— Mae Dta Keow —
Mae Dta Keow ("green eyes") was born around 1965. She was rescued in January 2004 with funds raised by Katherine Holden and friends, and large donations by Bert Von Roemer and Connie Speight. Like many elephants, she has worked in both logging and trekking.
Mae Dta Keow is a classic example of the dangers in relying on negative reinforcement to train and control elephants. She is an elephant who never really got over the trauma of the phajaan breaking ceremony that is performed on young elephants when they are first trained to be domestic working animals. As a result, she has never really trusted humans and was deemed difficult to work with.
All her life she has had a succession of cruel mahouts who were quite ‘heavy handed’ with her. Years of abuse made her more and more resentful of humans. When she misbehaved she would be beaten and her resentment would grow. This negative cycle continued until she could take it no longer and finally she retaliated by killing her mahout.
As punishment, she was taken to the forest, deprived of food and water and beaten severely. She was physically and mentally weakened. Once her wounds were healed enough for her to be back in the public eye, she was put back to work carrying tourists, harboring an even deeper mistrust and dislike of humans. It was not long before she injured a tourist. Once again, she was taken to the jungle and beaten.
Only now did the owner see her as a liability and decide to sell her. Lek received word of an elephant for sale and considering her age and physical condition, the price seemed very reasonable. (The fact that an elephant has killed or injured someone is rarely mentioned in the sales pitch.) Lek decided to buy, and a Jumbo Express team was sent out to walk her to freedom.
When Mae Dta Keow arrived at Elephant Nature Park, she was noticeably disturbed and had anti-social tendencies. In her first year at the park, she did not join any family groups or make friends with any other loner females. It took time, love and patience but eventually she became more social.
Now Mae Dta Keow is showing vast progress, taking on the role of part time auntie to Aura, Mae Boon’s daughter. She is allowed to spend her days on her own schedule, having as little or as much human interaction as she is comfortable with. She has come a long way emotionally since her arrival. She has less and less signs of aggression and as time goes on, she may finally find peace in the nurturing environment of Elephant Nature Park.
To learn more about the histories and personalities of our elephants, please click on any of the links below.
