Elephant Love!!!

Today, I got to feed an elephant!  And kinda give one a bath!! At the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.  Amazing!!!

The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was established in 1975 by the Sri Lanka Department of Wildlife Conservation to care for injured and orphaned unweaned wild elephants found in and near the forests.  Today, about 95 elephants live there.

There is some controversy about the orphanage. Critics note that the males are chained during musth, an aggressive period associated with reproductive hormones.  They say the chains can hurt their legs. They also say the mahouts use an'ankus/ sharp hook with a spike, to train the elephants. 

These things seem at least partly true.  I saw chains on some males, and the mahouts had hooks. But the chains seemed loose and the use of the hooks seemed very rare.  And other stuff I saw impressed me. Elephants bathing for about 2 hours in a river, free to wander the water and its shores.  Elephants hanging out in a big enclosure giving themselves water and dust baths. Socializing with each other.  I even fed one a whole basket of delicious looking fruit, like elephant candy!!  I think, on the whole, these animals seemed content. I certainly hope so!!!!

Pictures
1-2 The elephants enjoying their time at the river "Ma Ova" and  socializing in a large enclosure.
3-6 - Me and "Manika" the elephant.  It was amazing! To touch his skin, ear, tail, foot, leg, belly, hair!  A local man said this elephant used to belong to Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil Tigers. Wow...
7- Toby feeding fruit to one of the elephants.  Fun!!!
8- We were able to stand about 20 feet from these animals.  Separated only by these big rocks.