Elephant Conservation Program
In the summer of 2019 I was accepted into an Elephant Conservation study abroad course where I conducted my own research project on vegetation eating habits of individual elephants. The small group consisting of a matriarch named Thong Kam and her offspring Bai Fern and Sunti as well as a male named Mario.
I spent a month in the small, Thai village of Huay Pakoot participating in cultural events and activities. The program also presented me with some incredible photographic opportunities that you can see more of in my Southeast Asia Gallery.
My individual project focused on the foraging behaviours of the individual elephants and how they compared to each other. Below you will find photos and graphs explaining the results as well as of my time spent around the elephants and the village!
Thong Kam with daughter Bai Fern
Figures 1-4: Proportion of observed foraging behaviours (by number of times observed) for Thong Kam, Bai Fern, Mario, and Sunti over the entire study period.
Figure 5: Percentage of time group of study elephants spent displaying specific foraging behaviours when in view of researcher over total study period.
