Episode 006 - What is Ethical Elephant Interaction?

How maintaining elephant autonomy and opting out of performative tasks is key.  An interview with Danielle Carnahan. In this interview of Environmentality., Danielle Carnahan, a wildlife conservationist, comes on the show to talk about ethical elephant interaction and elephant psychology. Elephants are captured at an early age from the wild, trained aggressively and exploited through tourism, bringing about a lot of trauma. Danielle's master's research was focused on assessing PTSD in Asian elephants who had been recently rescued from traumatic and exploitative situations.  Danielle shares the findings of her research, some fascinating facts and stories about life with elephants in Thailand, and how to determine if a sanctuary is treating their elephants ethically. Additionally, Danielle provides insight on how to interact with elephants in order to help maintain their autonomy, along with how to interact with businesses that are still exploiting their elephants via riding, chains, hooks, bath time and photographs.  We also discuss issues surrounding the re-integration of animals into the wild such as orcas, elephants, wolves and bison. Along with the human element of this whole story, like how to balance the needs of farmers with the desires of conservationists.  Danielle also has an Environmental Action blog called, the Call to Conserve.  To learn more about her blog, visit The Call to Conserve at: https://www.thecalltoconserve.com/  To connect with Danielle visit:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellecarnahan/