephants”  – An open-access, online guide for range country veterinarians, veterinary technicians, mahouts, and other care providers. COMING IN SEPTEMBER (watch our video) ~ https://youtu.be/VWwbSNdxGSM From “First Encounter” to “Release Back to the Wild”—11 chapters in all. Our new guide is truly a game-changer!   WHY DID OUR TEAM CREATE THIS GUIDE?   Hand-raising orphan elephants is challenging, especially if they have been injured. Even facilities with experience are not always successful. Many orphan elephants die.   To date, there has been no comprehensive resource to provide practical and science-based information on how to care for wild Asian elephant calves that have been orphaned. Until now!   Written by an international team of Asian elephant health and welfare experts –with decades of hands-on experience in Asia—this groundbreaking new resource provides veterinary protocols, step-by-step instructions, photos, videos, and a variety of healthcare and welfare tools and options (and much more!) to ensure young orphan elephants have the opportunity to thrive. And be returned to the wild!   Watch our video to learn more of what’s to come. https://youtu.be/VWwbSNdxGSM   Our International Team: Dr. Susan Mikota, Veterinarian Elephant Care International (US) Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund, Work for Wild Life International (US) Dr. Vijitha Perera, Veterinarian, Elephant Transit Home (Sri Lanka) Dr. Willem Schaftenaar, Veterinarian, Advisor to the Elephant Taxon Advisory Group (Europe) Dr. Khyne U. Mar, Veterinarian (Myanmar and the UK) Dr. Ellen Dierenfeld, Nutritionist, Research Advisor (US) Dr. Bhaskar Choudhury, Veterinarian, Wildlife Trust of India (India) Funding for this project was provided by the Coville-Triest Family Foundation

We sadly report the passing of Richard Lair. I met Richard in Thailand when he was working on  Operation Dumbo. I was honored when he asked me to be a reviewer for the “Elephant Care Manual for Mahouts and Camp Managers.”   The manual is available here on the Elephant Care International website:  https://www.elephantcare.org/_files/ugd/5c07e7_d9b6094b349a404aad00d3bf53db88e2.pdf  Gone Astray is available on the FAO website:  https://www.fao.org/4/AC774E/AC774E00.htm . Gone Astray was the inspiration for an international workshop on the domesticated Asian elephant;  the proceedings, "Giants on Our Hands," is available from FAO:   https://www.fao.org/4/ad031e/ad031e00.htm   I was not aware of many of Richard's tremendous accomplishments that are detailed in his obituary. He will be greatly missed.  Read the obituary here: Lair Obituary . Susan Mikota

Elephants can incur serious injuries that would mean death in wild. If the injured elephant is lucky enough to be rescued it may have a chance to survive. But what happens to elephants that are injured so seriously that amputation of a limb is the only course? In a number of cases, prosthetic devices have been developed which enable the elephant to live, albeit in captivity. Ellie, the elephant in the image is a young elephant in Malaysia that was caught in a snare and had to undergo a partial amputation of her front leg. Because she is growing the prosthetic device has to be modified frequently which is expensive. Now there is a new non-profit organization that is trying to help elephants like Ellie by raising funds to cover the cost of prosthetic devices for amputees. They also hope to develop a universal prosthetic device that will be more cost-effective. Visit their website here: elephantprosthetics.org