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Global Rumblings Podcast
Episode 57: Pupy's Path of Self-discovery & Our Virtual Online Auction
00:29:25
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- [00:00]
Nadia Mari
Foreign hello and welcome to Global Sanctuary for Elephants podcast. Global Rumblings. Global Sanctuary for Elephants, or GSE for short, is a non profit organization with a mission to create vast sanctions, safe spaces for captive elephants where they are able to heal physically and emotionally, often from very traumatic pasts. I'm your host, Nadia Mari, and I'll be taking you to the lush jungle of the Mato Grosso region in central Brazil, home of GSE's initial project, Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, where Asian and African elephants, lovingly referred to as the Girls, live their best lives. Hi, everyone. Welcome back and thanks for tuning in again this week for a brand new episode of Global Rumblings. We have a lot to get through to today, including updates from the Mendoza Eco park on Tami and Kenya, and of course, darling Ms. Pupi, the latest resident at the sanctuary who has turned into quite a landscape designer. So let's head over to Brazil to say hi to Kat and Scott. Hi, you two.
- [01:17]
Kat
Hey, Nadja.
- [01:18]
Scott
Hey, Nadja, how are you?
- [01:20]
Nadia Mari
I'm fine. You sound a bit tired. Oh, they laugh. They laughed. I got you.
- [01:28]
Scott
That's the only answer you get today.
- [01:32]
Nadia Mari
Okay, so we have a lot to get through to today, so let's start your virtual auction. Trunks and Treasures is back. It starts on the 13th of June, which is actually three days after this podcast comes out. So tell us all about that.
- [01:46]
Kat
Yeah, it's, it's our second one, so anybody who is at the first, it's going to be similar. We have different cute elephant items. We have stuff you can get for the, the girls. We have different trips, artwork. There's a lot of cute things. It's unfortunate because there are cute things that I'm always like, oh, I want that, which is just, I don't need it. But this year we are doing something we gave away last year, but we're doing it a little bit different. Last year we auctioned off a trip to the sanctuary for somebody and a guest. The thing for me, well, it's not just me, but I get really stuck on it is, you know, we know we have really loyal supporters who are not going to be able to get to that sort of price point, you know, but would love to come see the sanctuary. And for us, we would like all of our donors to have that opportunity. You know, in a lot of places it is if you give above a certain amount, you can visit, so on and so forth. And, you know, we've always talked about, you know, supporters that don't even give, who share a lot because they can't give or supporters who can only give what they see as a little, but are there all the time. You know, there's so many different ways to support that mean a lot. So we wanted those people to be able to have a chance at it as well. So this year we are doing it as a sweepstakes. And the cost of the flight, up to $1700 per person is covered. So this way we can afford a raffle ticket, but can't afford the flight. That's okay. It is going to be covered. The only unfortunate thing is it is us only. And this is because legally, we could not find a way to do international in time. We first started out applying to do a whole bunch of nonsense sweepstakes in Tennessee, and then they told us you couldn't do it online. It has to be in person, blah, blah, blah. So then we had to find places that do online sweepstakes and go through all this stuff. And essentially what it is, is every country we would have to do it in, we would have to abide by their sweepstakes rules. So it has to be filed to a specific part of the government. You have to do all these different steps and so on and so forth, and was way too much for us to try to do in time for that.
- [04:14]
Scott
Every country is different.
- [04:15]
Kat
Every country is different.
- [04:16]
Scott
It's not like, you know, with the United States, we have to do solicitations, permits in each state, and some of them are the same, but even with that, some of them are uniquely different. But this is. Every country is different, and it's actually.
- [04:27]
Kat
Hard to find some of the requirements. So we would like to be able to try to do it international. Honestly, it may take two years to get to that point to. To make sure that we cover our bases as a nonprofit, we always have to make sure we do everything 100% legitimate. So this year, it is US residents only. But still, we thought a nice way to give all of our supporters a chance at coming to the sanctuary.
- [04:58]
Nadia Mari
Well, that's wonderful.
