April 2020 | SMITHSONIAN 75ONE OF THE SCIENTISTS contributing to Smith-
sonian’s elephant research, Aung Nyein Chan, is
a 27-year-old graduate student from the Myanmar
city of Yangon. His father was a biology teacher and
he remembers taking a lot of trips to the local zoo,
but he didn’t start spending time with elephants
until a few years ago, when he came back from the
United States with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife
science. Now he’s working toward a PhD from Colo-
rado State University and doing his research at ele-
phant camps in Myanmar, some of them just a few
hours from where he grew up.
While I was talking to Chan over Skype, I noticed
a picture on his wall of Buddha meditating under
the Bodhi Tree. I mentioned a story I’d read about
Buddha’s mother, Queen Maya, who dreamed thatBYLINESJennie Rothenberg Gritz is a senior editor at
Smithsonian.
Photographer Justin Mott documents people
who dedicate their lives to animal welfare.“You can see the
person and the
elephant work ing
together in a
beautiful way.”
COLLARING AN ELEPHANT
Aung Nyein Chan, a Smithsonian research
fellow in Myanmar, outfi ts an elephant cow
with a $2,000 GPS tracking collar. The
collaring process takes about ten minutes
and doesn’t require tranquilizing when the
elephants have been trained by mahouts, as
in the logging camps. Below left, a collared
elephant walks with her calf.