Seven orphaned elephants at the Winga Baw Elephant Camp in Bago Region survived a historic cold front just before Christmas with the help of blankets that were knitted or crocheted by people all over the world.
With temperatures dropping to eight degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit) – the lowest in 40 years in that area – workers at the camp wrapped the baby elephants in straw. But when that proved insufficient, they brought out a stash of colorful blankets that were donated to the camp by a group called Blankets for Baby Rhinos.
The group includes around 1,500 knitters and crocheters from around the world who make blankets for orphaned baby rhinoceroses, elephants, chimpanzees, baboons, and monkeys. The largest group of knitters is in South Africa, followed by the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe. Almost all of them are women.
Sangdeaun Lek Chailert, the founder of the Save Elephant Foundation, which runs 28 elephant camps in Southeast Asia, including the Winga Baw Elephant Camp, contacted Blankets for Baby Rhinos earlier last year. The blankets were delivered to Myanmar in Oct. 2017.
Many of the elephants in Ms. Chailert’s care were orphaned by poachers, who hunt elephants for their skin and tusks. Other elephant mothers are killed while trying to protect their babies from being abducted into the entertainment industry.
Without mothers to keep them warm, the elephants at Winga Baw must spend much of their days swaddled in blankets, which are draped over their backs and tied with ropes around their bellies.
The blankets’ designs are completely up to the knitters, so the elephants can be both fashionable and warm throughout the winter.
Photos posted by Ms. Chailert on Facebook on Dec. 21 have been shared hundreds of times and brought attention to the need to protect elephants from poachers and from enslavement in the entertainment industry.
