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"ONLY MONTHS ARE LEFT"
FOR POOR MOTALA
reports David Hardy
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Despite all expert efforts, 38 year-old Motala - who lost a foot when
she stepped on a landmine in Burma last August - may have only 6 to 8 months
to live.
The 4 ton jumbo which had been recovering slowly at the Lampang Elephant
Hospital after successful operations to remove dead tissue and avoid infection,
has rejected all attempts by vets to fit an artificial foot.
"When she stands and tries to walk, her right front leg is taking
2 tons of her weight and is now deteriorating" said Dr Preecha Puangkham,
director of the hospital late last month. "She should not stand on
concrete so we have given her a sand bank and treat her with disinfectant
on both front legs."
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Money, equipment and nutrition for Motala, as well as "get well
soon" cards from children, have flooded in from all over the world.
Her feeding and sleeping are satisfactory - but it is most unhealthy for
any elephant to lie down for too long.
"It’s only a matter of months. I would give her 6 to 8 months to
live" said a visiting vet from the USA. "In the States we would
consider euthanasia in a case like this, but I guess that in a Buddhist
country this may not be possible."
This tragic turn of events for what is possibly the most famous elephant
ever is a bitter reward for her incredible bravery. After the explosion
on the Burma side of the border, it took her owner 3 days to walk her back
through thick, hilly jungle into Mae Sod, Thailand, and a road wide enough
to take a truck. She was transported to Lampang where vets found that no
fewer than 10 bones had been destroyed and two-thirds of the flesh shredded.
Her will to survive through the pain and fatigue amazed everyone concerned.
Ten days after her arrival at Lampang, a team working under Dr Terd
Tesprateep of Chiang Mai University, gave Motala enough anaesthetic to
floor 70 people and amputated the damaged flesh and bone. The operation
was a success and all were optimistic about Motala’s chances of recovery.
"I’d say she’s getting everything she needs" remarked a visiting
Australian vet specialising in large animals. "She’s in very good
hands."
But attempts to fit the pachyderm patient with an artificial foot, so
that her weight could be distributed normally, met with total rejection
and now all optimism has evaporated. "Go see her soon" said a
wild life photographer who phoned ‘Good Morning Chiangmai’. "She’s
doomed!"
Motala could be seen reclining on her left side, the damaged left leg
wrapped in black plastic while Dr Preecha treated the over-stressed right
foot. The huge animal sometimes groaned quietly and used her trunk to blow
sand over herself to stay cool and deter insects. Visitors clearly saw
tears occasionally running from her eyes. They were not the only tears
at Lampang Elephant Hospital.....
Jumbo-sized problems
*Friends of the Asian Elephant, the charity and NGO which established
the hospital, has saved the lives of 400 animals. But founder Khun Soraida
Salwala, must now rely on visiting vets from Chiang Mai University following
Dr Preecha’s sudden transfer to Bangkok. The hospital is temporarily without
a full time vet for patients including a shooting victim, one almost blind
and one addicted to amphetamines. Khun Soraida is also worried about a
government proposal to move many northern elephants to an artificial camp
in Bangkok.
* Motala’s handler took her over the border illegally to earn money
after the Thai logging ban. Demands to have him arrested were defeated
by admiration for his rescue and he remains free.
* A more recent Lampang arrival was shot in the eye by a poacher while
grazing near it’s elephant camp, said Dr Preecha. "To people like
that, the forest is a supermarket!"
* Disagreements about funds and policies are rife between government
departments and different NGOs and charities. "These poor creatures
will never know that people are fighting over their welfare" said
one activist.
* "The worst elephant disease is human incompetence," said
one carer. An animal with a broken leg was taken to Lampang by truck, broke
another leg during the journey and died soon after arrival.
"Elephant heaven" for the lucky ones?
Of the current tally of 58 animals, 6 are indeed huge being expectant
mothers - 6 not so huge - they came into the world at Elephant Nature Park,
Mae Taman, only last year! One cheeky 6 year old trotted in and out of
the river squirting multiple litres of spray at squealing onlookers. When
all had drunk and dunked, it was time to process in line up the bank and
past the onlookers to the display area.
Several of the soaking wet elephants swayed majestically past director
Khun Sangduan ‘Lek’ Chailert and I. She greeting them all by name - as
delighted as a first time visitor. Suddenly, one veered directly towards
us and immediately and gently embraced Lek with his trunk (there are more
muscles in this amazing organ than the whole of the human body!).
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The elephant welfare activist greeted him like an old friend, giggled
a message into one enormous ear and patted him. He was about to walk on,
but hesitated. Gazing at me he seemed to be thinking "If you’re a
friend of Lek’s you can’t be all bad....." and offered me a friendly
trunk. Moving very slowly, I patted and rubbed his trunk and found to my
suprise that, far from being hard and coarse, his skin was just like the
soft, good quality leather I used for cleaning the car! After a few magic
moments of mutual friendliness he ambled off to take his place in the show
ring, hauling and stacking 600 kg logs as if they were children’s toys.
The strongest animals in the world are vegetarians!
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Apart from brief knock-abouts with a football, walking on two legs and
bowing to the applause, there is nothing in Elephant Nature Park’s show
that could be called "circus tricks", so despised by animal welfare
folk. "While I was away, someone brought in the usual circus equipment,
special bicycles to ride and so on" recalled Lek. "I had it all
destroyed."
For a full day at the Park including the show, elephant and ox cart
riding, bamboo rafting, lunch and visits to an orchid farm and a hilltribe,
the delighted visitors had paid only 900b each!
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"My next project is going to be called ‘Elephant Heaven’"
enthused Lek. "This will be a large, very remote area where families
of elephants will be taken to live in the wild with almost no human intrusion.
Humans took this land from the elephants. It’s high time someone started
giving it back. I have no children and as I move towards the sunset of
my life I want to leave them something really worth having!"
What’s really worth having for we humans now is this smoothly run interface,
linking us with - and teaching us about - the pachyderm. Ask yourself:
why do most people feel such affection for elephants? Are they simply unique,
living reminders of pre-history? Or are there more clues amongst the facts
displayed in Elephant Nature Park’s restaurant:
They’re so like us:
* Females are ready to give birth around the age of 16.
* This is also the age at which elephants are ready to start serious
work.
* Most births are attended by an older female in the role of mid-wife,
guarding the mother and helping to lift the baby to it’s feet.
* Adults are fully grown by age 20 and baldness can set in at 30.
* Capacity to work reduces at 40 and 70 is the average life expectancy.
* The males sometimes go for a booze up! They will binge on over-ripe
fruit, stagger around drunk, sleep it off (standing up) and show signs
of hang-overs.
Then, the BIG differences:
* The Thai elephant is officially classed as an endangered species.
Only 3,000-4,000 remain, half in the wild. One hundred years ago there
were 100,000.
* A pregnant female carries her baby for 22 months, the birth takes
around 2 hours and in another 2 hours a healthy baby will be standing and
suckling.
* Weighing around 4 tons (3 tons lighter than the African elephant),
the full-grown Thai jumbo eats up to 200 kgs of food, drinks 200 litres
of water a day and grows to a height of 2.7 metres.
* Sight is poor (range only 10 metres) but hearing is exceptional, around
4 times more acute than ours!
* An average adult trunk is 2m long; can carry 6 litres of water OR
act as a breathing snorkel under water; is strong enough to uproot a tree
yet sensitive enough to pick up a coin.
* An elephant beating it’s trunk on the ground is either very angry
or finding out whether the ground will bear it’s weight. When happy, the
animal will wag it’s tail and shake it’s ears.
 David
Hardy
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