Elephants in SriLanka Sri Lankan elephants are losing more and more of their habitat every day, and many are now living in the elephant orphanage at Pinnawala, other rehabilitation centres and overcrowded national parks. The elephant orphanage is also becoming crowded and is in need of expansion. Unfortunately, many of the needed improvements are very expensive. With numerous other priorities the government must fund, the orphanage may not receive the financial support to proceed with projects in a timely fashion. In the last 150 years the amount of forest cover in Sri Lanka has decreased from 84% to 20% of the country's land cover. The wild elephant population has shrunk from approximately 20,000 animals (150 years ago) to approximately 3000 today. There are approximately 500 in captivity. More about wild elephants and tame elephants. Pinnawala Orphanage and Dehiwala Zoo are both operated by the Department of National Zoological Gardens. Dehiwala Zoo has initiated teaching some of the elephants to paint to sell. The proceeds would help raise funds to support the two facilities. The funds are needed for food, operating and medical costs, facility expansion, veterinary equipment, and conservation for elephants in that country. The training and painting activity complements a comprehensive enrichment program that zoos strive to provide to all their creatures .

Prairie girl turned mahout In 2003, Lori Forster spent nearly 4 months volunteering in Sri Lanka. She spent her time at an elephant orphanage caring for 70 elephants of all ages and at the National Zoo in Sri Lanka launching their elephant painting program. While working at the orphanage, she also began training to become a mahout (a traditional Sri Lankan elephant keeper) and lived with a local mahout family in the jungle. Her purpose in teaching captive elephants to paint is to provide enrichment and raise money for elephants through selling their paintings. Money is deperately required for wild and tame elephant needs including food, veterinary care and equipment, facility improvement and other operating costs both at the Sri Lankan orphanage and zoo. Elephant paintings usually sell for about $300-600 USD. Paintings by other Asian elephants for sale on the World Wide Web (WWW) and in Auctions have sold for as much as $6000 USD. This activity has the potential to supply a fairly substantial financial contribution to the care and further conservation of elephants in Sri Lanka. In North American zoos and in several Asian countries such as Thailand and India, elephants have successfully been taught to paint. Lori teaching Devi (a Sri Lankan elephant) to paint

Elephants in Training Elephants around the world have fallen on hard times in the last several decades. Their habitat has dwindled at an alarming rate, putting them into a losing battle with human settlements and farmlands. Elephants in captivity are expensive to feed and care for and so they frequently are put to work doing hard labour to raise money for their owners to afford them. The idea of elephants painting to raise funds grew when elephants in countries such as Thailand were banned from working and their owners could no longer afford to feed them. Two artists from Russia learned about elephants painting as part of comprehensive enrichment programs in North American zoos and subsequently fundraisers by selling the paintings. The two artists made their way to Thailand and established elephant art training centres for elephants and mahouts. The sales of the art work have provided the funding to keep the out-of-work captive elephants fed and cared for. Today similar programs exist in Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Indonesia and have the support of the World Wildlife Foundation.

Elephant Painting in Edmonton, AB The dedicated elephant keepers at the Valley Zoo in Edmonton have successfully taught 2 elephants to paint. Lucy (a Sri Lankan elephant), has been painting since the mid 1990's and Samantha (an African elephant), is presently in training. At the Valley Zoo, Lori was fortunate to observe the training methods employed by experienced staff in teaching those elephants to paint. Training methods and commands used in Sri Lanka are different than those used in zoos in North America. As a result, Lori needed to adapt the training methods for compatibility. More about elephant painting on this site or view Lucy's Paintings on the Valley Zoo's website.