Thai elephants are not alone in the continued loss of habitat. Despite a complete ban on commercial logging in 1988, illegal logging still continues in some areas and the government is regularly faced with the challenges of enforcing laws. And, there is the added fact that hotels for tourists are allowed to be built in national parks, further encroaching on the remaining forest cover in Thailand.

As they've been displaced, some species have learned to cohabitate with their human neighbors. These animals-- like many rescued at the wildlife sanctuary-- meet a mixed fate in their struggle for survival: they find that they can raid construction sites and trash at night for easy cuisine, but often what they are left with are meals devoid of nutrition and laced with toxics and chemicals.

At the wildlife camp Sally, the resident macaque foster mother, was a living example of what that meant.

Sally was born in the wild to a family of macaques living where human civilization met habitat. Shortly after her birth she was found by humans and brought to live at the wildlife rescue center because due to a combination of circumstances, which most likely involved exposure to toxics while in the womb, Sally was born with no legs, one arm and one finger. To move she grasps things with her teeth, her one good arm, and by flexing her butt cheeks. She relies on her human caretakers for 100% of her food, and depends on the two orphaned macaque babies she fosters for support, balance, and sometimes help moving.

Unlike many other macaques at the camp that had been rescued after years of mistreatment, Sally had a sweet disposition and was kind to her adopted children and caretakers. But she couldn't survive in the wild and would have died shortly after birth had she not been taken in. Her story is one of tragedy-- and exemplifies that can happen when a species manages to survive human encroachment. Yes, her family of macaques survived and managed to live through the loss of their habitat, but at what cost?