Elephant rescue in Belfast, WWII.
Elephant Polo, Nepal spreads to Thailand. Alcohol apparently involved.
Sad news about Jim Edwards. I’ve written on this Board about him before. Quite a character. In the 2006 Thailand tournament, the first year it moved from Hua Hin in the South to Chiang Saen in the North, Edwards personally ruled it was a fair goal if the elephant kicked the ball over the line itself rather than the player whack it across with the mallet.
I have this thread on this year’s tournament, which ended on Sunday. Haven’t heard yet who won, as it sort of dropped out of the news.
But a foul if the trunk is used. 
Those are both wonderful stories. Thanks for posting them.
You are very welcome.
You’re not whooshing me, are you?
And about that ruling by Jim Edwards. Being the Grand Old Man of elephant polo, he had the authority to make any ruling. He was the ruling body. Imagine that. There is no other international sport in which one single man wields such power. His word was law. I remember when that elephant kicked the ball over the line. It had apparently done so accidentally while in the process of stepping forward. This had never happened before. Jim was on hand to make the ruling. I doubt he ever missed a tournament anywhere unless he absolutely had to.
A fascinating man to listen to; it was like he was right out of the British Raj, only without the apathy and contempt for the locals. If I recall him telling, he and a friend got the idea for elephant polo one day while sitting around drinking and staring at his personal elephant herd. He was a truly compassionate man. His Tiger Tops resort in Nepal has won all sorts of awards, and he’s hosted such luminaries as Jimmy Carter and even some members of the British royal family (I’m thinking Queen Elizabeth, but that may not be right; did she ever go to Nepal? She’s been here to Thailand), but he was tight-lipped about stories about any of his guests, very discreet.
I found another obituary on him here.
There’s a small local elephant update here.
Keeping elephants out of crops here is a major pain. They especially like invading pineapple plantations – they love those pineapples – and even though it’s illegal, the farmers will often string up electic wire that’s strong enough to kill the poor beasts. The story in the link above mentions electric wire, but unlike that wire, I’m talking a lethal jolt here; from time to time, you’ll read about one being found dead because of this.
Scott Riddle worked on a portable barrier constructed by local labor of local material, but I cannot find a link.
Perhaps I shall suggest polo tomorrow. I suspect whoever has Willie on their side will win. I think he’s twelve feet tall now despite the web site info.
That story is very confusingly written. The title makes it sound like an elephant was lost in WWII and was recently discovered, and the first paragraph says that the elephant was rescued from being put to sleep. But the following paragraphs simply talk about how the elephant was spending nights out of the zoo–which doesn’t seem relevant at all to anything.
After reading through about three times I’ve realised that the “elephant angel” was the human not the elephant, and I guess what was discovered recently is that she was the one who saved the elephant from being put to sleep, but it still doesn’t explain how letting the elephant sleep over at nights would have saved it from the kill order.
I presume the zoo officials were content to not have the elephant away from the zoo during air raids which occurred at night. Keeping an elephant in your backyard must be difficult at best.
I found an elephant story recently while researching interesting deaths for the historical cemetery I volunteer at. I haven’t got my notes at home but from what I remember there was a circus chap who had taught his elephants to fire guns as a performance. The story would have been better if an elephant had shot him but in fact he died as a result of shooting himself in a gun cleaning accident.
Ah, but that’s not necessarily so. Many’s the novice polo player who selects a smaller elephant in a sudden excess of caution, only to be horrified to discover they can run faster. For offense, you want the swift smaller ones rather than the lumbering big guys.
Nothing an elephant does with its trunk would surprise me. The trunk, indeed the whole elephant, is a marvel of engineering. The trunk can pick up a log or a pencil, and the beast exerts less pressure per square inch than a deer.
If Willie were offended, I wouldn’t want to stand in his way or run from him on however fleet an elephant.
Amy slapped her 16 month old daughter today when she tried to eat Mama’s tree branch.
Yet another in an endless stream of no-elephants-in-the-city pronouncements. But THIS time they’re serious. Oh yeah. No more fooling around. Not like all the other times over the years. Really, no more elephants in the streets. Nope, not this time, I’m sure. :rolleye:
Excerpt: “Deputy BMA governor Theerachon Manomaipibul said yesterday that repeat offenders would be warned three times after which they would be fined up to Bt50,000 [US$1500] and have their elephants sent home.”
Uh-huh.
Those are great-- I haven’t seen any of them in person yet, but I keep my eyes open.
The Elephant Nature Park mentioned in the pictures is a marvelous place. It’s up north, near Chiang Mai, and is a home for retired or abused elephants: they don’t have to play soccer, paint or do any other work, and instead spend their time sleeping, eating and playing with each other and with visitors.
Elephant electrocuted in national park 
“Nearby was a toad that had also died from electric shock.”
She knocked over a power pole, or the villagers left a trap to electrocute her?
Seems to have been an accident. Farmers electrocuting elephants is not uncommon here; if that had been suspected, it would have been pretty clear about it.
I just found out the power went out in the nearby village when the elephant ripped down that cable. That was about 2am, so they figure that’s when it happened. It looks like the bamboo was not actually supporting the cable, but rather it was just above the growth of bamboo, and the elephant brought it down when she tried to grab at the top leaves with her trunk.