All About Elephants!

Elephants - the largest land mammal on Earth and incredibly intelligent creatures. Elephants are highly social animals, living in matriarchal groups, with the matriarch (usually the oldest female) making the decisions for the herd. Male elephants leave the family group after adolescence to join bachelor herds or live on their own. Elephants are socially complex, seeming to understand how other elephants are feeling, demonstrating empathy, assisting each other and even mourning their dead.
 

African elephants and Asian elephants may live on different continents, but they are very similar in behaviour and appearance. African elephants tend to be larger, have bigger ears, a rounder head and a concave back compared to their Asian cousins. African elephants can live to be 70 years and Asian elephants can live up to 50 years in the wild.

Seeing an elephant for the first time, you will instantly understand why they are respected and revered - and at times feared. Elephants are massive, and they are incredibly strong. Adult males weigh up to six tonnes, while male Asian elephants can weigh up to five tonnes. These giants are vegetarians, eating a wide range of plant material, including grass, leaves, woody parts of trees and shrubs, roots, flowers and fruits when available. An adult needs to eat up to 150 kg (330 lbs) of food a day – that’s 50 tonnes a year!

Trunks and Tusks

Their most notable feature, their trunk, is an extension of the upper lip and nose, and is used for breathing, smelling, touching, grasping and producing sound. Baby elephants will even suck on their trunk to soothe themselves, like children will suck their thumb. The trunk is very muscular and a male elephant can use their trunk to lift a load of more than 250 kg. That's over 550 lbs! Their distinctive tusks are actually long upper incisor teeth, and are used as a tool to dig for food or water and to strip bark from trees. Tusks are also used as a weapon during fights with rivals, and by males to court females who appreciate larger tusks in their partners. Both male and female African elephants have tusks, while only some male Asian elephants have them. Female Asian elephants have shorter tusks called tushes.

Threats to Elephants

Ivory, which refers to the tusks, has been long treasured by humans, and is used to make luxury goods like jewellery and carvings, piano keys and billiard balls. Ivory is one of the main threats to the survival of the elephant species, as elephants are still hunted for their ivory tusks despite international bans and regulations. Asian elephants also face threats from tourist attractions where people pay to ride on their backs or to be entertained by performances. The hidden truth is that to make elephants submit to elephant rides and other human interactions, they are taken from their mothers when babies and forced through a horrific training process that essentially breaks their spirit. And the ongoing treatment of captive elephants is often appalling. As if this wasn't enough, elephants are also losing their habitats through the destruction of forests and the development of land. Elephants need large spaces in which to live and this loss has threatened their survival and pushed them into more conflict situations with humans.

We have the power

We have the power to help protect elephants. As tourists, as consumers and as animal lovers we can ensure we are not contributing to these problems and that we are actively supporting change. When traveling, or at home, do not buy or sell products that contain ivory. Do not support attractions that offer elephant rides or shows, and instead look for organizations that commit to offering elephant experiences with a high standard of elephant welfare and conservation, with responsible viewing of elephants in wild or semi-wild habitats. 

Animal Experience International has taken a stand by pledging not to sell or promote cruel elephant activities, and to help to avert future crises by making this the last generation of captive elephants used for entertainment. AEI volunteers help at an Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand that provides refuge for rescued elephants, allows the elephants opportunities for normal socialization and upholds a high standard of care. You too can join the team and help provide care for these amazing creatures!

Click here to learn how to help elephants!

Wildlife Veterinary Care

Wildlife rehabilitation offers sick, injured, orphaned and rescued wildlife a second chance. This work would not be possible without dedicated wildlife carers, biologists, park rangers, veterinary professionals and volunteers. Animal Experience International supports wildlife centres around the world, in Guatemala, Malawi, Thailand and Australia. I personally have had the honour to work as a wildlife veterinarian for more than 20 years. Not a day goes by that I'm not surprised or amazed by my wild patients. Working with wildlife presents many challenges that are not faced by vets treating domestic animals like dogs, cats and horses.

We don’t know their history.

Our wild patients often come to us with no background information. The animal may have been found lying on a road, been confiscated from a smuggler, or seen not using a leg. But unlike domestic animals, there is no person to share the animal’s history, a tool vets rely on to deduce what is wrong. Wildlife vets must be detectives, a task made even more difficult by the stoic nature of wildlife. In the wild a weak animal is more likely to become another animal’s dinner – wildlife has an amazing ability to hide their illness or injuries, even from veterinarians.

Survival is essential.