- [05:00]
Scott
So you can quickly fly to the United States and go online and purchase a sweet suit.
- [05:07]
Kat
Please do not encourage people to do things that are not legal. Stop it.
- [05:11]
Nadia Mari
Well, maybe. Maybe by that time you will have a volunteer program. I'm glad that you're not there to kick me under the table. And then all international supporters can come as well. So, yeah, that's a wonderful idea. And I read in your newsletter, I've been catching up since my brief holiday, that the auction is actually benefiting Tammy and Kenya. So maybe tell us a Little bit more about where the funds exactly or how exactly the funds will be used.
- [05:44]
Kat
So as everybody knows, we are trying to get Kenya, the female African elephant and Tammy, the male Asian elephant, both at Mendoza to elephant sanctuary, Brazil. Kenya is a lot closer. Tammy is going to need a lot of work. But for, for both of them, we need caregivers to go take care of them, train them. We have to pay for their airfare, we have to pay for their lodging, we have to pay for their food stipend, we have to pay for their rides back and forth on top of their salary, of course. And at some point we need two caregivers, not just one, because of being able to do blood draw, closing Kenya's gate, so on and so forth. So having just one caregiver to do all of those things doesn't work. So it's two caregivers. So we have those expenses. Plus for beautiful Mr. Tammy, we are building another crate. Technically, he could fit in the one we have, but as we've talked about in past episodes, he has issues with not only his feet but, but his front legs and he doesn't like to bend down anymore. And if he thinks he has to bend down, he's intimidated. So we don't want him because of the pitched roof. We don't want him to feel like it's small and like he's gonna have to bend down. So we are going to be building a crate for boys.
- [07:13]
Scott
We are building a brand new crate. It is super exciting to see.
- [07:17]
Kat
It is bigger, it's taller, wider, longer, slightly different design, putting in air conditioning and heating. Yeah, it's. We are hoping that it will be much more enticing to him than the crates we have now. And of course we can always use it for anyone that travels within Brazil because we won't have to worry about any of that nonsense. Any boys, African elephants, whoever. It seems more suitable for. For. It's not just for him, but he is the impetus behind building a crate that we are hoping he wants to go into versus he's intimidated to go into.
- [08:02]
Nadia Mari
Well, that's fantastic. Yeah. Well, let's hear it for the boys. And an air conditioned transport crate does sound good. And also one that can have a heating. So that's a great, that's a really exciting event coming up. And just as a reminder then 13th of June, which is a Friday and it goes for 10 days. If you haven't signed up for the newsletter yet, do sign up, but also check GSE's social media channels and the website is global elephants.org chunksandtreasures and I'll get Bob, our video producer, to put that in as a URL as well. So you can see that. So talking of Tamune of Kenya, there was some good news. For those of you who have got the newsletter, you may have read it. We talked about caregivers in our previous episodes, how difficult it is. And Kat also just mentioned Tammy needs caregivers. So in your newsletter there is a new caregiver, not you two flying down, but his name is Walter. So tell us about those developments. That is such great news. I was very happy to hear that.
- [09:03]
Scott
Well, the long story more convoluted. But in summary, as you guys know, we were planning to move Kenya. It didn't work out. So we moved to check on Pupi to see if Pupi's progress was doing quickly, made things work for Pupi to come. And that actually liberated people from the Eco Park Buenos Aires to be available to go down to Mendoza. So fortunately, well, sort of liberated them. Yeah.
- [09:34]
Kat
I mean, they still have jobs there. So we kind of. Tomas has to finesse people in order to essentially loan us caregivers for short periods of time.
