Did you know there was a giant website with Elephant Information and historical elephant database?
Okay. Most won’t shout, “Goody! Goody!” and hurry off to look up the status of their favorite elephant, but there are people in this world for whom elephants are a passion. Dan Koehl is one of those people.
Photos are copyrighted by Philippe-Alexandre Chevallier and used with the artist’s permission.
For the past 25 years or so, Dan has been tracing and documenting the history of elephants. His website reaches back into very ancient history and travels to the present. He has encyclopedic knowledge of pachyderms and over forty years of personal experience. He knew the elephants I wrote about in my book. Of course he did.
If it bleeds, it leads! There are bad people who mistreat animals. Sadly, it is those horror stories we read about. GOOD NEWS is there truly are amazing people who devote their lives and livelihood to the emotional and physical care of beautiful, amazing, grand and intelligent elephants. They should get more applause and attention.
Dan is one of the good people. Currently he is working in Siem Reap, Cambodia to help instruct locals to better care for the elephants at Kulen Elephant Forest. It is the largest privately owned herd of captive elephants in Cambodia. How much money does it take to feed and care for a herd of seventy-five retired tourist industry elephants? LOTS. So please don’t be mad at educational tourism where people take tours and pay a fee. The money is needed to care for the animals. (We have not-for-profit elephant preserves here in the USA. Google it! Most places accept tax-deductible donations)
Fun Facts:
- Asian Elephants have smaller ears *not* shaped like Africa and one “finger” at the end of their trunks.
- African Elephants have ears in the shape of Africa and two “fingers” at the end of their trunks.
Who doesn’t have “Baby Elephant Walk” playing in their head now? Too young to know the song? Click this link, listen and try to get that melody out of your head!
Now… off to spend a few hours on that elephant database. You can find Dan’s Facebook page and follow him as well as check out his www.elephant.se database.
