Birth No. 86 – 3 April 2024

We are all excited to welcome to the world Number 86! Little girl born this morning 1.55am to Pang Namphueng. This is her 6th baby! Mum and baby doing very well. Saving the species one birth at a time!

Phaniat, the place where the elephants are kept and the kings are crowned…

(Jeremias Van Vliet, 1692)

 The Royal Elephant Kraal Village is steeped in elephant history. In earlier times it was known as  Thamle Ya or the “grass locality”. The last annual round up from the wild was in 1906. A spectacular display, the round up was a testament to the King’s power and the skills of the mahouts. The Royal Elephant Kraal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the only one left in Thailand. Click through these photos for a fascinating look at Elephant culture of the past.

 The outlook from the Ko Jawet Maha Prasat pavilion, from where the kings watched the elephant trapping ceremony, is a large enclosure surrounded with logs having; from the front centre, fencing lines of 45 degrees spread out to both sides far away into the former jungle area. The kraal dates back to the 16th century, when King Maha Thammaracha (r.1569-1590) after the first fall of Ayutthaya in 1569, moved the old elephant kraal near Wat Song to the present site; a time when elephants were not only caught and trained for work and transport, but also used for warfare.

Many visitors in the late 19th and early 20th century had the occasion to visit the kraal in Ayutthaya. George Bacon, visiting Siam in 1857 describes the site as follows:

“After visiting the ruins, therefore, we inspected the kraal or stockade, in which

the elephants are captured. This was a large quadrangular piece of ground, enclosed by a wall about six feet in thickness, having an entrance on one side through which the elephants are made to enter the enclosure. Inside the wall is a fence of strong teak stakes driven into the ground a few inches apart. In the centre is a small house erected on poles and strongly surrounded with stakes, wherein some men are stationed for the purpose of securing the animals. …Once a year, a large number is collected together in the enclosure, and as many as are wanted of those possessing the points which the Siamese consider beautiful are captured. …On this occasion the king and a large concourse of nobles assemble together to witness the proceedings; they occupy a large platform on one side of the enclosure.” [1]

The restoration of Ayutthaya’s ancient kraal, the elephant-trapping pen, began in October 2007. All 980 ageing logs in the fence surrounding the enclosure were replaced. The “sao talung” are the major component of the pen, or “Phaniat Klong Chang”, which wild elephants were driven into for elephant-trapping ceremonies in the Ayutthaya period. All the old timber was replaced under a 16 million Baht restoration project, which was launched to mark King Rama IX’s 80th birthday in December 2007. The governor presided over the ceremony, in which the first of the logs were uprooted from the ground. There was a ritual to obtain permission from the deities before the restoration began, as the kraal is traditionally a sacred place.

Thank you to Ayutthay-history.com. For more information please visit http://www.ayutthaya-history.com/Historical_Sites_ElephantKraal.html

“A longitudinal study of LH, gonadal and adrenal steroids in four intact Asian bull elephants (Elephas maximus) and one castrate African bull (Loxodonta africana) during musth and non-musth periods”

During musth, a number of hormones in the body are increased. Until now, the only hormones studied have been the male sex hormones, testosterone, androstenedione and dihydrotestosterone. All of these hormones are produced by the testes in the bull elephant.

Musth can be seen as a very stressful time for a bull elephant. Bulls in musth decrease their food intake, greatly increase their territories (so they roam over a much larger range), fight more with other elephants (and with other species), and at the height of musth they lose large amounts of water to urine dribbling (they become ‘incontinent’ and dribble urine almost constantly; this is probably to leave specific chemicals behind to communicate their state to other elephants). The adrenal glands are involved in the stress response in most species studied to date, and it is reasonable to think that they would be active during the stressful time of musth.

The adrenal glands produce the hormone cortisol in times of stress, but they can also produce some sex hormones, including testosterone, androstenedione and the weaker male sex hormones (androgens) androstenediol and DHEA.  These last two hormones are produced in large part by the adrenal glands, not by the testes. The purpose of this study was to determine if the adrenal glands increase their hormone production during musth. Weekly blood samples were taken from two adult Asian bull elephants at the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal, and from two Asian bull elephants at the Oregon Zoo in the United States over a period of 11-15 months, during musth and non-musth periods. Samples were measured for levels of cortisol, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, DHEA, androstenedione and androstenediol. In three of the four bulls, all of the hormones studied increased during musth, including those mostly produced by the adrenal glands. This suggests that the adrenal glands are actively producing hormones during musth in the Asian bull elephant. The significance of this adrenal hormone production is unknown.

Assessment of Pregnancy Status of Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) by Measurement of Progestagen and Glucocorticoid and Their Metabolite Concentrations in Serum and Feces, Using Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA)

The study was to find patterns of progestagen (progesterone and its metabolite) and glucocorticoid and their metabolite concentrations in serum and feces of pregnant Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). The 5 female Asian domestic elephants were naturally mated until pregnancy. After that, blood and feces samples were collected monthly during pregnancy for progestagen, glucocorticoid and their metabolites analysis by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). The results showed the serum progestagen concentration during gestation was 2.11 ± 0.60 to 18.44 ± 2.28 ng/ml. Overall, serum progestagen concentration rose from the 1st month to reach peak in the 11th month, after which it declined to its lowest level in the 22nd month of pregnancy. Fecal progestagen concentration varied from 1.18 ± 0.54 to 3.35 ± 0.45 µg/g during pregnancy. In general, fecal progestagen concentration increased from the 1st month to its highest level in the 12th month. After this, it declined reaching its lowest point in the 22nd month of pregnancy. Glucocorticoid hormones and their metabolite concentrations both in serum and feces fluctuated from low to medium throughout almost the entire pregnancy period and then rapidly increased around the last week before calving. Our study suggests that this profile of progestagen and glucocorticoid hormones and their metabolite concentration levels in serum and feces can be used to assess the pregnancy status of Asian elephants. If serum and fecal progestagen concentrations were found in very low levels and glucocorticoid and their metabolite concentrations were found in very high levels, it was indicated that the cow elephant would calve within 7 days.