- [09:47]
Scott
So all the other coordinators at the Eco park jumped in to cover his schedule. And then the director, the primary director, then the political director also needed to sign off it. And since it is a city run program and he's going to be authorized to go different city, we needed that authorization. So it took a few steps. But Tomas from Foundation Friends Weber did help to get him liberated temporarily. It's supposed to be for 30 days. We, they graciously, graciously extended it for another 30 days, but they were very soft in their statement of don't ask again. So fortunately he is there for two months. He has another about three weeks left, four weeks left, but he's doing remarkably well and it's really been fun to watch his growth as well. And the primary elephants he worked with are Kenya and I'm sorry, Kooky and Pupi. And he said they're so. That Kenya is so vastly different than they are. You know, emotionally she's very different. And he sees her as wanting to really wanting to feel your affection, you know, wanted wanting you to be a part of what she, what she's feeling. And then also with Tammy watching him come out of his shell a little bit more as he gains more confidence and trust in what, what Walter's asking of him. So it's been really beautiful to watch and the growth of all three of.
- [11:09]
Kat
Them during this process, yeah, the training wall is still not done. So he's not able to fully work with Tammy in a way where he can ask for, you know, his nose input, presents and that sort of stuff in a way that is ideal. So he's just doing a lot of feeding with him. He's doing trunk touches with a target. Very basic things. But still really nice for Tammy to have somebody who is spending time with him and focusing on him and trying to build up, you know, that relationship and getting Tammy more used to positive relationships with humans. So. And Walter is very sweet and he's very soft, so.
- [11:51]
Nadia Mari
Oh, lovely.
- [11:52]
Kat
You know, Tammy definitely doesn't need a big ego or anybody who's going to be macho or the exact opposite, somebody who talks to him like he's a baby. So he. Walter does pretty well with finding a nice balance that seems to work for Tammy.
- [12:11]
Nadia Mari
Oh, that's so encouraging.
- [12:12]
Scott
So many people want to overly pamper the elephants, you know, and almost treat them like they're fragile, like fragile china that's going to break if you say the wrong thing, you know, or do the wrong thing. And, you know, it takes a nice, even approach. But being very emotionally available, but being emotionally available to them is not this overly pampering, for lack of a better way saying it. Baby talk, you know. Yeah, we get silly. Yeah, we get sweet. You know, we have fun with them at different times. But there's also just a good morning, how are you? How are you today?
- [12:49]
Kat
It's finding the balance with where they're at. You know, you don't get all silly if Anna wants a quiet morning, you know, and seems to just want, you know, that soft connection with nothing silly, you know, that's not the time where you get all playful and it is reading the room and making your adjustments and so on.
- [13:10]
Nadia Mari
Also. It is lovely, though, that he's getting the attention now that he needed. That you talked about Kat on previous episodes that he is lacking and the fear of him and that people were, or the staff were just, just feeding him, but there was no relationship with him. I remember I felt very sad. And I'm sure many listeners I know from your Facebook support group, Friends of Global Sanctuary for Elephants, many voiced, you know, how sad they were about Tammy. So I'm sure they were very happy to read about it in the newsletter, but also to hear your. Your personal stories about how Walter and Tammy and also Kenya are developing. So that is very, very encouraging. And talking of silly and sweet and funny and hilarious, Ms. Pupi and her gardening Antics, obviously. The yards that she has found were obviously not to her liking. Elephants are gardeners. So how has she been doing the last four weeks? How is she developing not only physically but also emotionally alone in this new world?
- [14:12]
Scott
I would actually say it's the other way. It's not that it's not to her liking. It's very much to her liking. You know, she is having a blast. I mean, she is just doing her thing. And part of that is doing what African elephants do, which is eat the trees and the branches and the bark and the. And the. The burnt trees because of the fire that came through several years ago. She found a charcoal pit the other day, we assume, and a bunch of area where trees were burnt a little bit more. And she's been eating that and decorating herself with that, and she comes out more paint.
- [14:43]
Kat
It's great.
- [14:45]
Scott
It's amazing, you know, So I think it's very much to her liking. And she's doing a great job at reorganizing, which may not be to her liking later on when she realizes it doesn't bounce back quite as quickly as it gets destroyed. So we'll have to see how that goes.
