Category: Wildlife conservation

Wildlife conservation issues

A visit to MandaLao Elephant Conservation in Laos.

If you should be visiting Laos and staying in the ever-popular Luang Prabang area you might be tempted to visit one of the much touted nearby elephant camps. Booking offices for the camps line the main street of the town and you are spoilt for choice. Hopefully you will be looking for an ethically operated one which does not condone elephant riding. The MandaLao Elephant Conservation is certainly one of those. 

We recently had the pleasure of spending a day with their elephants and staff and came away with extremely positive feelings that Asian elephants can be saved and allowed to have, as they put it, “dignified and comfortable lives in harmony with nature.” We came away impressed with their philosophy and professionalism.

But it is not the same at all the elephant “rescues” in the area and throughout Laos. Elephant riding is not banned and it is common to see elephant camps advertising tours for riding.  There was in fact a new elephant riding camp under construction at the time of our visit.

Elephant riding scars

One of the rescued Mandalao elephants with scars caused by the howdah seat used for tourist riding.

To ride or not to ride elephants

The ethics and welfare aspects of riding them is constantly under review and debate with some experts going so far as believing it is good for them. This does rather stretch the credibility though. All purport to rescue ill-treated animals from logging and tourists attractions with low welfare, but many who obtain them are tourist attractions themselves and welfare standards can vary.

MandaLao Elephant Conservation and the nearby Elephant Conservation centre do seem to have got it right. Mandalao are focused on allowing the animals to live as natural a life as possible, roaming, foraging and forming bonds to create a herd that can be released.

Visiting MandaLao Elephant Conservation

Trekking with the elephants. You are provided with water canteens and legging boots.

It is a short road trip to the MandaLao headquarters, a new state of the art complex perched above the river with great vistas. After a welcoming drink we sat and had a lecture from the genial and visionary elephant expert Mr Prasop Tipprasert who is their chief consultant and often referred to as the elephant whisperer. It was extremely educational, but perhaps too technical for the average tourist who just wants to see the elephants as soon as possible.

Mandalao Elephants foraging in forest

Foraging for themselves under the watchful eye of the mahouts. It is wonderful enjoying the serenity of their company.

Mr Tipprasert hails from the Thailand Elephant Conservation centre where over the last three decades  he has been the originator and pioneer of the Positive Reinforcement Training of elephants. Basically, this means training with rewards such as a treat or praise when behaving well. He also successfully introduced the concept and establishment of having forest buffer zones around  elephant sanctuaries so as not to upset adjacent farmers and residents and made it possible to release some elephants back into the wild.

The centre operates a morning and afternoon group of up to eight people and an all-day group restricted to four, which although expensive is by far the best experience. We took part in the all day and were the only ones and were taken across the river in a canoe to meet the two elephants we were to spend our day with. We spent a leisurely morning trekking with them and their mahouts and an extremely informative and helpful guide named Tanh who had a great sense of humour.

A new arrival suffering awful repetitive behavior and at the beginning of her rehabilitation. Filmed by Debbie Jacob.

Fascinating to watch their natural habits

We watched as they foraged and used their fascinating natural skills and habits such as breaking off branches stripping the leaves while holding them with their massive feet. It was all done at their pace and the mahouts seemed devoted to them. We then had lunch at a jungle camp, a swim in a small waterfall and a final trek back. It was wonderful to see the elephants just being elephants.

So, if you do find yourselves in Luang Prabang I can recommend MandaLao.  It is professionally run with no hint of touristy tactics and not used by drop in tours. Every visitor provides financial help for the care of the animals and in expanding their operation to give even more retired elephants the peaceful life they deserve amongst friends, both human and of their own kind.

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Tourists abroad risking life and limb.

Giant Pandas for rent. No way to treat a vulnerable species.

China has been renting out Giant Pandas for decades at astronomical fees. The sorry state of Ya Ya and Le Le are the result.

In December 2022, Memphis Zoo returned two sorry looking aged Giant Pandas named Ya Ya and Le Le back to their homeland to great fanfare and publicity. According to the zoo Ya Ya and Le Le helped “pioneer research and conservation projects” and drew visitors to Memphis to “get a small taste of the exquisite culture of the People’s Republic of China.”

But according to several animal advocacy groups the zoo had not been providing them with adequate food or enough outdoor freedom and cited instances of them pacing in circles. These groups had been criticising the zoo for months and have claimed victory now that they are being returned to China. But it would appear their return may have been more to do with their contract expiring. And what are they returning to?

Giant Pandas Ya Ya and Le Le
The poor old pandas being airlifted home

What future for Ya Ya and Le Le

At 24 years old and 22 years old respectively, having already exceeded the usual life expectancy by a considerable amount, Ya Ya and Le Le may not have much of a future. Not to mention the stress of being uprooted and flown round the world.

Few people realise that Giant Pandas are “rented” out by China. After the Second World war China was in the habit of “gifting” Giant pandas to other countries as part of trade agreements and diplomacy and zoos would clamour to house them. But in 1984 China changed this policy and began leasing them for high monthly fees. This changed again in 1991 to ten year leases costing up to US$1 million dollars per year with any cubs born having to be returned to China.

Some cynics have suggested that the Giant Panda is used as a “strategic asset for geopolitical reasons” because of the many trade agreements coinciding with their arrival in a country. The Pandas at Edinburgh coincided with a £2.6 billion worth of trade contracts for Britain. Zoos in France, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand also received Pandas following trade agreements.

Giant Pandas can assure a zoo’s financial future

They always come in pairs and the zoos pray they will breed as any cubs born boost their visitors and make them tens of millions in revenue. Any cub born costs the zoos a further “baby tax” until they are returned to China for breeding at 2 to 3 years old to support a healthy gene pool. In 2012, Toronto Zoo paid the going price of $1 million per annum for a pair and they produced two cubs which resulted in visitor numbers shooting up.

Edinburgh zoo rented a pair in 2011 named Yang Guang and Tian Tian with a contract costing £600,000 a year and they must be returned at the end of  this agreement. Not that the zoo was too worried about the investment as visitor numbers shot up by 4 million in the first two years at £16 plus a head. This contract was extended by two years because of Covid and they are due to go back in 2o23.

The crowds tend to have a habit of losing interest if a cub is not born to reinvigorate the attraction, but luckily a cub was born in 2017 to much excitement and media coverage and probably to the relief of the zoo’s accountants.

Giant panda cubs lined up in China breeding centre
Bred for what?

Captive numbers have increased, but for what?

The number of wild and captive Pandas has increased to over 2,000 and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have downgraded their endangered species label to “vulnerable”, but this does not mean that they are plentiful in the wild or will ever be, as there is very little room in suitable habitats for their release.

China (and of course the zoos they have been rented to) has bred and reared over 400 giant pandas and love to show off all the cute babies to world acclaim, but allegedly only 10 have ever been released into the wild since 1983 and only two of these have survived which appears to make a total nonsense of breeding them for release.

The bottom line seems to be that Giant Pandas have been reduced to tradeable merchandise.

Fund-raising Giant Pandas for rent and loan.
What is Zoonasia?
The lure of ‘get up close’ animal attractions