We spent the day at the Elephant Nature Park feeding, washing and interacting with elephants. Unfortunately, Thailand has a history of using elephants in the logging industry and as street performers. They are often abused, mistreated and otherwise poorly cared for. The park we went to is trying to educate Thai owners and provide a safe place for injured and badly abused elephants.
The park currently has 44 elephants and over 300 acres of property. The oldest elephant "Grandma" is 80 years old. These elephants eat all day long, about 10% of their body weight. The smaller ones we played with were about 2 tons, while the larger ones were about 4 tons. It was amazing watching them use their trunks to eat watermelon, squash, bananas by the basket full. They manipulate their trunks just like we use our hands to grab, move and check things out.
You can see in the picture the smaller elephant's leg is wrapped up because it was caught in a poachers trap and badly injured.
Overall it was a great experience!
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