- [15:01]
Kat
She's actually not as bad as I thought she would, be, quite honest. You know, I am used to the path of destruction that the African elephants in Tennessee had left behind. And by the time I got there, there was nothing left. So I expected her to be worse, actually. She's definitely not, from what I've seen, she's definitely not as into knocking things down, but she is very much into eating bark and scraping bark off of trees, which is great. I mean, it's part of their natural diet. It's what their body needs to digest properly and move properly and the nutrients that they need. And, you know, this is the way they're meant to live. But trees don't last forever when you take all the bark off. So there are trees that are alive now that somewhere down the line will probably not be alive because they are going to be missing too much bark. But I think that's definitely a favorite of hers, versus just knocking down for knocking down sake, which you totally get. I mean, we even have Maya and Gigi. I mean, Maya, initially, she was knocking down a ton of trees.
- [16:11]
Scott
Yeah. In yard five right now. I mean, Gisha has been a tornado. You know, it's an area that had been growing up quite a bit and was really dense. And I drove through the other day. It's like, what happened? Geisha, you know, she's just Shredding the place.
- [16:27]
Kat
She has these really. Her parties at one will be like 20 minutes. Maya and Bambi will go across the creek to the back of five and she still doesn't go back there with them. So she stays in the front of five and she has these 20 minute parties of one where she's just squeaking and squawking and trumpeting and making all these noises. And she gets quiet for like 15 seconds and then she starts up again. And I think she's been having too many parties of one in yard five apparently, because, yeah, it looks a little worse for than last time I saw it.
- [17:02]
Scott
But it's really been amazing to watch Bupi adapt to that environment. And it's what we've talked about forever of how quickly elephants do assimilate into a natural world, you know, and we've had recent conversations about zoo elephant here in Brazil. And it's amazing how closed people's minds are to their ability to adapt without considering what it has taken for them to adapt to that small captive space. You know, they've adapted to 1,500 square meters. You know, of nothing. They've adapted to living inside an enclosed area for 18 hours a day. And you don't think they're going to adapt to doing exactly what an elephant is supposed to be doing, you know, that nature isn't taken out of them. That's the nature of an elephant.
- [17:48]
Kat
I mean, we certainly did not show her how to strip bark from a tree. People are always like, how are they gonna know how to eat? It is so deeply ingrained in the core of their being. You know, she was scraping bark day one. Well, night one.
- [18:04]
Nadia Mari
Amazing.
- [18:05]
Scott
Yeah, it's really amazing to watch, but she's done really, really well. The other night we went to go check on her and I couldn't find her and I couldn't hear anything. So I thought maybe we're driving around in circles and she's going and walking in one direction and I'm driving the other direction. And so I went to get cat so we could have one person stay on one side and the other go on the other side of the enclosures to see if we could get any sort of sound and see where she was. And she, you know, when we got back, she was actually right there waiting for us, you know, chewing on something from nature. I don't know what it was, but she was contentedly chewing and just doing her thing. And she's just done incredibly well assimilating to that. And you said, you know, earlier about living Alone. I'm sure there's an element that would always love to share that with somebody else. But at the same time, she's, you know, it's not like she arrived after, you know, being in companionship. The day before she left the zoo, she was alone for about four or five months before. And does that mean that, you know, she would like to have a companionship? Impossible to say. I know nature says yes. You know, everything would indicate yes. But does that mean she's wallowing in loneliness? I don't think so, no.
- [19:13]
Kat
For me, I really appreciate the fact that she is having a chance to figure out who she is. You know, we always talk about sanctuary being about self discovery and figuring out who they are. And she was always this submissive to Kooky. And her caregiver said a lot shifted after Kooky passed away, and a lot of it they saw as being positive. But, you know, you're not figuring out who you are when you still don't really have any choices in your day or anything or anywhere, anywhere to go, anything to do. So I think it's good for her to have this time before Kenya comes to kind of figure out when she really is allowed to decide who she.
- [19:59]
Scott
Is, you know, or discover who she is.
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Kat
Yeah, who is that we were joking about? You know, maybe she's actually a, you know, maybe she's not this elephant that everybody thinks she is. And giving her the space to discover that and decide that that's who she is is part of all of this. I mean, she hasn't. She's great.
