“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir
Have you ever felt the quiet relief of standing beneath a vast open sky, the rustle of leaves only the mind can hear? Or the way your breath seems to soften if you’re lucky enough to watch a herd of elephants move gracefully across the plains, their massive forms swaying with serene certainty?
Nature, in all its rhythms and silences, has an extraordinary ability to soothe a restless mind, a truth that becomes even more relevant as we observe International Stress Awareness Day, 2025, on Wednesday, November 5th, during International Stress Awareness Week (November 3-7). This year’s theme, “Optimizing Employee Wellbeing through Strategic Stress Management,” reminds us that sometimes, the most strategic step we can take for our well-being is to pause and reconnect with the living world around us.
Understanding What Stress Is
Stress is often described as the price we pay for progress; a by-product of the fast-paced, hyperconnected lives we lead. The modern world thrives on urgency. From overflowing inboxes to constant notifications, from urban noise to the invisible weight of deadlines, our days are filled with stimuli that keep our nervous systems on high alert. A little stress can motivate us; it’s part of our biology. But when pressure becomes constant, it begins to erode our peace, cloud our focus, and affect our physical health.
According to psychologists, stress triggers a cascade of hormones, primarily cortisol and adrenaline, designed to prepare us for “fight or flight.” In ancient times, this response helped our ancestors survive immediate threats. But today, most of our battles are not with predators; they’re with time, expectations, and self-imposed demands. The body, however, doesn’t differentiate. It keeps sounding the alarm, even when we’re just sitting at a desk, thinking about unfinished tasks.
So how do we silence that internal alarm? How do we invite calm back into our lives?
The Healing Power of Nature
Nature has always been humanity’s oldest remedy, long before therapy sessions, wellness apps, or motivational podcasts. The Japanese call it “Shinrin-yoku” or “forest bathing”; the practice of immersing oneself in nature to reduce stress and improve overall well-being. Scientists have found that spending time in green spaces lowers blood pressure, reduces heart rate, and boosts serotonin, the “feel-good” neurotransmitter responsible for mood balance.
Even brief exposure to nature, a 10-minute walk in a park, tending to plants, or sitting under a tree, can reset the body’s stress response.
The sensory richness of the natural world engages our attention gently, without demanding it. The soft rustle of leaves, birdsong in the distance, the earthy scent after rain, these are nature’s ways of grounding us, pulling us away from stressful worries. But among the many wonders of the wild, there’s something unique about elephants, creatures that seem to embody calm, empathy, and quiet wisdom.
When Elephants Teach Us to Breathe
Watching elephants in their natural habitat is like witnessing mindfulness in motion. They move with a grace that seems to defy their size, every step deliberate and steady, as if time bends around them.
The sight of animals in their natural rhythms, feeding, playing, or caring for their young, activates a sense of connection and awe, reducing mental fatigue. In particular, elephants, with their intricate social bonds and quiet communication, remind us of the beauty of coexistence and patience.
At Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka, where the Udawalawe Elephant Research Project (UWERP) conducts its long-term studies, these moments are part of everyday life. To sit quietly as the park wakes, watching a matriarch slowly lead her herd to the waterhole, both you and the elephants bathed in the same soft morning light; it’s more than research; it’s a meditation. Gazing at elephants, from a respectful distance, can be deeply restorative. The slow movements, the gentle rumble of communication, the way they nurture their calves, it all reminds us that life doesn’t need to be rushed. In the elephants’ world, there are no deadlines, only the steady pace of survival, connection, and care.
UWERP team connecting with nature
Nature as a Counterbalance
Modern psychology often emphasizes mindfulness as an antidote to stress, the act of being fully present. Nature, in her infinite wisdom, offers mindfulness effortlessly. When we immerse ourselves in natural environments, we’re invited to notice: the play of light on leaves, the pattern of ripples across a lake, the sound of wind weaving through grass. These details capture our attention just enough to quiet inner noise.
Moreover, being outdoors encourages physical movement, which releases endorphins and relieves tension stored in the body. It strengthens the immune system, improves sleep, and even enhances creativity. For those constantly surrounded by screens and concrete, stepping into nature is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.
Whether it’s the dense forests of Sinharaja, the golden plains of Udawalawe, or the tranquil shores of a hidden lake, every moment spent in nature becomes a small act of healing. And the best part? It costs nothing but time and attention.
The Office with No Walls
For most of us, stress management involves trying to carve moments of calm between office hours (or even brief pauses within them; research shows that short breaks actually enhance focus and well-being). But for the UWERP field team, nature is their office. Their days begin not with the buzz of alarms or emails, but with the call of an Indian-peafowl, the distant trumpeting of elephants, and the slow rise of sunlight over the forest canopy.
While demanding, with long hours in the field, unpredictable weather, and constant observation, this conservation work is also profoundly grounding. There are no concrete barriers or city noise, only open skies and wild company. The researchers’ “meetings” happen under trees, their “colleagues” are elephants, and their “reports” are written in tracks and behavior patterns across the dusty earth.
This patient work, understanding elephant behavior, documenting their social bonds, and supporting communities in coexistence, depends on long-term observations and dedication. It’s through this research that we learn not only how elephants navigate their world, but also how we might better navigate ours alongside them.
UWERP team in their ‘Office with No Walls’
A Call to Reconnect
As we observe International Stress Awareness Day, let’s pause to remember that well-being doesn’t always come from complex strategies. Sometimes, it’s as simple as listening to birdsong, watching clouds drift by, or, if you’re lucky enough, gazing at elephants wandering freely through the grasslands.
Stress is a part of life, but so is calm. Nature offers us both: challenges us and heals us, tests us and restores us.
So, the next time you feel the world pressing in, step outside. Find a patch of green, listen to the wind, breathe deeply. Even ten minutes can make a difference. Pull on an extra layer if you need to, but go – let the natural world remind you of its quiet rhythms.
This season, if you’re looking for a gift that gives back, consider supporting the work that keeps these moments of wonder possible. Our virtual elephant adoption kits connect you to a real calf in Udawalawe National Park, helping fund the research and community support that allows both elephants and people to thrive. Because when we protect nature, we protect our own well-being too.
References
Schilhab, Theresa & Esbensen, Gertrud. (2025). Wild animals connect us with nature: about awe, eco-pedagogy, and nature-connectedness. Frontiers in Psychology. 16. 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1523831.
Albulescu, Patricia & Macsinga, Irina & Rusu, Andrei & Sulea, Coralia & Bodnaru, Alexandra & Tulbure, Bogdan Tudor. (2022). “Give me a break!” A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance. PLOS ONE. 17. e0272460. 10.1371/journal.pone.0272460.
Ideno, Yuki & Hayashi, Kunihiko & Abe, Yukina & Ueda, Kayo & Iso, Hiroyasu & Noda, Mitsuhiko & Lee, Jung Su & Suzuki, Shosuke. (2017). Blood pressure-lowering effect of Shinrin-yoku (Forest bathing): A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 17. 409. 10.1186/s12906-017-1912-z.
Polina, Yashvi. (2025). When the Body Mimics Illness: Linking Psychological Stress to Bodily Symptoms. International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research. 7. 10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.53930.
It’s late evening in Ruam Thai village, just outside Kuiburi National Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, Thailand. On my laptop screen, camera trap videos flicker to life: an elephant (Elephas maximus) moving slowly across farmland, a farmer checking fields with a flashlight, the quiet tension of life lived at the forest’s edge.
Camera traps capture nighttime elephant movements through farmlands bordering Kuiburi National Park
This is what I have seen when assisting PhD researcher Sateesh Venkatesh to analyse camera trap footage from farms surrounding Ruam Thai. The village, established by the government, sits like an island, surrounded on three sides by national park. Families live clustered in the centre, while their fields spread outward, bordering the unfenced national park, it’s a layout that leaves farms vulnerable – and elephants know it.