Add to that, our wild patients have to be well enough to survive in the wild once released. We cannot ask a patient to return for regular follow-up exams, or to leave with pain medication that they can take indefinitely. The goal of wildlife rehabilitation is to return healthy animals back to the wild. Wild animals must be able to swim, climb, fly, hunt, evade prey, reproduce, interact appropriately, and flourish in the wild. This holds us vets to an exceedingly high standard!

Our care is very stressful.

Wildlife find captivity to be extremely stressful – to a wild animal, humans are seen as predators. This means we must work very hard to keep our patients as comfortable as possible and to minimize stress. Unlike with domestic animals, wildlife is not soothed by touch or reassuring talk. Quite the opposite! Minimizing stress means being quiet around wildlife, staying away from enclosures, and keeping the number of times we examine, treat, weigh, or otherwise disturb our patients to a minimum. Wildlife centres work hard to design enclosures that keep animals safe and comfortable, and to provide enrichment to keep animals occupied while in care. Animals that are less stressed heal and recover more quickly, tend not to further injury themselves and can be released back to the wild sooner.

I love the challenges that come with working with wildlife – the constant problem solving, and creativity required to treat my patients successfully. But for all of us involved in wildlife rehabilitation and rescue, the most satisfying part is when our work in done, and the animal is given a second chance to live its life, free in the wild.
 

~ Dr. Heather Reid is a Wildlife Veterinarian and the Co-founder of AEI ~

Virtual Volunteering WIN!

During the summer we teamed up with Fanimal to help get more people remotely volunteering on international programs (https://fanimal.online/how-to-virtually-help-all-animals-remotely/).

What kind of volunteering: some looked through camera trap photos to identity animals, others took over social media for a month and others helped with translation and editing. Often times centres need their plaques and guidebooks to be in English. Many centres we work with have non native English speaking scientists who can translate documents from their native language to English but need native English speakers to look over everything and do some edits.

A brilliant and wonderful volunteer helped edit these signs to make sure they were 100% correct and 100% AP style guide approved. Now these conservation plaques will be up for years and years and help THOUSANDS of visitors to Mongolia understand the natural history of the area.

How cool is that? If you want to help with translation or anything else that can take place remotely, let us know! We can’t wait to help more animals with your help.

Costa Rica Update

Want to help the conservation of endangered animals?

Volunteer in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is open to *some* travellers and volunteer.

The three pillars in which we built AEI are: safety, ethical practices and authentic conservation activities.
In the last 6 months we have been working hard at making sure none of those pillars crumbles or falls.
This has meant with some countries opening up we have had to make hard decisions. We need to keep local communities and our clients safe- and how do we do that in a pandemic while they desperately need help and donations?
Most of our programs are still closed but we are happy to announce if you are from Canada, some American states or some countries in Europe, you can volunteer in Costa Rica on our sea turtle conservation program!
We will be writing more about this in a newsletter today and of course updating all the details on the website. But if you want to travel to authentically help turtles, we can make sure you do it safely, and of course ethically.

How can you volunteer in Costa Rica?

• Canadian, Australian and European passports are accepted. Sadly, no Americans are allowed just yet- this also includes those who transit through America. 

• You must be able to show a negative Covid 19 test taken within 48 hours of travel

• You must complete an online epidemiological form provided by the Ministry of health.

How can this be safe?

• All volunteers must wear masks while volunteering. Hand sanitizer is provided and social distancing while volunteering is required.

• Social distancing at home and off time is more than possible since you live in your own cabin in a small community with a very low population density. 

• Volunteering activities take place outside and with other participants who have been cleared of risk (through national and regional requirements of testing).

• Our travel insurance partner covers Covid-19 complications. 

If you want to help sea turtles in Costa Rica check out our website or contact us today. We will be more than happy to talk to you about the realities of volunteering in 2020. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Animal Experience International.

As more and more of the world starts to wake up to the white supremacist narrative that has unfairly been the norm for far too long, Animal Experience International knows we have a part to play. For far too long companies like ours have been uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to speak out against the white dominance norms and white savior narrative that runs deep in the travel industry.

From the very start AEI has committed to only partnering with local groups around the world. Groups that have local leadership, work with local professionals, and local community support. But that is not enough. Passive non-racist commitments are not enough now and will not be enough in the future. We commit to an active anti-racist workplace.

The travel industry has a long and shameful history of white privilege and white supremacy. Narratives have been taught to travelers that are not based in fact, only in bias and racism. The travel industry was built on a foundation of cruelty, inequity, exclusion and often violence. This is not the industry we want to be part of, but its shameful history still shows in the implicit bias and racial inequities of travelers, operators, and suppliers.

