Tuesday, 18 November 2025

Learning about the Thai Elephants at the Karen Hill Elephant Sanctuary, Chiang Mia, Thailand

Our tour group arrived safely at the elephant sanctuary after an hour and half car ride.

A local guide from the sanctuary welcome us and gave us some information about the elephants. We had a short briefing about our schedule of activities with the elephants as well as what to do and not to do while walking with the elephants.

There were a number of actvities planned for us to do for our visit. The first thing we did was feeding the elephants with their most favourite food - sugar cane sticks which were like candies to them.
It was fun feeding the elephants and watching how agile they were using their trunks to fetch the sugar cane sticks we were feeding them.
There were five elephants at the Karen Hill Elephant Sanctuary - 4 adult elephants aged 20 to 55 years old and a one year old baby elephant. Though the elephants were huge animals, they were very gentle.
After feeding the elephants with their favourite snacks, we walked the elephants down to the river where they could take a mud bath and played with the water to cool off a bit.
We had lots of fun splashing the elephants with water and watching these gigantic animals enjoying themselves rolling in water. But as soon as the elephants got up from the river and started to walk, we had to run away from them as far away as possible for fear that we might be trampled on by these huge mammals by accidents. We heard some interesting stories and learned a lot about elephants:
Elephants: - are the biggest land animals in the world

- their big ears are like their air conditioning system, helping to keep elephants cool

- love mud bath which acts like a natural sunscreen protecting them from the sun and keeping them cool

- have the longest gestation period of all animals, 22 months!

- baby elephants can stand up and walk within 30 minutes after birth, amazing!

- have good memory

Our tour guide cautioned us not to annoy or irritate the elephants. He told us that there was a tourist who teased a herd of elephants which were walking on a country road in Thailand. This tourist threw a water bottle at one of the elphants. Sometime later, this same tourist was in a village where these elephants were staying. This particular elephant saw the toursit who threw the water bottle at it days before. It remembered him and this eleplant attacked him and the tourist died from his injuries! Wow, a lesson for us to remember - do not tease or attack any elephant. They have good memory and will remember those who were unkind to them!

RT, Karen Hill Elephant Sanctuary

Near Chiang Mia, Thailand, 2025

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