From Pineapples to Elephants
Kuriburi was declared a national park in 1999, protecting around 169 km2 of forest and wildlife (Charuppat, T., 1998). Before that, much of the land had been cleared for pineapple plantations. Pineapple is one of Thailand’s major exports: it grows year-round and provides high returns for farmers. But it also proved irresistible to elephants. Sweet and abundant, pineapples drew elephants out of the forest and into people’s fields, setting the stage for human-elephant conflict that continues today (Srikrachang, M. and Srikosamatara, S., 2005)
Alternative crops (citronella and lemongrass) trialled in Ruam Thai farmland, beside Kuiburi National Park.
Exploring Alternatives
As part of the alternative crops project, Trunks & Leaves and Bring The Elephant Home partnered in 2021 to research crops unpalatable to elephants. PhD student Sateesh Venkatesh, under the guidance of Trunks & Leaves founder Dr. Shermin de Silva, researches elephant behavior using technologies such as drones to map farming areas, trail cameras to detect elephant presence and behavior, and audio recorders to monitor conflict as elephants enter agricultural lands at field sites in both Thailand’s Ruam Thai and around Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka.
The wonderful Bring the Elephant Home team in Ruam Thai with Lauren (holding BTEH sign) as she volunteered, analysing trail camera footage.
Owen and colleagues (2024) report that lemongrass and citronella are among the most promising alternative crops: elephants generally avoid them, and they offer multiple market opportunities – selling fresh at local markets, dried for higher prices (or processed in teas), or distilled into essential oils for premium pricing and products such as artisan soaps.
Yet challenges remain. Producing oil requires large volumes of raw material and costly equipment. To sell products internationally, farmers also need FDA (Food and Drug Administration – a U.S. regulatory agency) approval and stable buyers. Without reliable markets for these alternative crops, many farmers may feel pressure to return to pineapples, with their familiar low market prices and challenges such as hormone chemicals and pesticides that are hazardous to farmers’ health, even though pineapples increase the risk of crop raids as both the fruit and sweet leaf bases are highly attractive to elephants.
An Emerging Challenge: Gaur
While elephants remain the most visible and impactful species raiding crops, they are no longer the only concern alongside Kuiburi National Park. Farmers report that gaur – Bos gaurus, large wild cattle that also roam the park, listed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list – are becoming just as problematic, and in some cases more dangerous. Like elephants, gaur are drawn to easy calories in fields, trampling and consuming crops. But they can also be unpredictable and aggressive, posing direct safety risks to people who encounter them at night.
This widening conflict highlights a bigger truth: when farms border protected forest, it is not just one species but entire communities of wildlife that interact with people.
World Habitat Day: Lessons from the Forest Edge
This year’s World Habitat Day gives us the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of habitat. Too often, habitat is imagined as something separate – national parks and reserves over here, villages and farmland over there. But Ruam Thai shows that habitats overlap. The forest is home to elephants and gaur, but it is also the backdrop to farmers’ livelihoods. When the line between the two blurs, both sides feel the pressure.
Protecting wildlife habitat is not only about preserving forest inside park boundaries. It also means supporting the people who live alongside those boundaries – ensuring that their farms are viable, their families safe, and their economic futures secure. Without this balance, conservation becomes conflict, and coexistence slips further away.
Building paths to coexistence: What can help?
Science and monitoring: Camera traps and farmer observations provide crucial data where and when wildlife moves, helping to design better strategies.
Community leadership: Farmers must be central to decisions about land use, crop choices, and protection measures – as it is their livelihood that is impacted.
Support through donations and funding: Organisations such as Trunks & Leaves and their partners like Bring The Elephant Home are working directly with local communities to reduce conflict and promote coexistence. Supporting these initiatives – whether through donations, advocacy, or spreading awareness – provides the resources needed to expand research, farmer support programmes, and conflict-mitigation efforts.
A Call to Action
As I scroll through more videos from trail cameras, I see the daily balancing act in Ruam Thai: elephants searching for food, farmers striving to protect their fields. On this World Habitat Day, their story is a reminder that habitats are shared, not separate. The health of Kuiburi’s forests cannot be measured only by the wildlife within; it must also include the wellbeing of people at its edge.
