1. Kansas State University
  2. »Division of Communications and Marketing
  3. »K-State Today
  4. »Biology student travels to Thailand to work with elephants, dogs

K-State Today

July 31, 2018

Biology student travels to Thailand to work with elephants, dogs

Submitted by Malorie Wagner

Donovan with elephant at Elephant Nature Park, Thailand

Sarah Donovan, junior in the Division of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences, Junction City, spent two weeks in Thailand this summer helping animals and getting hands-on veterinary experience.

Traveling with study-abroad organization Loop Abroad, Donovan was selected as part of a small team that spent a week working directly with rescued elephants at an elephant sanctuary and volunteered giving care at a dog shelter.

For one week, Donovan and her team volunteered at the Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand to work hands-on with the giant animals and learn about animal rescue and conservation on a larger scale.

The Elephant Nature Park is home to more than 60 elephants that have been rescued from trekking, logging or forced breeding programs. Donovan helped to feed and care for elephants, as well as learn about their diagnoses alongside an elephant vet. The Elephant Nature Park also is home to more than 1,000 animals, including cats, dogs, water buffalo, horses and cows, and is sustained in huge part by the work of weekly volunteers like Donovan.

For the other week, Donovan volunteered at the Animal Rescue Kingdom dog shelter and helped to run Loop Abroad's Dog Rescue Clinic in Chiang Mai, Thailand. While she studied under the veterinarians leading her group, Donovan and her team were able to help support the health and well-being of these dogs.

"My trip with Loop Abroad was such an incredible experience," Donovan said. "Standing alongside, and medically treating, elephants at Elephant Nature Park was a truly beautiful and humbling experience."

Donovan is a part of the fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology track in the Division of Biology. The Division teaches an average of 18,000 student credit hours per year, and delivers a vigorous research agenda that spans the spectrum of biological sciences, from molecular, cellular and developmental biology, through population, community, ecosystem, and biome ecology and evolution.

Photo courtesy of The Loop.