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Published: December 23rd 2006
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(Day of the workshop
Flat Tires and Crazy Teachers), continued...)
After the workshop, Kanda took us to a local outdoor market on the way back to the park to buy dinner and pick up some provisions for backpacking to the substation tomorrow to see the camera traps she uses in her small carnivore research. We laughed as she picked up an entire chicken for us to take with us - she says the rangers will cook it. In the local market, we saw many interesting food items including a chopped off pig head and a skinned rat. We set up base at a food stand table and scattered to buy dinner. Karen and Wendy returned with nuts and a small bag of grubs - “They were FREE!” Karen exclaimed. I found some water and Kanda ordered rice dishes for us. As we sat there, a noisy static came over the loudspeaker and Kanda whispered that twice a day (8 am and 6 pm), a patriotic song is played and we all stand up at attention until it is over.
Not long after we sat down after the song, a baby elephant walked through the market with his owner! We paid to feed him
and pet him - how strange to be allowed close enough to an elephant to touch it! Our elephants at the zoo live at PDZA because our staff uses protected contact and is experienced working with cranky, middle-aged, non-breeding Asian elephants. Unfortunately for the baby elephant, chances are very, very good that he does not get the level of care we provide Suki and Hanako at our zoo.
Then came the bug-eating course of our market dinner. With varying degrees of grimace, we ate the slightly soft and squishy bugs (grublike) that Wendy and Karen procured for us. Kanda took the lead and showed us that we would not die from eating them. After we each ate the requisite bug and photographed ourselves, Kanda returned from a quick jaunt through the market with a large bag - more bugs! We’d graduated from grubs to crunchy, spiced bugs with legs. She sorted through the bag and gave us each a grasshopper. After removing the head and mustering up the courage to eat something that hops, we all ate them and felt quite pleased with our accomplishment. She rewarded our bravery with sweet coconut and orange juice drinks.
Despite the
flat tire and the bug-eating course, the day could not get any better. Sure, a tiger or Clouded leopard spotting would send Karen into ecstatic orbit (which I would LOVE to see!), but we had a fantastic time.
Well, I take that back. Nothing could make the day any better than an elephant - a real, wild Asian elephant spotting. The rangers said there hadn’t been any reports of any on the road that night, so we asked Kanda if she could make some arrangements. About 2,000 wild Asian elephants remain in Thailand’s parks and wild places. As we rounded the bend, we saw a tall, dark figure lumber on to the left-hand side of the road - AN ELEPHANT! We squealed and squawked and gasped. (No cameras within range, but you can click the video when I upload it and experience it second hand.) The elephant stood for a second on the side of the road and urinated, then he crossed the road to the other side and started walking toward us along the side of the road. Kanda inched the car forward while keeping a healthy distance and he turned into the forest. As we drove past,
he turned and vocalized to us. I think he said, “On behalf of Khao Yai National Park and its wildlife, I’d like to thank you for pledging to protect wildlife and all living things. Please donate to conservation causes to protect wild animals and wild places.” (There. Now I feel like I’m working since my job is fundraising for the zoo, not bug-eating. But I do think that storytelling is an important part of fundraising.)
In all seriousness, it is awesome as in the big A-kind-of-awesome to see wildlife up close in a rugged and beautiful setting. It breaks my heart to think of the markets adjacent to the park where wildlife products can be found on occasion - wild cat skins, animal parts. Poachers do it for money, not for habitat destruction, and groups like our WildAid partners are doing a lot to teach people sustainable skills and micro-industries (e.g. organic mushroom farming) to replace the need to poach for their livelihood.
This is just a very big THANK YOU to those of you who donate to support the Zoo Society Conservation Fund, The Clouded Leopard Project, the Point Defiance AAZK Chapter and all of the great
groups out there that work together to protect special places for some of our most endangered species. Donations of any amount make a big difference, so consider making a holiday gift in honor of someone you care about to an organization that can make the world a better place. (You know that Old Navy sweatshirt is going to pill in the wash anyway, right?)
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