Back in the start of 2019, the Mekong Elephant Park found out about Mae Bounma, an elephant that spent a few previous years displayed on the side of the road, inactive and untaken care of, whilst her owners were trying to sell her. At Mekong Elephant Park, we want all elephants to live a happy and healthy life, and so rescuing Mae Bounma was our utmost priority at that time.
It is all thanks to the generosity of our visitors and our online community, through online donations, through direct donations, through visits to the park, through your help in spreading the words that Mae Bounma officially became a part of the Mekong Elephant Park family in August, 2019.
Mae Bounma is now strolling around, running, eating and bathing with our other elephants freely. Something she hasn’t been accustomed to for a very long time.
She developed a very strong relationship with Mae Ping, just like sisters in a family. She respects the matriarch, Mae Kham. The 3 of them are always hanging around together, touching and cuddling. If we separate them, only even for 30 just minutes, they will make a lot of noise when reunited together again.
What is very difficult for female elephants whilst working in the logging industry is that they are forced to spend time very much alone. When Mae Bounma arrived at the Mekong Elephant Park, she was excitedly touching the other elephants and running between them as needed the extra closeness she did not have in the past years. We believe she must have missed bathing in the water when she was working, as she now spends a lot of her time just playing in the river.
Thanks again on her behalf for making her join us. You have made one heck of a happy elephant.