- [20:23]
Scott
No, she doesn't have much. I mean, there's a couple of times during training session, door, while you're doing tick picking, she gets a little uncomfortable. And then she doesn't respond right away. It's normally a second later. And then she sometimes does a quick turn, a little tusk on the fence. And then she's like, okay, you can keep on, keep on going. And she turns back so you can pick ticks again. But I said to the caregivers, give her the space and remember to function safely in case she decides that she really likes the feeling of being, you know, good for you, man. You know, take over the world if you want. You know, this is what it's all about. But it's really exciting. Another exciting element of it is we do have an ongoing research project that started back at the eco park monitoring her behavior before and after. And they've already been incredibly surprised by the evolution of her behavior in such a short amount of Time. Marina, who is the. Our lead researcher here, our research coordinator here in Brazil. She has been, she commented the other day, not just the behavioral, but the physical. You see such an. A complete difference in just three or four weeks. You know, having just past four weeks. Just remarkable to see what's happening with her in such a short period of time.
- [21:33]
Nadia Mari
So how is she physically? I read something about she had something wrong with her trunk. Is that.
- [21:38]
Scott
Yeah, there's an old. There's an old something wrong with her trunk. Aside from being a crazy, kooky, leaky African nose. Because.
- [21:46]
Kat
Yes, because people definitely misinterpreted that. They're like, oh, my God, look at that. Look at what's wrong. It's like, no, no, that is an African elephant nose. It's like you can't see really what's wrong with her.
- [21:56]
Scott
Yeah, you visually, you can't see anything if you're just looking at her nose. It is just a weakness with the lower part of her nose. Okay. Elephants in. We've worked with several elephants who have had par. Paralysis in their trunks. But normally it's the upper 80% of their trunk down. But they have good mobility in the bottom. Hers is actually opposite of that. She does have full mobility. She doesn't have paralysis. She just has weakness. What is the origin? You can see there's a weird, I'm going to say a scar line. If you look really closely, there's some, you know, whether it be a scar line or like a, like a pinching of the muscles of some sort. Not super obvious, but we don't know. We don't know what it may have been caused by. What we have seen is a slight increase in that. Will it ever fully recover? Impossible to say. Can she do fine as it is for the rest of her life? Absolutely.
- [22:49]
Kat
The trees say yes, unfortunately, they say.
- [22:56]
Scott
Yeah, the trees say, will you please cut her tusks and immobilize her nose? But the other day, Medina sent a message saying she was actually picking grass the way a normal elephant eats grass for the first time. That curling motion where you have them like to curl around the grass and kind of break the grass off with her nose. She doesn't have that strength. She can't do that. That curling motion and that temp strength at the bottom isn't really there. You can see even how she puts the watermelon and stuff. You know, she, she, her nose kind of folds against itself a little bit more and she uses that to push it up. But it's just, it's the Muscles higher up that are forcing it. The other part's just like a little balancing, balancing board, you know, that is just kind of supporting it there. But it's the muscles further in her nose that are doing all the work. She kind of rolls it into her mouth.
- [23:45]
Nadia Mari
And physically, you said in the four weeks. So is it visible that she's put on muscle mass or a change of her skin? How's this change?
- [23:55]
Scott
Skin for sure, undoubtedly skin muscle. I haven't seen comparative photos. I heard indications from the folks that are taking the photos and analyzing it and say yes, but I haven't really seen. But her skin looks a lot better. I mean she had an old relatively superficial element of it. She did have a wound on her cheek from laying on concrete that is pretty much gone. That was without treatment. And we treated it the first few days, but after that we were just monitoring it a little bit and you know, it just resulted on her own partly stop sleeping on concrete.
- [24:29]
Kat
And the other thing is sometimes with those type of wounds, when you are scrubbing them so frequently, you actually cause more damage than not. But when you're stuck inside and you're sleeping on a pea floor, you know, they have to clean it. So it's kind of not being able to do what would have ended up being best for it.
- [24:48]
Scott
But she's learning that we're, we are sometimes a little invasive with where we'd look to find ticks because ticks like.
- [24:56]
Kat
No one has ever stuck their hand there. What is wrong with you?
