Becoming One with ELEPHANTS: Chiang Mai, Part 2

One of the primary reasons I so wanted to visit Chiang Mai is simple: I wanted to see elephants.  And I wanted to do it in an ethical way.  Elephant tourism is prevalent all over Thailand, but the way the elephants are treated is not always ideal.  I chose to visit an ethical elephant sanctuary called Elephant Nature Park, and my day there was absolutely one of the highlights of my year in Thailand.  I hope you enjoy joining me for this day of elephant immersion and pure joy!!

Reading time: 14 minutes

Camps where the elephants are forced to work long hours, be ridden by humans, and be subjected to abuse are unfortunately still the norm in Thailand.  It is essential to choose responsibly when opting to support an organization that cares for these gentle giants.  Fortunately, a dear friend of mine visited Elephant Nature Park a few years ago, and she highly recommended it to me as a must-do while I live in Thailand.  I am so grateful that this is the elephant rescue that I visited.  Read on to learn why this park is so special... AND to meet their darling elephants!!!

The day started at 8 AM, when the Elephant Nature Park (ENP) van picked me and the 10 others in my group up at our hotels in Chiang Mai.  ENP is 60 kilometers outside of the main city, so it took about an hour to drive there.  The views as we approached consisted of lush, green mountains and jungle-surrounded grasslands.

Pulling into the park felt like truly entering a sanctuary.  And then...

...the elephants arrived!

Our first activity at the park was feeding the elephants some mid-morning snacks.

We got to give this family of elephants some of their favorite small foods: bananas, cucumbers, squash, and sugar cane.

Like humans, elephants each have their own individual tastes in food.  The babies and older adults tend to like sweeter foods like bananas and sugar canes, while the middle-aged adults are happy with the less sweet cucumbers and squash.  

This baby elephant hung out with me while I fed him bananas by the bunches!

When the food ran out, the elephants were on their merry way.  ENP also rescues buffalo, dogs, and cats, so there are always helpers to clean up the food the elephants left behind!

Meet our guide for the day, Jojo.  He was wonderful, so informative, and fun!  Jojo has been working at ENP for three years, so he is an expert on every elephant at the park.  He took us on a tour of the grounds to acquaint us with some of his elephant friends.

There are a total of 84 elephants, 90 buffalo, 400 dogs, and 700 cats at the Chiang Mai branch of  Elephant Nature Park.  We met quite a few of the elephants - let me introduce you! 

This is Sii Nuan.  She is 60 years old, and she was one of the initial four elephants at ENP when it was founded over 20 years ago.  She was rescued from the logging industry and has only one eye, due to abuse from her prior owner.

She is now such a happy, friendly lady, living her best life in her forever home!  I got to take a couple photos with her.  She was game to take pictures, but she was confused why I approached her with no snacks in hand!  

"Hmm... maybe cameraman Jojo has snacks to offer." 

"Alright, guess not.  Let me smell Roxi's hand one more time to make sure she's not hiding a banana in there."

"It was worth a shot!  At least she's petting my trunk.  That's pretty cool."

After saying goodbye to Sii Nuan, we moved on to another of the four original elephants at ENP.  Her name is Jo Kia.  She is the heaviest female in the park, weighing in at 5 tons!  She eats 10% of her body weight per day - that's 500 kilograms, or 1,100 pounds, of food, every day, mostly consisting of banana leaves.  She eats for 16 hours per day!  Not a terrible life, eh?

Jo Kia is a nanny to this 3 year old baby girl.  The baby is quite playful, and even a little naughty!

Jojo gave me a piece of sugarcane to feed to Jo Kia.  One of our group members kindly took a video of me feeding it to her.  I had to tap her trunk with it to let her know that it was there, as she is fully blind.  Check out what the naughty baby did while I was giving his nanny a snack!

Baby needed attention, so she brought a trunk full of banana leaves over and tried to play with me!  As sometimes baby elephants don't know their own strength, Jojo encouraged all of us to move away from her, especially because she was swinging her trunk all over the place.  I kept my distance, but it tickled me how similar she was to a human child!  Crucial to get the adults' attention as much as possible, right?

My group member friend took this great photo on my phone of Jo Kia and baby.

Another of our group members took these photos on her phone while the baby tried to feed me some snacks.

 These are some of my favorite photos from the day, by far!  They do a good job of capturing the baby's happy playfulness.

Baby moved on to find new playmates, and we got to meet Jo Kia's best friend.  She acts as Jo Kia's eyes for her.  They are both from the logging industry, and are both 55 years old - and promptly after Jojo told us this, Jo Kia took a dump, in protest!  Never share a lady's age.

Moving along!  The buffalo at ENP were all rescued from the meat trade.  The way that Elephant Nature Park works revolves around using the money made from eco-tourism (90%) and donations (10%) to care for their current population of rescued animals, and with what is left over, they purchase animals who are currently being abused.  I asked Jojo how much the animals cost for ENP to buy from their abusive conditions.  Buffalo go for 40,000-60,000 baht ($1,300-$2,000) each, and baby elephants start at 1-2 million baht ($33,000 to $66,000) each.  I love buffalo and cows - they are my favorite animals - so I'm planning on saving up to adopt at least a few buffalo when I make a permanent homestead.  (Joking... kind of.)

