When you can't get enough of volunteering experiences, you end up spending the day with the most magical creatures ever : Elephants.
The first time I have met with Elephants was in South Africa during a Safari. They were all free and protected by rangers. You could see how happy and majestic free elephants can be.
In Thailand, I've met with them twice.
The first time was in Surin during the Elephant festival. My heart broke there as I saw the reality of Elephant abuse* and how deeply rooted it is in the local culture.
I made the promise to myself that I would do something to help them.
I kept my promise and flew to Chiang Mai where I met them again. I joined the project Elephant Heaven sponsored by the Elephant Nature Park. It is a small group Saddle Off! program where you meet with three elephants who used to spend their lives moved from street begging, performing elephant to elephant riding service. The elephants owner wanted to bring the elephants home to provide the better life. Now these elephants living under the care of their owner in the natural surroundings.
While wearing traditional Lanna garments, we prepared food and fed the elephants.
Then we enjoyed a short walk with them in the natural terrain and observed the elephants’ natural behavior while they are in the forest. In the afternoon, we fed the elephants again, watched them having a mud bath and followed them to the pond to rince the mud off.
Elephant facts
Elephant eyes are very fragile. Camera flashes and spotlights (from Circus) can make them go blind.
Elephants purr. (Yes, like big cats) : Listen.
Elephant trunks are used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and grabbing things—especially a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles. Asian elephants have a fingerlike feature on the end of their trunk that they can use to grab small items.
Elephants eat roots, grasses, fruit, and bark—and they eat a lot of them. An adult elephant can consume up to 250 kilos of food in a single day.
Elephants are widely viewed as one of Earth’s most intelligent animals. They demonstrate a wide variety of behaviors associated with high intelligence, including compassion, mimicry, grief, altruism, use of tools, and self-awareness.
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*Elephant abuse :
You may already know that you can ride elephants, see them painting or performing in a circus. The one thing they all have in common is the Phajaan program which breaks their spirit. Babies elephants are kept in small crates similar to those found in the intensive pig farming industry. Their feet are tied with ropes, their limbs are stretched, they are repeatedly beaten with sharp metal and other tools, they are constantly yelled and screamed at, and they are being starved. Bull hooks (a tool used in most forms of elephant control) are used to stab the head, slash the skin and tug the ears. They lose their spirit and minds in the process which can take up to three months. This happens to every elephant that is used for human entertainment.