- [25:00]
Scott
So she's letting us do a little more and more because she lost a lot of, a lot of weight a little while ago. And African elephants have a little bit more saggy skin than Asians. She has some big skin folds.
- [25:12]
Kat
She was skanky build up, to be quite honest.
- [25:16]
Scott
And not in medical terms, skanky skin buildup in these folds of her skin that you know that's going to get better over time, especially as her skin tightens with more muscle development, but also with having all the sand in and out of those areas all the time and being more. Not only accepting of baths by giving herself her own baths much more frequently. Her skin's definitely being much more conditioned than it used to be.
- [25:40]
Kat
Yeah, but we're like in armpits, you know, going up in her inguinal area. And she's a little, she's great with it. I mean she really is. But she definitely probably most likely thinks that something is wrong with us.
- [25:55]
Scott
She has learned when I said going in all the way means going Deep into your armpit. And she just, like a little bit. Big eye for a moment. And then she. She knows. I mean, she knows what you're trying to do, and she gets the sensation of the tics being pulled off. And super accepting of all of that almost right away. So it's been fun to watch that evolution of trust as well.
- [26:16]
Nadia Mari
I'm beginning to shiver all over because I was in the garden the other day and yesterday I was, like, on my neck and thinking, isn't my mole on the other side? And then, oh, my God, it's a tick. And then, like, I went upstairs and my husband said, oh, it's in, like, a hollow because the skin had swollen, so I put, like, an ice cube on it.
- [26:31]
Kat
So.
- [26:32]
Nadia Mari
Oh, gosh. It's disgusting, the places that I get to. I don't want to think about it. Well, that is such a. Yeah. Such lovely updates on Tammy. Good news. I'm very happy about that. And also Ms. Pupi, who, of course likes her. Likes her yards, likes to fell all the trees. Just leave a few for when Kenya comes. She might want to make her own pathways as well.
- [26:54]
Kat
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Kenya was the one who just knocks down trees to knock down trees. That seems like that might be more her personality.
- [27:02]
Scott
Expansion is underway, though. Defense is making a lot of progress.
- [27:05]
Kat
So, yes, we'll have a big yard soon, and then they can go find.
- [27:09]
Nadia Mari
More cheese to knock down. Yeah, fantastic. Well, I'll let you go. You're busy. Busy, as always. The understatement of the year. Thank you so much. Lots of success with your auction. I'll just Repeat that again. GlobalElephants.org TrunksandTreasures it starts on the 13th of June and goes for 10 days until the 23rd. So when this podcast comes out, I mean, the website's already. Already online. So have a look, see what you'd like to bid on. If you live in the US, Go for that sweepstake and wish you luck in winning a trip to the sanctuary. So, yeah, thanks for your time and we'll catch up for our next recording and I'll say bye.
- [27:52]
Scott
Thank you, Nadia. I will say that I'm a little bit giddy with excitement to see who wins the sweepstakes. You know, we don't get an opportunity to share this very much, but it's a real pleasure when we do have that opportunity for people to see it firsthand. And I love this idea of the sweepstakes to give more people that opportunity and can't wait to see who we get to share three days with.
- [28:14]
Kat
Yeah, I mean, we do our best to share what we do, but it's so different when you're here and you see it. And not only see it, but feel it. And of course that would all be destroyed if it was just open to the public and everybody could come, but it's nice to be able to have somebody come once a year that really thoroughly absolutely loves their time here. So it's fun for everybody.
- [28:39]
Nadia Mari
Lovely. Well, fingers crossed for everybody entering in the U.S. thanks.
- [28:44]
Scott
Always a pleasure. We'll talk soon.
- [28:46]
Nadia Mari
Okay, bye. That's all that we have time for this week. We hope you enjoyed the podcast and if you did, don't forget to subscribe. Hit the notification bell so you never miss an episode. Another great zero cost way to support the podcast is by leaving a five star rating or a glowing review as this helps other people discover the podcast. Thank you so much for your support and until we meet up for our next episode, take care.