Elephant Nature Park /September 15, 2018
My sister has had a lifelong love for Elephants. One of her dreams has been to walk among these beautiful majestic giants and we decided to make the most of her trip here to Asia. I will admit, I wasn’t particularly excited either way, I had a mix of emotions when it comes to some animals and I felt I’d probably be happier hanging back and just observing, rather than get up close and personal with the giant animals. The one stipulation I did have however, something that April was already ahead of me on, was that we find an ethical park which didn’t mistreat or abuse the animals in any way. I had heard some rather dark stories about so called ‘sanctuaries’ where the animals were used more as attractions and amusement for tourists and really did not treat them with respect or dignity. April had done quite a bit of homework and found the Elephant Nature Park near Chiangmai which was a true haven for elephants and provided close access to the animals, with no riding or other forms of tourism.
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2 aunties, an older sister, and a young female and male elephant, one of the many small families here at the park. I believe only 2 are biologically related, the rest all chose, and were chosen, to be part of the family themselves.
Learning about the state of Elephants and Arriving
Without knowing what to expect, we were picked up at 8:30 am from Chiangmai and driven the hour and a half long ride to the park by bus. Along the way a video was shown detailing the founding of the park and some of the horrific details surrounding the treatment of elephants in Thailand. I had no idea the use of elephants was so widespread in illegal logging operations, where the animals are taken as infants, tortured and abused to break their spirits, and then trained to haul lumber out of the dense jungle forests, where roads and normal machinery are not practical. Sharp hooks, knives, whips and other weapons are used to lash out at the animals, prod them along and work them literally to death. Many of the elephants have deformed ears, wounds all over their bodies and have been blinded by knife or hook wounds. Learning about this, how we treat otherwise gentle and beautiful animals, left me incredible uncomfortable and ashamed. You can’t help but feel disgusted by the sheer contempt we humans have for other forms of life.
Unfortunately logging was just one of the many forms of abuse, and I was sad to learn that many other practices still consider all around Thailand (and other countries it should be noted) to this day. Tourist riding camps still exist, where elephants are prodded, jabbed and beaten to carry tourists around on their backs, shouldering intense weights, damaging their bone structure and causing severe joint problems. All because people want to ride an elephant like they’ve seen in a movie or on tv. Elephants are used to beg for money in the streets of Thailand, forced to walk through the night along streets with blaring horns, headlights which blind them, and incessant noise, all so people will give a few cents or dollars for the novelty. Land mines were also another serious threat to elephants and many wild elephants, and those used in illegal logging, have stepped on buried land mines, permanently damaging their feet, leaving open sores and broken bones which can never heal. Finally, forced mating, where female elephants are chained, and male bull elephants brought to mate with them, often leaves the females brutally charged and attacked, with no chance to escape or defend themselves as they are helplessly restrained. All of this was conveyed to us as we approached the park, leaving a deep unsettling pit in our stomachs and foreshadowing the coming experience with a brutal dose of reality.
In many ways I think this was crucial to my experience at the park and my appreciation for the elephants themselves. It would be too easy to see the picturesque landscape, the beautiful valley flanked by vibrant jungle, and become elated with the sight of the majestic giants walking freely. However the reality is this park exists only because we have failed miserably in our stewardship of these animals, and the sad truth is that there is no where safe for the elephants to go. Almost all have come to this park as rescued elephants, saved from one form or another of human abuse. With over 70 elephants in the park, only 3 (I believe, maybe 4?) were born here. Almost all have come with intense psychological damage, years of being abused, beaten, malnourished and worked almost to death. Elephants are one of the most social animals on the planet. They form families which they will stay with for their entire lives. Elephants will maintain close friendships for longer than most humans, and once they create a bond, they almost never break it. Their lifespans echo those of humans, with elephants being able to live into their hundreds, and they stay within the same group until death, when they even mourn each other.
Despite the incredibly harsh lives most of the elephants have lived here, or maybe it’s because of that very fact, the elephants find their own partners and friends at the park and form their own social groups. A few, the most damaged and broken in spirit, will never socialize normally, and spend the majority of their time alone. Hopefully time will heal those wounds and they’ll find their own family to join. Many stay in small groups, of 2 or 3, as live as best friends, spending every day and night together. Many are blind, most are older than 60 or 70, having lost their teeth and suffering from arthritis. They support one another, look out for one another, and depend on each other in a way that pierces your heart and instills a small sense of relief that they are finally in a safe place. You can probably tell that I’m trying not to get too emotional about this, but the reality of this park, and the small positive impact it can have still touches me.