Jojo brought us to the elephant stables to show us the elephants' living quarters.  This is one of the elephant rooms.  They sleep here at night so that they are comfortable and safe.  Each room has soft sand to lay on and plenty of space to move around, and there are no chains, so the elephants are free of pain. 

At ENP, the elephants are fed full meals of banana leaves every two hours, in addition to the snacks they are fed by visitors to the park.  Each day, there are 4 to 5 trucks full of banana leaf food brought to ENP!

This sweet patch of land is a cemetary for the elephants who have passed away.  The elephants at ENP had rough starts in life, but they are fortunate that they can live out their days in this elephant paradise with people and elephant friends who love them and take care of them.

This is Taikhun, a sweet 24 year old who stepped on a landmine between Cambodia and Thailand.  Her foot was badly infected, and according to the doctors, she most likely would have died from the infection if ENP had not rescued her.  The medical team at ENP take close care of her and re-bandage her foot daily.  She has been at ENP for a couple of years now, and her foot is still healing from the landmine explosion.

Taikhun has two best friends that she hangs out with every day.  Jojo referred to the gang as the "3 Charlie's Angels" - Taikhun, Plai wan, and Chilly, the best friends a girl could have!

According to Jojo, Taikhun has grown visibly happier over the course of her time at ENP.  May you be well, sweet girl, and may your foot get better and better!

Onward to new friends!  This is Sasa, a gentle 60 year old lady.  Jojo taught us that the deeper the temples, the older the elephant.

This is Jan Wang.  She was born on, and is named after, a full moon.

Jan Wang is quite old.  Elephants have only four teeth, but over the course of their life, they have six sets of these four teeth.  She has lost all but her last 2 teeth, so she needs food that is quite soft and easy to chew.

Last but not least, for now: this is Lucky.  She is 35 and completely blind from circus lights.  Ever since she was rescued, she has been such a happy girl, despite her rough beginnings.  Jojo said she is almost always smiling now that she is safe and surrounded by friends.

Now, it was time for lunch!

There was a huge vegetarian buffet, and everything in it was delicious.

After lunch, I enjoyed watching the buffalo graze.  There are birds sitting on the back of the middle one!  I think buffalo are simply such sweet, pure beings.

Our group re-gathered, and it was time to go to the river to watch the elephants bathe!

Some elephant programs at different camps include visitors bathing with the elephants, but in an effort to make their lives more natural, ENP does not do this as of about a year and a half ago.  I really respect that this park is working to keep a balance between the ecotourism necessary to fund their projects, and natural lives for their elephants.

It was such a special experience to watch the elephants so enjoying the cool water on the hot day.

The elephants at ENP bathe in the river at least once per day.

While they bathed, the sun came out and brightened the landscape with warm light.

Enjoy this video of elephants emerging from total bathtub bliss!  And, yes, the baby was totally laying all the way down in the water.  Don't worry, his mom and nannies were attending to him closely; plus, his trunk is basically the world's best snorkel.

Mom, baby, and nannies were having a wonderful afternoon together.  (Note: if you've noticed that we haven't seen any males today except for the babies, it is because the male elephants are loners.  They do not stay in the packs with family or friends, and they really only interact with the others when they are ready to mate.  ENP only has a few males, and they all need to be separate from each other.)

After they got out of the water, it was time to reapply their sunscreen and mosquito repellent: dirt!!  

Elephants don't have pores like humans do, so they cannot sweat.  It is thus very important for them to have external cooling mechanisms.  Bathing combined with coating in dirt works very well to keep the elephants comfortable.  In addition, the dirt helps protect the elephants from bug bites.  I should try coating in dirt - effective sunscreen/insect repellent for free?  Yes please!

This is a mom with her six year old son, and his great grandmother in the far back.

The baby - yes, still considered a "baby" at six years old - is still breastfeeding from his mom!  Elephant procreation has a fascinating timeline.  Females reach reproduction age at around 13 years old, and males typically begin reproducing much older, at about 30 years old.  They are in heat (period for female, "must" for male) for about 1 month, sometimes longer.  Pregnancy lasts two years, sometimes longer.  Breastfeeding lasts for about six years... you guessed it, sometimes longer!   Elephant females are thus either pregnant or nursing for most of their adult lives.  Suddenly, the human timeline (week-long periods, 9 month pregnancies, a year or two of nursing) doesn't seem so bad, huh?

Now, it was time to meet the ever-majestic Yai Bua: the great grandmother of baby, clocking in at an astounding 104 years old.  She has a different backstory than many of the other elephants at the park.  She was beloved by her prior owners, and they treated her very well for her entire life.  She did logging work, but she was never abused and had far fewer working hours than most logging elephants have.  Her owners went bankrupt and, heartbroken, they had to sell her.  ENP bought Yai Bua from them, to their great joy.  They visit her multiple times a year, and she is always so happy to see them.  It is a beautiful thing that elephants form such dear relationships with humans... and like the saying goes, an elephant never forgets.  Especially when love is involved.

