SRI LANKA ELEPHANT SURVEY


Sri Lanka, First Elephant Survey for My Second Book


Pictured here with Rani, a roadside attraction, former logging elephant. Rani was the first captive elephant I spent time with. My first book, on Africa's elephants, brought me familiarity with wild elephants. Now, as I shift gears to a part of the world that has a long history of capturing and abusing elephants, I had to adjust my approach to the survey and my attitude toward what I was seeing. It's horrifying to witness how the gentle and intelligent elephant is treated, but my purpose is to concentrate on documenting what I see. I opened my mouth a few times but quickly was reminded each time that an outsider has no business meddling in things that have gone on as accepted for centuries. So, in time, I'll see what the world community has to say about the way elephants are treated in Asia.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KILIMANJARO CLIMB TANZANIA

Image
                           Mt. Kilimanjaro   It's the highest mountain in all of Africa at over 19,000 feet. For months, the months I'd spent surveying the elephants of Africa for my first book, I'd laid eyes on this huge mountain, all the while never thinking I'd ever climb it. The book complete, it finally dawned on me, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. So for 8 days, I climbed and traversed the mountain on the quiet Northern Circuit Route.  On August 16th, 2021, I stood on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and looked out over the expansive plateau that makes up its topside. Visible from the viewpoint were several of its ice features, the glaciers and icefields. At one time, the entire top of the mountain was covered in a sheet of ice. But over the past one hundred years or more, the ice has melted and melted away quickly. Scientists estimate that at the present rate, all of the ice features on Mt. Kilimanjaro will have disappeared by the year 2050.  So in addition to the gratitude I f
Read more

WHERE BUFFALO ROAM

Image
  Where Buffalo Roam , A Film for America's                                      Threatened Buffalo All my life, I've been captivated by the buffalo of Yellowstone National Park. More than 20 years ago though, I finally discovered the longtime, horrific treatment of the buffalo by the U.S. Government and the state of Montana. Over the winter of 2020-2021, I produced this documentary film with my longtime friend, filmmaker Isaac Pingree, to raise public awareness of America's buffalo and the unforgivable way human beings have treated them. Actor Peter Coyote lent his voice to the narration of the text I wrote and we were off and running. The film was released February 10th, 2021 and had its official world premiere at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York City on October 15th, 2021.
Read more

SUMATRA ELEPHANT SURVEY

Image
                                                                          August, 2022 Pictured are members of a Conservation Response Unit I met on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.  As the island's human population grew during the last century, conflicts grew between the people and the island's elephants. In response, the government arranged for over 500 elephants to be captured, then placed in one of several inhumane camps, to be kept out of sight and out of the way. During my time on the island, I visited several of these camps, witnessing the sad state of life for surviving elephants, kept at the beck and call of human beings.
Read more