By Lisa Barrett This summer, one of my goals as a 1st year Ph.D. student was to determine if I wanted to do work with wild Asian elephants. My dissertation will look at personality and problem-solving in elephants, and it is an extension of my work with Think Elephants International in Thailand. After months of planning and discussing with my
Read moreby Lisa Barrett What kind of parental care did you or do you enjoy? Food, shelter, college tuition? How does this compare to parental care in non-human animals? First of all, most animals do not receive any parental care at all. In other words, most animal parents do not invest in feeding, incubating, or defending their young after they are
Read moreby Lisa Barrett In a previous blog post, I wrote about how Asian elephants are endangered and that there are only about 3,000 left in the wild. I discussed how, in reality, the best way to conserve them is through education about conserving (and mitigating the decline) of extant populations while giving current captive populations the best life possible. In
Read moreby Lisa Barrett No Breeding, No Buying At about this time last year, I, along with the rest of the Think Elephants International (TEI) research team, was anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new “family” member. Elephant births are cause for huge excitement at the camp for two reasons. First, female Asian elephants only have four to five calves in
Read moreBy Lisa Barrett We are in the wake of a sixth mass extinction due to human activity (hunting, habitat degradation, etc.) and climate change. Humans not only put species in danger of becoming extinct in the first place, but we also decide which species “deserve” to be saved. While some endangered species enjoy population revivals, others do not make the
Read moreBy Lisa Barrett Working for Think Elephants International was a very unique experience, so I wanted to share what an average day was like. Follow the below instructions to gain the perspective about life as an elephant researcher in the Golden Triangle of Thailand (Warning: Do not approach an elephant without its mahout present). Wake up to the sound of
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Why Study Elephants? [in captivity] by Lisa Barrett As a research assistant at nonprofit Think Elephants International (TEI) in northern Thailand, I helped design and carryout research on captive Asian elephants as part of a small research team. Our mission was to inform elephant conservation efforts through research and education. Above: The other members of the TEI research
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My name is Lisa Barrett, and I am a contributing author of this new and exciting blog! For my first entry, I will introduce myself and give some background about how I have come to be where I am today. Even as an undergrad who chose to study Evolutionary Anthropology 10 hours away from home, I wasn’t positive about what
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DANTAisms 