(By the way: Yai Bua is extremely healthy for her age.  The lump on her shoulder is a benign tumor.  She is doing fabulously, 104 years and all!)

This is Sri Prie, "Queen of the Jungle"!  She is 80 years old.

The older an elephant gets, the less effective their teeth and digestive systems become.  I learned that 80% of old elephants die of constipation (!), and seeing this poop helps me to understand why; see the whole bananas, not at all broken down?  For this reason, ENP feeds the old elephants tamarind paste daily to act as a laxative and keep things moving.

Speaking of keeping things moving: the best way to galvanize every elephant in the park is, of course, food time!  When the food truck came, the elephants all perked up and excitedly pursued the truck.  It had been almost two hours since the last time food was delivered, after all!  They were starving!

Ah, yes.  Banana leaves galore.

Yai Bua is ready to chow down.

The old ladies have a very smart way of eating their banana leaves.  They pick up the stalks, strip them of the leaves, eat the leaves (which are easy to chew/digest), and drop the stalks on the ground for the younger adults to eat later.

This clearly is not her first banana leaf rodeo!

While the elephant family chowed down, Jojo offered to take some photos for those who wanted them.

Such strong, beautiful... and hungry... creatures.

The elephants we got to see up close here are so well-adjusted and good natured.  I do want to include a story, though, of one elephant I saw at ENP that was not like this; it really affected me, and I think you'll see why.

One elephant was in a large pen by herself.  She was rocking back and forth and repeatedly bopping her head/trunk on the wooden fence.  Jojo told us that she was rescued from an extremely abusive job in the logging industry.  She was regularly given amphetamines to make her work faster, but these gave her severe brain damage.  When reunited with her family after being rescued, she did not recognize them and tried to attack them.  Her mahout (a human dedicated to taking care of her; each elephant at ENP has one, and the elephants choose their own mahout) cannot even come into her pen because she attacks anyone and anything that comes into her space.  Every attempt at socializing her with the other elephants has been unsuccessful.  She is deeply traumatized, and it shows.  It is beyond heartbreaking that she has been out of the abusive situation for years now, yet she still has so much pain and distress in her daily experience.  The fact that she was drugged consistently and now has resulting brain damage... it is just so sad.  May she be well.  I hope that the efforts by ENP toward her rehabilitation make positive differences in her quality of life.

The stories of the elephants at ENP are a mixed bag, for sure.  So many come from so much pain, but most of them are now rehabilitated and living happy, joyful, full lives.  Places like ENP are doing such important work, and I am very grateful that I had the chance to support them during my travels.

Now, for a happier subject: buffalo!!!  Hehe.  It was such a treat to see the buffalo sharing space and food with the elephants.  I asked Jojo if this happens in the wild, and he said that when there is limited food, the elephants and buffalo would be fighting for resources.  At ENP, however, there is ample food, so elephants and buffalo coexist and share happily.

The current population of wild Asian elephants in Thailand is around 2,000, which is very low.  There are about the same amount domesticated in Thailand, meaning that the number of elephants in the country is now estimated to be between 3,000 and 4,000.  Notably, at the beginning of the 1900s, there were over 100,000 elephants in Thailand.  The population dwindling to this degree is due to humans encroaching on their domain, poaching, and sport.

Elephant Nature Park provides a safe haven for elephants who were suffering from abusive living conditions at the hands of humans.  Here, they are given a new life, with quality care, abundant food, dear elephant friends and family, and their happiness being the central focus of their existence.  It is very difficult to reverse the harm that humans have brought upon elephants, but the small efforts to save the remaining elephants are crucial and add up to important, meaningful differences. 

The overwhelming feeling from the elephants at ENP is joy.  There is so much joy within the families, the friendships, the relationships the elephants share with each other, and with the humans who take care of them.  I cannot explain how connected I felt to these incredible beings during my time at the park, and even afterward.  I will now share a journal entry I wrote after my day at Elephant Nature Park to shed a bit of light on the insights I had about these wonderful creatures.  (The title, "chang," is the Thai word for elephant.)

The 2,500 baht ($82) I spent on this full day journey at Elephant Nature Park was worth so much more than that in my heart and mind.  My Thailand experience would not have been complete without my time with the elephants.  I highly recommend anyone who visits Chiang Mai to spend some time at ENP.  Thank you to my dear friend Tina for recommending this heaven to me.

 

Thank you so much for joining me on my day in elephant paradise.  I hope you enjoyed these pictures, videos, and stories.  May we all remember that there is so much power in where we spend our money, and may we choose to support places that are ethical and responsible with our precious world.

I leave you with these clips of a mom flapping her ears and waving her tail with delight that her baby has just come over to her and the family.  The happiest elephants with the sweetest relationship.  May we all find joy like that of these elephants!