If elephants and people are to coexist, we must commit to solutions that protect both wild habitats and human livelihoods. That means supporting alternative crops, strengthening community resilience, and recognising that thriving habitats are those where both people and wildlife can live.
References
Charuppat, T. (1998). Using LANDSAT Imagery for Monitoring the Changes of Forest Area in Thailand. Royal Forest Department Bangkok. 121 pp.
Owen, A., van de Water, A., Sutthiboriban, N., Tantipisanuh, N., Sangthong, S., Rajbhandari, A. and Matteson, K. (2024). The Role of Alternative Crop Cultivation in Promoting Human-Elephant Coexistence: A Multidisciplinary Investigation in Thailand. Diversity, 16(9), pp.519–519. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/d16090519.
Srikrachang, M. and Srikosamatara, S. (2005). Elephant crop raiding problems and their solutions at Kui Buri National Park, southwestern Thailand. Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society, 53(1), pp.87-109.
It’s a quiet morning at the southern boundary of Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka. The light is soft, dew clings to the fence posts, and tourists gather expectantly beside the electric line. In their hands, some corn and smartphones. On the other side, shadows shift into focus, a male, unmistakably massive and composed, stretches his trunk toward the fence in an imploring motion. The corn lands at his feet. He clenches it with his trunk. Cameras click. Children giggle. A perfect moment.
To the casual observer, it feels intimate and even harmless.
But behind this feel-good interaction lies a troubling truth. These elephants aren’t here for casual curiosity; they’ve learned that this fence means food!
Across the range of the endangered Asian elephant, an insidious conservation crisis is unfolding. New research published in Ecological Solutions and Evidence by Dr. Shermin de Silva and colleagues reveals the hidden dangers of this seemingly innocent practice. Tourists eager for memorable encounters feed elephants at roadside fences, safari parks, and forest edges. These seemingly well-intentioned actions are transforming how elephants behave, where they go, and how they survive.
Elephants are highly social and cognitively advanced animals, capable of social learning and cultural transmission (even of unhealthy habits) of behavior across generations. Once one elephant figures out that a certain location delivers easy – and delicious – calories from smiling humans, others quickly follow. These patterns persist across generations, becoming traditions; traditions that can get elephants killed.
Tourist handfeeding a wild male Asian elephant alongside the double electric fence at the edge of Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka. (Note the slender metal fence post in the centre of the image, to the right of the larger original wooden fencepost. The second fence was an attempt to mitigate elephants breaking through the fence. A determined elephant can still break both.)
Tour operators, driven by the promise of easy elephant sightings and happy tourists, have little incentive to stop the practice. And despite formal bans on feeding in most countries, enforcement is rare. As a result, a growing subset of elephants is becoming “food-conditioned,” often more daring, and ultimately more vulnerable.
This isn’t just an elephant problem. It mirrors issues with bears in North America, macaques in Sri Lanka, and marine mammals worldwide. Across species, food provisioning by tourists leads to aggression, habitat changes, disease spread, and often, death for wildlife and occasionally for people.
For a species like the Asian elephant, with fewer than 45,000 left in the wild, every behavioural change we cause has the potential to ripple into their future survival, and these risks are catastrophic.
The Rambo Effect: How One Elephant’s Habit Spread
In Udawalawe National Park, long-term elephant research has revealed the alarming impacts of tourist feeding. From 2007-2023, the Udawalawe Elephant Research Project (UWERP) identified 439 male elephants at the park’s electric fence-line (from a population estimate of 448-750 adult males). Of these, 66 individuals (9-15% of the estimated male population) were observed begging from tourists. Among them, one individual has become infamous: Rambo.
Rambo makes his way to the buffet line…
Rambo began “begging” from tourists before there was even a fence. Over 17 years, the UWERP team have consistently observed him at the same stretch of road, collecting fruit from visitors. For a time, he seemed harmless, passive, even endearing. Remarkably, even during musth, which is a heightened reproductive state in male elephants typically roam widely searching for estrous females, Rambo sometimes remained localized near the roadside feeding site.
