Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund

Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund 

Hol­lis Burb­ank-Ham­marlund and friend

As Founder & Dir­ect­or of Work for Wild Life Inter­na­tion­al, Hol­lis Burb­ank-Ham­marlund tele­com­mutes from her home office in Ver­mont, USA and travels to Asia for onsite work.

As a pro­ject developer, fun­draiser, and logist­ics man­ager, Hol­lis teams up with NGOs and experts from all around the globe to sup­port wild­life con­ser­va­tion and anim­al wel­fare ini­ti­at­ives in Indone­sia, Nepal, Viet­nam, Myan­mar, Sri Lanka, and Thai­l­and, with a focus on endangered ele­phants and orangutans.

Science, mahout traditions may help save Asian elephants from extinction in Laos


Elephant family crossing a river. Captive breeding technology and mahout knowledge may help save Asian elephants in Laos. Image supplied by Anabel Lopez Perez.

Asi­an ele­phants are at risk of extinc­tion in the wild and in cap­tiv­ity. That they are not repla­cing their num­bers in cap­tiv­ity may come as a sur­prise to many. This is why con­­ser­­va­­tion-ori­en­ted cap­tive breed­ing pro­grams are import­ant to the spe­cies. Wild­life bio­lo­gist Ana­bel Lopez Perez of Laos’ Ele­phant Con­ser­va­tion Cen­ter and Hol­lis Bur­b­ank-Ham­­marlund of […]

Read More Science, mahout traditions may help save Asian elephants from extinction in Laos

Tourism in crisis: A Myanmar elephant camp & community pivot to plan B


An elephant of Green Hill Valley Elephant Camp, Shan state, Myanmar. (Image by Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund). Inset: GHV's Founders Tin Win Maw (Left) and Htun Htun Wynn (Image courtesy of GHV).

Through the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and tour­ism crisis, hopes rest on con­tin­gency “plan B” to sus­tain the retired log­ging ele­phants of Green Hill Val­ley, Myan­mar and the com­munity of people who love them.  Hol­lis Bur­b­ank-Ham­­marlund of Work for Wild Life Inter­na­tion­al knows them well, hav­ing led ele­phant health­care and wel­fare work­shops at the camp in 2018 and […]

Read More Tourism in crisis: A Myanmar elephant camp & community pivot to plan B

Keeping elephants healthy under the cloud of COVID-19


Dr Wachiraporn Toonrongchang and team at at a private camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Image supplied by Dr Nissa Mututanont of the GTAEF Foundation.

News from the field — from the Ele­phant Health­care Emer­gency Life­line Fund in Chi­ang Mai, Thai­l­and — by Hol­lis Bur­b­ank-Ham­­marlund of Work for Wild Life Inter­na­tion­al. What’s the say­ing? An ounce of pre­ven­tion is worth a pound of cure? For Thailand’s tour­ism ele­phants con­fined to lock-down mode — along with the facil­it­ies and people who care for them — the need for routine and […]

Read More Keeping elephants healthy under the cloud of COVID-19

Elephant health experts seek emergency funds for unemployed tourism elephants


Dr Sarisa Klinhom (L) & Dr Tittaya Janyamethakul (R) attend to Mae Noi in Thailand. Image supplied by author.

The expres­sion “an ele­phant in the room” means an uncom­fort­able truth we can­not ignore. With tour­ism cash flows stemmed, many Asi­an ele­phants and their mahouts in Thai­l­and and else­where are in deep trouble. Hol­lis Bur­b­ank­-Ham­­marlund of Work for Wild Life Inter­na­tion­al tells us why that’s the case and how we can help. COVID-19 has suddenly […]

Read More Elephant health experts seek emergency funds for unemployed tourism elephants