Supervisor: Dr Alberto Perez Pereiro
What is your team’s project about?
1. Working with elephant caretaking communities in Northern Thailand. Focused primarily on a Karen community in Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai where elephants have been taken care by multiple generations of the family over 200 years. As part of our project, we also speak with and feature stories of elephant caretaking from private elephant businesses (Patara Elephant Farm, Mae Sa Elephant Camp) and elephant vets (from Chiang Mai University).
2. Huay Pakkoot Elephant Community Foundation, Patara Elephant Farm, Mae Sa Elephant Camp, Chiang Mai University.
3. We are creating a photobook to feature personal stories related to elephant care in Northern Thailand. This is to help shed light on elephant care beyond the elephants and the care practices themselves to understand the human stories and motivations behind caring for elephants.
What does your team enjoy most about the IEx project?
Working with members of the community, making new friends, creating something new
What are some challenges that you think are unique to the project?
Our project was scoped after our recce trip when we heard from the community that a significant issue faced was perception and international misunderstanding about elephant care. Many foreign tourists and animal rights group focus on the tools used in elephant care (e.g., the hook and the chain) without really understanding why and how the actual elephant caretakers use them before denouncing the use of these tools as acts of animal cruelty.
Any specific tips about working with your team’s community?
Would be helpful to try and pick up the local language for easier communication and also just because if you will spend 2 years there, you should pick up the language of the community you are working with. Travel wise, flights can be expensive so book in advance. Or if you are more adventurous, you can take a bus/train in from Bangkok though that is quite tiring.
Any fun stories to share with your juniors?