Once you arrive at the park, you can’t help be struck by two things: The sheer size of the park and how beautiful it is, and the sheer amount of staff and guests visiting. They must have hundreds of people who visit daily to see the elephants, echoed by the fleet of parked vans used to ferry everyone back and forth. The amount of staff, and the buildings themselves are also mind blowing. The park contains private sleeping buildings for overnight guests, hostel styled accommodations for volunteers who often stay for weeks, a thai massage area upstairs with local masseuses, a small cafe where they serve their own local coffee beans, an eating buffet area big enough to serve probably 100 people, a dog sanctuary where they have over 300 dogs, many disabled and needing medical attention, a full veterinary clinic to treat all kinds of animals, a food preparation area for the elephants with more bananas, watermelon and pineapple than I’ve ever seen in my life, a cat kingdom, and dozens of other areas I’m forgetting. It is a mammoth operation which survives solely on the funds raised by visitors who come to the park. We learned quite quickly that feeding and caring for 70+ elephants, 300+ dogs, an unknown amount of cats, and providing for the staff who volunteer here, requires a massive amount of money. It actually made me quite happy that the cost was relatively high for a one night visit (about $250 US), because I could imagine just how needed that money is.
Feeding the Elephants
Once it all sinks in, we were told some safety regulations before getting to feed some of the elephants from the main platform. Feeding them involves helping to give the elephants large cut pieces of watermelon and pineapple as they reach towards you with their trunks. A safe distance and separation is maintained from the elephants, as although they are incredibly gentle, just their sheer size and power can potentially harm people. Also the elephants, just like humans, might react different to people, and things like a foreign scent (perfume, etc.) might trigger them to react negatively or want to push someone aside. A gentle nudge from a 5 ton elephants trunk might not feel so gentle in the moment.
Most one day visitors to the park will only get to feed the elephants from this platform, then go on a guided tour and have lunch. For our group (only 4 of us, which was amazing), we would get to feed the elephants, walk around the park with our guide (absolutely crucial at all times since elephants can charge people or act unpredictably) and then we would have a private feeding session the next day. For the most part, many of the elephants are acclimated to people and treat us with tolerance, especially when we have food for them. They eagerly reach out with their tusks and we quickly learned that many elephants have a preference for watermelon over the more sour pineapple. It was also incredibly to see the dexterity and skill with which they can use their trunks. They would effortlessly grab food from our hands, or when it fell, gently cradle the pieces and pick them up with a grace and fluidity I had not expected. The entire feeding process was a little overwhelming simply because so many people tried to get in and help, and we were relieved knowing that tomorrow we’d get another chance to feed with almost entirely on our own.
Dogs
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Hosai checking out the mud bath while an elephant looks on~
One of the highlights for me was the sheer amount of beautiful dogs roaming freely all over the park. Most loved to laze about the main platform, perfectly content passed out in the middle of the floor or searching out gullible humans to grab food from. We had several friends, especially the platform dogs, who made my day when they came out and guided our walks for us. A few years ago Thailand was hit by some devastating floods, and the staff from the Elephant Nature Park went out and rescued people’s pets, often forgotten or left behind during the chaos. Unfortunately, very few people came to claim their pets afterwards, and so over the years the park has adopted dozens of dogs who now are just as at home as the elephants.
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Hosai waiting for us to follow her~
Hosai
In particular Hosai was a favourite of mine as she immediately took us under her wing and insisted on leading us everywhere on the first day. She loved being scratched and petted, and if you indulged those special spots on her neck and then tried to pull way, she gently but firmly grabbed your arm with her paw and let you know a little more was required. She was such a joy to follow and play with that first day and she was definitely a highlight of the trip for me.
Meeting the Elephants Up Close
After the feeding we had our own lunch, a huge buffet spread of amazing local foods, all vegetarian, which was an absolute delight. Everything was well prepared and extremely healthy. Following that it was time to venture off into the park. Led by Hosai and our local guide, our small group set out to see the elephants up close. Most of the elephants were completely harmless, and all were accompanied by their own Mahout. Mahout's are people who work with elephants and each elephant had at least one Mahout assigned to them. They develop a close relationship and the Mahout acts as a steward or nanny, overseeing the elephants, making sure they remain safe, and taking care of their health, be it feeding, bathing, exercise, anything the elephant might require. The Mahout's here were almost all Burmese refugee's and they had their own distinct culture and group. The park provided lodging for them and their families (wives and children stayed at the park as well), which is a huge help to them considering the state of many Burmese refugee's. None of them were allowed to use any kind of violence or physical punishment on the elephants and the park ensured that everyone upheld the spirit of protecting the animals.