Some changes will happen overnight but hear us when we say we are committed to a full top to bottom change of the system. Systemic racism must be stopped because we are only free when ALL of us are free. We will continue to learn, to ask, to be humble and to be grateful to those who came before us, those who teach us and those who are willing to guide us towards a more equitable world, in this industry and all others.

We commit to engaging mindfully and purposefully with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) communities more than we ever have and we commit to making changes as often as it takes to get it right.


We commit to the following actions:

• We understand that you can’t be what you can’t see. We commit to engaging more with BIPOC communities through all our social media campaigns. Reaching out to learn more about how to partner, support and amplify those who are already doing this important work.

• We commit to the addition of an anti-racism, diversity, and inclusion agreement with all our placement partners. If our placement partners do not have such documents in place we commit to offering help when needed. It’s not about calling out, it’s about calling in.
  

• We commit to doing the work. Reading more books, attending more webinars, taking part in more diversity, equity and inclusion workshops and training sessions. We also commit to sharing these resources, not to virtue signal but to help amplify the voices who have been suppressed for too long.
  

• We will address and adjust the unfair and harmful white privilege narratives that can exist when a company is run by two white women. We commit to hiring in the BIPOC community so our messages can be more diverse and equitable. We commit to diversity on all our teams, including our internships, and social media partners.

• We will add diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism messages to all our manuals and training materials. This will include self-evaluations, history of violence against the BIPOC community in travel, white privilege, systemic racism and of course allyship. This will not all be written by AEI, we will work with qualified professionals to develop these resources.  

This cannot happen overnight, and this cannot be achieved by us in isolation. If you want to be involved in any of the above initiatives, please contact us, we would be delighted to take this journey with you. We thought we were doing enough and clearly that was not the case. We are sorry. We will do better and we will do better by including everyone equally.

Black Lives Matter.

Anti-Racist Resources

Well, we are months into isolation and the world some how seems much darker but also more hopeful at the same time. We have watched the news with tears in our eyes, we grieve but we remain hopeful that the world is changing. I really hope you all are taking care of yourself- both inside and outside.

Of course I mean in the house and out of it but also all the health possible, physical, mental, spiritual: seriously everything. The world grieves all the lives we lost in the last few months, from Covid-19, from racists, from police brutality, from people having to be in lock down with their abusers, and those who are still fleeing famine, war and persecution. We grieve with the world.

If you are tired, if you are angry, if you are worn out, if you are feeling down or flat- this is normal. You are, no doubt a compassionate person, that is why you are here. No one can see the suffering right now and be unaffected. Be kind to yourself while you continue to get educated. Rest when you need to, be active when you can, help each other in ways that fit your life- don’t just do things because others are. People aren’t looking for performative acts right now, they are looking for real and true allies. Those who will listen, who will let others speak, who will do the work to find out how truly to be anti-racist and those who will continue to keep the vulnerable people in their communities safe from Covid-19.

We still don't know what the future looks like for travel but we do know that when it's safe, we will let you know and we will figure out how to safely help these animals we have committed to. 

Until then, please be safe. The world is much better with all of you in it.

If you are looking for books, blogs, accounts, documentaries so you can better understand how to be an ally to POC right now we recommend you follow https://www.instagram.com/bowtiesandbooks/

https://www.instagram.com/blackvisionscollective/

https://www.instagram.com/privtoprog/

you read: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566247/white-fragility-by-robin-diangelo/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555849/im-still-here-by-austin-channing-brown/

And you look at the resources compiled here: https://www.feministbookclub.com/justice-for-george-floyd/?fbclid=IwAR0ueePRYGw2elE35UjUh30qdgqT2lO94nI0Zsn1u54xzqNdvdLqrYSmtek

Support each other, look out for each other, love each other and protect each other.

We love you.

Black Lives Matter.

-Nora

Turtley Awesome Sea Turtle Facts.

The first time I saw a sea turtle was when I was in Costa Rica, participating in AEI’s sea turtle nesting conservation program. It was late at night and we were helping to patrol the beach, on the lookout for female turtles coming out of the ocean to lay their eggs. The turtle was a Leatherback - a giant, silent, magnificent presence in the moonlight. She was breathtaking. And the experience was made even more amazing by knowing we were ensuring her eggs would be kept safe, and that her offspring could return to the ocean one day, to continue a cycle that has been taking place for over 100 million years.

Sea turtles are one of the most loved marine creatures, but also one of the most secretive. For the most part, what sea turtles do and where they spend their time has remained a mystery. There are seven species of sea turtles in our oceans, and while females periodically come on shore to lay their eggs, most of their lives are spent in the water. We do know that most species migrate thousands of kilometers in their lifetimes as they move between their feeding and breeding grounds and are found in every ocean around the world, except the Arctic and Antarctic. One Leatherback turtle found on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica had been previously tagged in Newfoundland, Canada!