The UWERP had long worried that tourists feeding Rambo sugary fruits like mangoes and bananas was having nagative consequence on his health, potentially leading to diabetes. Wild Asian elephants typically eat vastly more diverse, high-fibre, low-sugar vegetation. Rambo’s chrhonic eye discharge (noticed over ten years ago) may have been a sysmptom.
Rambo’s ocular discharge visible as he begs for corn at his usual spot by the resevoir
By 2020, everything changed. When tourism collapsed during COVID-19, Rambo began breaking fences and raiding nearby sugarcane fields at night. He even breached a power station compound. Local conservationists worked tirelessly to prevent his capture during this challenging period. Injured twice by people and potentially exposed to dangerous materials like plastic-wrapped fruit, Rambo exemplifies how food provisioning escalates elephant behavior into increasingly risky territory. His story reveals the complex social dynamics of male elephants and how human interference can disrupt natural behaviors. Tragically, he hasn’t been seen since April 2023; at the time, he was approximately 53 years old.
Wild male Asian elephants being fed along the park’s electric fence by local and foreign tourists.
After Rambo, other males followed suit. One died in a bus collision after fence-breaking. Another was shot. A third fell into a village well (although it’s unclear if he engaged in begging). And researchers have even found plastic bags in elephant dung near the fence. These are not isolated incidents; they’re predictable outcomes of long-term habituation. And the pattern is spreading.
India Experiences
In the Sigur region of India’s Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, a different experiment in food provisioning has unfolded over 15 years. Between 2007 and 2022, eleven male elephants were habituated by tourists and lodge operators who fed them sugarcane and fruits to lure them into view.
Four of those elephants died from causes linked directly to human interaction, including wounds, poisoning, and one fatal attack by resort staff.
The survivor with the most extraordinary story is Rivaldo, a tusker who lost a portion of his trunk to an explosive device. His trust in humans, cultivated through feeding, made it possible for veterinarians to treat him multiple times. But in 2021, citing safety concerns, officials captured Rivaldo and confined him to a kraal.
Public outcry and legal action secured his release. A structured rehabilitation effort followed, with forest guards monitoring him and preventing further provisioning. As of 2024, Rivaldo is thriving, being healthier, independent, and rarely entering villages.
When tourism halted during the COVID-19 lockdown, five of six surviving elephants also stopped approaching people. This natural pause showed that food-conditioned behavior is reversible, but only with strong intervention and community cooperation.
In early 2024, workers at a local lodge attempted to restart elephant feeding. They were caught and arrested, a clear sign that vigilance and enforcement are still urgently needed.
Feeding Fuels a Dangerous Cycle
Feeding wildlife isn’t new, and elephants aren’t the only species. Around the world, species from bears to monkeys to dolphins have suffered from similar human behaviors.
In Sri Lanka, toque macaques (Macaca sinica) have become emboldened and aggressive after years of tourist handouts. In Japan, macaques fed to reduce crop-raiding have overpopulated and caused worse conflict. In Yellowstone, food-habituated bears had to be killed. And in marine parks, dolphins and whales fed for entertainment have injured people and each other.
Animals copy each other. And in long-lived species like elephants, these behaviors can become cultural, passed from mother to calf, peer to peer. Once a population starts associating humans with food, reversing that behavior becomes difficult and dangerous.
Health risks add to the equation. Tuberculosis has been documented in elephants, and close contact through feeding increases disease transmission. Plastic ingestion, diabetes-like symptoms from sugary foods, and metabolic disorders have all been recorded in provisioned wildlife.
Feeding is never just about food; it’s about changing entire ecosystems.
Breaking the Cycle: Solutions That Work
Across Asia, researchers and NGOs are showing that crops like chili, lemongrass, and citronella deter elephants while improving farm incomes. In Thailand, farmer participation in BTEH’s program is growing. In Sri Lanka, similar experiments are underway. A 2024 study found that these crops not only reduce conflict but also outperform traditional ones economically. When communities own the solution, coexistence becomes a shared goal.
It should also be considered that elephants need room to move. In Nepal, GPS collar data is helping map “elephant highways”, safe transboundary corridors between parks. This data-driven approach helps prevent tragic events like poisoned elephants found near towns. The future lies in maintaining landscape connectivity, not creating isolated “islands” of protected land.
