We have had limited internet access the last couple days,
but for a really exciting reason. We finally got to get up close with some
elephants! We had already been to the elephant hospital, but couldn’t get close
enough to touch them. A lot of them were recent rescues and were recovering
from various ailments and conditions. We visited a camp this weekend, though,
where the elephants were rehabilitated and able to socialize with people again.
There were 27 elephants at this park, and only 3 were born there. The rest had
been sent from elephant hospitals or rehabilitation centers for a good
permanent home.
This particular park is about an hour drive from the city
center, which makes it a popular getaway for a lot of tourists. The park
survives on the money it brings in from tours and donations visitors make. Each
elephant can eat a couple hundred pounds of food per day, so you can imagine
how costly it is. We spent the first day at the park just learning how to
interact with the elephants. One of the first things we learned how to do was
feed them. They love bamboo, sugar cane, bananas (by the bunch), and anything
they can strip off the trees. They were not shy about taking anything, either.
Often I would be carrying an armload of bananas over to my elephant and another
one would reach over and steal some. They had to chain up one leg of the elephants (only during feeding time) to prevent fights over food. Most of these elephants are no longer aggressive, but they will occasionally have flashbacks of needing to fight for food. (Think Wookie and Royal during treat time...)
My elephant for the weekend was Khan. I love his name,
especially because of the recent Star Trek movie. But he was mostly called by
his nickname, Smooch. I quickly found out what this meant…
He loves to give kisses! He will wrap his trunk around your
neck and give you a very loud smooch. He was the only one at the park that did
this. I can now say I’ve gotten a hicky from an elephant. Khan was one of the
few elephants to be born at the park. He is still considered a baby, being only
five years old. He was definitely one of the more playful ones, too. His mahout
(caretaker) said this is because he is still in his naughty little boy phase.
Kind of reminded me of Royal… Here he is taking a rest. He just flops over wherever he wants and wags his tail.
For example, on the second day we rode our elephants through
the jungle for a couple hours to a river to bathe them. They were supposed to
stop and let us off before going in the water. But Khan got so excited and
started trumpeting when he saw that it was bath time that he ran into the water
with me on top still. We spent about an hour in the water, playing and washing.
All the elephants love to load up their trunks with water and spray huge
fountains over everyone.
I did get to try sitting up on one of the big ones the
second day. It was soo high up! A little bit scary at first, but actually felt
more stable than little Khan. The big one I sat on is named Ohm. He was very
polite, even handed me my shoes with his trunk. By the way, the unflattering outfits we are wearing are to protect our skin from rash from elephant's tough skin.
It has been a couple very tiring, but awesome, days.
Awesome!!! What a great post and wonderful pictures Emily! You look like a natural with the elephants. Bath time sounds like a blast, I wish we could see that too :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! There are pics of the bath time somewhere, just have to get them from someone else. I didn't want to get my camera wet! But someone stood on the edge and got pictures : )
ReplyDeleteSounds like an amazing experience. Thanks for keeping us posted.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me that you look so comfortable getting so close to the elephants right away...and I kind of like the outfit!
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