We need to know more about them

Tagging and tracking sea turtles has been key in allowing researchers to gain insight into their lives, and provides important information for sea turtle protection and conservation. AEI’s sea turtle conservation program in Costa Rica offers a glimpse into the lives of sea turtles when they are not at their nesting sites. Researchers study turtles swimming freely in the Golfo Dulce, identifying, tagging and monitoring these sea turtles to better understand their behaviour. This information is used in the global turtle conservation effort to help turtles around the world. 

Sea turtle facts 

Sea turtles species vary greatly in size. Olive ridleys are the smallest sea turtles (weighing up to 50 kg or 110 pounds). Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtle species and can weigh up to 680 kg (1,500 pounds) and measure 183 cm (6 feet). We know that sea turtles can live a very long time, but their exact age is difficult to document. Their natural lifespan is estimated to be between 50 and 100 years. It takes 20 - 30 years for a sea turtle to reach sexual maturity, and when ready, female turtles return to the very same beach where they were hatched to lay their own eggs. Some females have been found to nest every year until the age of 80!

How many sea turtles are there? 

This is a difficult question to answer, as juvenile and male sea turtles never come ashore. Population numbers are usually estimated by the number of adult females that nest each year. This is not an easy feat, as some females nest every 2 - 3 years, and others may nest more than once in a season. Scientists look at the changing numbers of nesting females from year to year to determine population trends. 

Making a difference

We do know that six of the seven species of sea turtles are listed as threatened, endangered or critically endangered. Sea turtles face multiple threats caused by humans, such as bycatch in commercial fishing gear, illegal trade, consumption, and climate change. There is still much work to do to decrease these threats and many ways for you to help.  AEI’s partner in Australia provides assistance to adult sea turtles that have been injured or impacted by boats, nets, ocean pollution and severe weather events. 

Together we are making a difference. We are starting to hear positive news, with many conservation programs reporting an increase in the numbers of nesting female sea turtles now being counted on the beaches. By supporting these efforts, we can continue to see the numbers of these ancient and mysterious sea creatures rise and ensure they have a place in the oceans for millions of more years to come.

Remember that AEI has a Relief Fund for our placement partners. If you want to donate to sea turtles you can send us the donation through paypal and we will send it over to them- just make sure you add the animal you want the donation to go to. That way you don’t pay any bank fees or anything like that! 100% of the money that you send us to send to sea turtle conservation will go to sea turtles! Donate Here!

When Can We Travel Again?

The TL;DR is: we don’t know.

The long story is we don’t know because every country and company is going to be a little different. There will be different restrictions at borders, there may be quarantine mandates based on your passport, there will be different commercial flight availability for each country, there will be changes. It will be be different. Will it be different forever? We also don’t know.

To be travel experts and to not know doesn’t feel great but we have been signing up for every single travel talk, industry webinar and community meeting possible. We don’t love getting you to travel, we love travel, too! We want to help you travel safely but we also want to travel safely!

What we do know is that when travel opens up again ( probably at a trickle to start as countries and travel companies figure out their specific plans) we will be there right with you to make sure you are as safe, confident and comfortable as always. We have have always been proud of our clean safety record- more than 800 people have traveled with us safely to more than 20 projects! Remember, we go to all the placements first to make sure they are safe, they are ethical and they care authentically helping animals. We will not blindly be sending clients back into the field to help animals. We will be making sure everyone will be safe every step of their adventure.

We also have been in regular meetings with all our placements. There are already policies written to help keep you safe. Quarantine friendly housing is just the beginning! Don’t worry, like I said, when you are ready to travel, when the world is ready to have you travel, we will be sharing with you the plans we have developed and agreed on.

In the meantime, I am still here! Answering questions, helping ease anxieties and working on travel plans (for myself and others traveling in 2021 and beyond), if you have questions send me a message!

We won’t be sheltering in place forever so allow yourself to dream. Think about where you would like to go, who you would like to volunteer with, what animals you would like to meet when this is all over. Because, it will be over, we aren’t sure when but it will end.

Travel will be safe, it will be fun, it will be an adventure, it will be later.

Nora

How to Virtually Help All Animals... Remotely.

We are all going to be home for a bit longer so do you want to help animals from your backyard, phone or even computer? You are in luck because I wrote an article all about it for Fanimal. Check out all the different ways you can be a citizen scientist and help animals from bumble bees in your backyard to penguins in Antarctica! Read How to Virtually Help All Animals… Remotely. and then share it with your friends and family. Come back and tell us how you helped animals!

Be safe y’all, with your insides and your outsides.

Nora