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Published: December 29th 2007
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Hi friends and family,
This blog is devoted entirely to our trip to the Elephant Nature Nature Park. There are a number of Elephant Parks in Thailand, but the one we went to was unique. Most elephant parks use elephants for shows, but the Elephant Nature Park is a sanctuary for abused, injured and malnourished elephants. The animals in this park have been bought or even kidnapped and are now free to live out the remainder of their lives in the natural and tranquil setting you can see in the photos.
Since being in Thailand, we've learned a lot about elephants - their role in the past and the struggles they now experience. I'll share some of that with you. Elephants are the most revered animal in Thailand. They were used in warfare against the Burmese, they hauled logs for the forestry industry, and they helped to construct the cities and temples all over Thailand. The elephant is considered the "King of animals". Statues, carvings and tapestries of elephants saturate the areas we've travelled to. Thai people feel a strong kinship to elephants and this animal has a strong spiritual significance for them.
Sadly, once logging became illegal
in 1989 and motorized equipment made the need for elephants obsolete, a lot of elephants found themselves unemployed. Because they eat at least 250kg of food and drink 160L of water each day, it is very expensive to care for elephants. Many owners couldn't provide enough food and many elephants were abandoned, starved or were sent to Burma where logging is still legal. We learned that a staggaring 95,000 elephants have either perished or been exported from Thailand in the last 25 years. Only 2,000 elephants remain in the wild and another 2,000 are domesticated. With the changes to industry and laws, the remaining domesticated elephants are relegated to working in the tourist industry by taking people for rides, kicking soccer balls, painting pictures or playing oversized xylophones. Other elephants work the city streets at night, where their owner walks alongside and sells food to tourists who feed the elephant. Some elephants are part of illegal logging in remote areas of northern Thailand. Because elephants have been trained and used as working animals for centuries, specific training techniques have become entrenched in the Thai culture. The training methods are particulary painful and we learned that about 75% of the animals
either die or go crazy in the process.
Okay, that was depressing... BUT...on the bright side... visiting the Elephant Nature Centre creates hope for the elephants. A Thai woman named Lek, started the santuary and a travel medical clinic called the Jumbo Express. The Jumbo express is basically a bamboo raft that she uses to travel by river to reach remote communities that have sick or injured elephants.. This is how she meets the elephants that she buys (or in one case, kidnaps).
The nature park started with only one elephant. Then a man from Texas donated a huge amount of land to her and with that she was able to begin rescuing other elephants. We had the chance to speak with her and listen to her story. She explained that she only intended to have 20 elephants until she could manage to buy more land. But, each time she hears about an elephant that is being abused or severely injured, she feels compelled to try to rescue it. So, instead of 20 elephants, she has 30 that range in age from about 3 years to 60 years old.
Once I understood the struggle that many elephants
endure, it was heartwarming to visit the Elephant Nature Centre. We saw majestic adults slowly walking the grounds. We saw troublesome teenage elephants who were pushing the limits with the old ones, and we saw babies who were so cute! One of the things that really surprised us was how gentle the elephants were with each other and with the people.
During our one-day visit, we watched the elephants communicate with their trunks and voices. We learned that once left on their own, the elephants have formed three family groups and that each group centers around the babies. Some time ago, before any baby elephants had arrived at the nature park, the female adult elephants didn't get along well. They were loners and could be crabby to each other. When the babies arrived, everything changed. The adults began cooperating and they formed three family groups that center around the young elephants. The females became very protective of the babies. It seems that each female wants to be a mother. In fact, sometimes the females sqabble because each one wants to be the caretaker of the little ones. We got to see this in action. When a young elephant moves,
the entire family group moves. When a young one gets spooked, they all circle around the baby to protect it.
We had a lot of time to just watch elephants be elephants. The most excited part the day though was feeding time and bath time. Greg and I each got to feed these characters watermelon, pineapple and bananas. Once lunch was finished, we headed down to the river for bath time! Each elephant was lead by its Mahout or caretaker/trainer. The elephants love to bath, they even like to have buckets of water thrown on them and to be scrubbed. Bath time rocked, it was really fun. We had to be on our toes though. There were a couple of times when we had to run out of the water because an elephant decided to make a quick exit. These guys can move pretty fast when the want to.
I could go on and on. Visiting the elephants was definitely a highlight of the trip! I'll leave it here though. Hope you enjoy the pics.
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Leanne
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Takin' me back!
Greetings from Cowtown. Your blog is taking me back. We have been to most of the places you have (but wisely decided to skip Pratu) - though it took us 5 YEARS to do so. Sounds like a great trip. An "elephant painting" from the orphanage is hanging in the room next to me now - above William's head as he sleeps - hopefully it won't fall. Sawadee Ka!