Elephant Extraordinaires

Hello again from Chiang Mai! On Saturday, we spent the day at Elephant Nature Park. It was AWESOME.


We got up close and personal with over 30 elephants.
The Elephant Nature Park is a rescue and rehabilitation centre for elephants. The elephants are saved from physical and emotional abuse that they would suffer from through being part of illegal logging operations, circuses and street begging.
This elephant here stepped on a landmine, and was abandoned by its owner.



We learned a ton of things that day.
Did you know that adult elehpants can eat up to 600 lbs of food per day? They also spend about 18 hours of their day eating.



They have a healthy diet. Fruit, fruit, fruit.

We were lucky enough to see a 7 day old baby elephant! Unfortunately, this little baby was not accepted by its mother (who also lives at the park), and might not survive. Staff and volunteers are working around the clock, in hopes to nurture the little guy back to health. 

The funnest part of the day was feeding all the elephants!

We also got to bathe them in the river!

Watching the trainers bring more elephants to the river for a bath.

Having a butterfly pea flower tea (delicious) break, while watching the elephants roam.

Dustin with one of the three baby elephants at the park.

The elephants covered themselves with dirt, as a way to cool down and for sunscreen protection, right after we bathed them!

We even got elephant kisses!

Liz's reaction after being kissed by an elephant.

Each elephant has one trainer that is with them 7 days a week.

An elephant tooth! Elephants have four teeth, and go through six sets of them in a lifetime.

Us with Lek, the founder of the park.