Being able to roam around the park relatively freely was an incredible experience. Everywhere you looked were different families of elephants happily engaged in their own activities. While initially anxious and nervous (these are in fact dangerous animals and you always have to be vigilant), I quickly grew accustomed to being close to such beautiful giants. Normally I shy away from anthropomorphizing animals and giving them human-esque attributes, however elephants truly are amazingly complex and emotional beings. They feel affection, pain, loss, have deep memories, and can also be stressed, nervous, annoyed and hangry. It's not so much that elephants are like humans in many ways, but rather humans act in similar ways to elephants, who have always done so. The first elephants we met were two females who lived together and took care of one another. One was eating cut and shredded corn husks, as her teeth were almost all gone and she was well into her 70's. The other was slightly younger and blind in one eye (if I remember correctly). They supported one another and were happy to let us get close while they ate. We were lucky to learn about these two animals and heard a little about their stories. Like so many other elephants here at the park, they had been saved late in life, both only within the past 5 years, and had come from riding camps or logging camps, where they had been abused and mutilated. You can see how one of them has rips and tears along her ear, those were inflicted by loggers who used knives to slash at the elephant while it worked. Despite their brutal lives, they had found peace here, and in time, had found one another and become best friends. It was heartwarming to know that they had someone to rely on and trust, and that at this park they could be free and live peaceful, natural lives again. I can't imagine these two beautiful animals, who were so calm and relaxed, even smiling and seemingly content, being tortured and abused for profit or pleasure. Unfortunately like most of the elephants, the nature of their reality had been cruel and brutal for almost all their lives. It is a miracle that they can even adapt and revert to living normal lives once again considering all they've been through.
Throughout that first day and the next, we met (and when safe) interacted with, several families and small herds of elephants. Some of these were simply 2 elephants who chose to spend their time together, some were larger groups up to 7 or 10, with aunties and the maternal leader looking after several young elephants. The young elephants were especially fun to watch, these troublesome tykes and teenagers cause a great deal of mischief at the park. They tease other elephants, are notoriously curious, they play fight, bicker, steal and get into all other kinds of trouble. The larger aunts usually keep them in life, but sometimes the young elephants, especially the male, will charge or even gorge some of the adults. The Mahout have their hands full trying to stay on top of these youngsters as they can run off at a moments notice, sometimes towards unsuspecting groups of visitors. They’ll even “play” with the local dogs, who are fearless and not the least bit shy of barking and nipping at the elephants.
The male elephants are kept in separate private enclosures at the park. Unfortunately it’s dangerous to let them roam about freely, as they don’t fit into the small herd families, and also the park isn’t really equipped to breed and accommodate more elephants. They do socialize with the other elephants, often get visitors and social calls, and have a fair amount of space to roam (complete with mud holes and small pools of water for them!). They are also a little more aggressive, so human visitors also have to be mindful.
Healing and Recovery
One of the elephants (the one chilling in the water in the pictures below), was a female who had been badly hurt during forced mating. Her owners, a logging company, had chained her legs together and forced a male elephant to try and mate with her. The male didn’t like her, charged, and crushed one of her hip bones. As a result her hips and legs are severely damaged and she can barely stand. She’s in constant pain and is undergoing physiotherapy to try and help her. To help her, they have built a special pool for her, which has a ramp and small wall where she can wade into the water, relieve the weight from her legs, and actually rest her stomach on the wall. She gets to spend a few hours in there each day, her time is limited because the water is actually damaging to an elephants skin and makes it too soft, actually hurting her recovery. But whenever she can, you can see how happy she is to be pain free and in the water. The other elephant with a wrapped foot being administered to here had stepped on a land mine. Her foot is permanently damaged and will never fully heal. Veterinarians treat her with special antibiotics, bandages and medicine everyday. Her wound needs to be cleaned twice a day due to how dirty it can become whenever she goes into the water or mud.
Life at the ‘Spa’
There are two things elephants love more than anything else it seems; water and mud. There is no one more content, elated and ecstatic than an elephant bathing/playing in the river, or rolling around and throwing mud all over itself! Just have a look at how much fun they are having, even using rocks and cement pillars to rub their belly’s!! If you look closely at one of the pics, you can even see a dog who swam out to say hi to his friends in the river! :)
There are a million more things I’d love to write about; making the rice balls with banana and tamarind to feed the older elephants, seeing elephants a hundred years old living peacefully in the park, the other animals, how volunteers help and get involved, the food they served (it was incredible!!), the staff and guides who were amazing, I could go on and on, but this post is already mind numbing in its length! If anyone has read half of this, I would be ecstatic, but it’s hard for me not to go on and on when this experience truly was amazing and unforgettable. If nothing else, I hope my experience has caused you to think about elephants, their treatment and what we support (even unknowingly) in a new light. These are the most incredible animals and I am still emotional about cruelly we humans treat them. They deserve our love, our admiration, and most importantly, our respect. If you ever have the chance to visit The Elephant Nature Park, please do, you definitely will not regret it, and just maybe, we can all be better humans and help save the animals who need our help. Thank you for your time,