Elephantastic Day

Today was an elephantastic day! We went to Into the Wild Elephant Camp to learn about the elephants and have a up close experience. The owner of the camp explained to us the history of elephants in Thailand. Years ago the elephants were used to knock down teak wood, which was then used to make various crafts and furniture. This was really hard on the elephants. One of the elephants we met today still had scars on its head from doing just that. Once people stopped using the elephants to push down the wood, they started using the elephants for rides. This is a controversial topic in Thailand, but the owner of the camp explained it very well. He explained that long ago when people didn’t have transportation, people rode the elephants as their means of transportation. Therefore it has become part of Thai culture to have the elephants give rides. He then explained that it does not hurt the elephants to give rides, but the way they are trained and forced to give the ride is the sad part. At Into the Wild the elephants are trained to respond to their verbal commands, they do not get physical with the elephants. All the elephants at this camp are allowed to roam free from 6am-6pm. At 6pm they come back willingly because it is their feeding time. They explained that the elephants were not allowed to roam free at night because they could potentially go into the streets and get hurt. As a group we were able to give them a mud bath which helps protect them from the bugs, and then take a bath with them to clean them up. All of the elephants were very friendly and listened to their owners very well. An interesting fact that we learned was that the when an elephant starts to leak oil out of the holes in its head it means it is going into heat. When this happens the elephant has to be isolated from all the other elephants  and it’s owner for 30 days because it becomes dangerously violent. Overall the experience was unforgettable and we couldn’t have asked for a better day!