Apart from all that, science must lead policy. Dr. Shermin de Silva’s book Elephants: Behavior and Conservation emphasizes the need to integrate elephant culture and cognition into management decisions. Multi-country collaborations, Trunks & Leaves, BTEH, and Forest Action Nepal are already modeling this shift.
Policy frameworks need to reflect behavior, not just boundaries. And tourism must be reimagined: not as a spectacle, but a tool for education and sustainable livelihoods.
Feeding bans alone aren’t enough. We need systems that support better choices.
What Can You Do to HelpToday…
The solution isn’t complicated; it’s commitment. Here’s how you can make a difference.
Hi! My name is Lianne Zonnebeld, and I’ve been a volunteer virtual assistant with Trunks & Leaves for the past year. In addition to my work with elephants, I’ve been conducting field research on primates in Sri Lanka since January 2024, gaining valuable insight into wildlife behaviour and conservation challenges. Working with these two iconic species has deepened my passion for conservation. In June 2024, I had the unforgettable opportunity to visit the Udawalawe Elephant Research Project (UWERP) which Trunks & Leaves sponsors. Over three days, I witnessed the challenges and triumphs of protecting elephants and fostering human-wildlife coexistence. Here’s a glimpse into what I experienced during this eye-opening journey.
Figure 1: Me and part of the UWERP team (Left to right Kumara, Sameera, me & Aruna).Continue reading →
Day by day, elephants are losing their habitat. Hour by hour, they are losing their sources of food and water. Now, they are faced with yet another threat – falling into man-made trenches. These falls, and getting stuck in trenches, could be life-threatening. In 2021, the State Ministry of Wildlife Conservation decided to dig trenches to try to prevent elephants from crossing into human-occupied lands. However, experts fear the decision will cause more harm to the animals than good.
[174], [036] and their calves spotted at Teak Reservoir
Sometimes it’s easy to become so focused on elephants that I forget about the other fascinating creatures that share their habitat. This afternoon, we were watching [174], [036], and their calves at the edge of the Teak Reservoir when a large gaggle of tourist jeeps frightened them off.
We decided to stay put for a few minutes after the tourists left, in the hope that the elephants might return. No such luck, but our patience was rewarded with something else. Continue reading →
Elephants are smart and social, and sometimes they seem very much like humans, for example when they mourn their dead. Long term research by Shermin de Silva and colleagues (BMC Ecology, 2011) showed that their friendships are also very much like ours.
Who is she hanging out with?
Shermin and her colleagues observed 286 female elephants over 20 months in Uda Walawe National Park in Sri Lanka. Every time the field crew saw one of the elephants, they noted who she was with. The data could later be analyzed using tools from network analysis.
How to recognize 286 elephants?
But wait a second, 286 elephants … that’s a lot of elephants to remember. You may wonder how recognizing so many individual elephants is even possible for Shermin and her crew. Well, the answer is twofold. First of all, all elephants have different ears. Second, Shermin and her colleagues…
A breathtaking expanse of bushes peppered with trees. That is my first impression of Uda Walawe National Park as we pass through the entrance gate in the early hours of the morning. The shrubs grow densely packed on either side of the ochre-colored road, like a vertically challenged forest. They are interspersed with teak saplings, a reminder of the days when this park was a timber plantation. Towering banyan trees soar above the surrounding vegetation, peacocks perched in their uppermost branches. In the distance, I can see the blue mountains and waterfalls of Nuwara Eliya, and above them, a steely sky striated with rain-laden clouds. A grey mongoose crosses the road ahead of us, stopping briefly to stare at our jeep before disappearing into the wall of greenery. Flocks of Common Mynas and Spotted Doves spring into the air as we rumble past.
An artist’s reconstruction of what the ancient herd may have looked like, here showing Stegotetrabelodon
The evolution of behavior is tricky to study for one very simple reason: behaviors usually don’t fossilize. While anatomy can be reconstructed based on skeletal remains and imprints, how might one glimpse how a living, breathing organism behaved millions of years ago? Continue reading →
Maximus 