Projects

• Tong Bai Ele­phant Care Cen­ter (TBECC)
• Sus­tain­able Feed Pro­duc­tion for Our Elephants

Tong Bai Elephant Care Center (TBECC)

In 2024, con­struc­tion began on our Tong Bai Ele­phant Care Cen­ter (TBECC) in the heart of North­ern Thai­l­and. Our vis­ion is to cre­ate the largest, most com­pre­hens­ive, and most advanced care centre of its kind for Asi­an elephants.

Why the TBECC Is So Urgently Needed

In Thai­l­and, there are only a few places where ele­phants can receive spe­cial­ised med­ic­al care. The nearest gov­ern­ment facil­ity is loc­ated in Lam­pang, around 130 km from our camp – often too far away in an emer­gency. Ele­phant Endothe­lio­trop­ic Herpes­vir­us (EEHV) is con­sidered one of the greatest threats to ele­phants world­wide. In ele­phants, EEHV mani­fests as a haem­or­rhagic dis­ease, com­par­able in sever­ity to dengue fever in humans, and can kill young ele­phants between one and ten years of age with­in just 48 hours. World­wide, the mor­tal­ity rate is estim­ated at around 96%. At present, there is no pre­vent­ive treat­ment and no vac­cine against this deadly vir­us. Hav­ing our own on-site labor­at­ory would there­fore be cru­cial in enabling early dia­gnos­is and timely treat­ment to save lives. Every lost minute and every kilo­metre trav­elled can make the dif­fer­ence between life and death.

Where We Stand Today

Thanks to your sup­port, the TBECC already includes:

• a veter­in­ary sta­tion for emer­gency and long-term care
• a mod­ern treat­ment area
• a rehab­il­it­a­tion zone in a nat­ur­al, low-stress environment

These achieve­ments mark an import­ant mile­stone. How­ever, we still lack fund­ing for:

• a sep­ar­ate musth enclos­ure for bull elephants
• roof­ing for our moth­er-and-calf enclosure
• a fully equipped labor­at­ory for hor­mone and blood analysis
• per­man­ent veter­in­ary staff
• and much more

The total cost of devel­op­ing the TBECC is cur­rently estim­ated at a min­im­um of €500,000.

Why This Matters

Asi­an ele­phants are endangered – and every ele­phant saved mat­ters. Without pro­fes­sion­al veter­in­ary care, dis­eases are often detec­ted too late, injur­ies remain untreated, and lives are lost. Our vis­ion is simple: a life of dig­nity for ele­phants. To achieve this, gaps in med­ic­al infra­struc­ture must be closed quickly, reli­ably, and dir­ectly on site.

100% Donation-Funded

The TBECC is fin­anced entirely through dona­tions. No gov­ern­ment fund­ing. No major cor­por­a­tions. Only people who, like us, believe in a future for elephants.

Sustainable Feed Production for Our Elephants

Our Own Hay Production

The nat­ur­al diet of our ele­phants is based on what their envir­on­ment provides: herbs, grasses, bark, roots, and leaves from the sur­round­ing forests and grass­lands. How­ever, an adult ele­phant requires up to 250 kilo­grams of food every day – an amount that can­not be fully sup­plied even with­in our near-nat­ur­al camp envir­on­ment. For this reas­on, we sup­ple­ment their nat­ur­al diet with addi­tion­al feed such as ele­phant grass and maize. An import­ant part of this sup­ple­ment­ary feed­ing is pro­duced by us dir­ectly: high-qual­ity hay. Pro­du­cing our own hay allows us to main­tain full con­trol over the qual­ity and ori­gin of this essen­tial feed and ensures that our ele­phants receive fibre-rich and nutri­tious food through­out the year – a stand­ard of care that remains excep­tion­al in Thailand.

Why This Matters

Hay plays a vital role in ele­phants’ diges­tion and over­all health. Pro­du­cing high-qual­ity hay under Thailand’s cli­mat­ic con­di­tions is chal­len­ging. The long rainy sea­son and high humid­ity lim­it the har­vest peri­od to only a few months each year, between Decem­ber and March. As a res­ult, only a small num­ber of loc­a­tions in the coun­try are suit­able for pro­du­cing premi­um-qual­ity hay. One of these loc­a­tions is the vil­lage of Ta Goa Muang in Lamphun Province, approx­im­ately 80 kilo­metres from our camp in Mae Sapok. There, a group of 20 farm­ers jointly cul­tiv­ates an area of around 48 hec­tares (300 rai). Provid­ing a healthy and bal­anced diet for our ele­phants costs approx­im­ately USD 60 per ele­phant per month.

Sustainability

We delib­er­ately avoid the use of pesti­cides in order to main­tain the highest pos­sible feed qual­ity while pro­tect­ing both the envir­on­ment and biod­iversity. Although this approach reduces annu­al yields, it forms an essen­tial found­a­tion for the long-term health and sus­tain­able nutri­tion of our elephants.

Reliable Nutrition, Every Day

Caring for ele­phants means far more than provid­ing shel­ter and veter­in­ary treat­ment. It also means ensur­ing a con­tinu­ous sup­ply of sev­er­al tonnes of high-qual­ity feed every day. Through our own hay pro­duc­tion, we make a dir­ect and prac­tic­al con­tri­bu­tion to the daily well­being of our ele­phants and cre­ate the found­a­tion for their health, qual­ity of life, and future.