Based on a recommendation, my friend Chris & I headed out to the Kuala Gandah, an elephant sanctuary about 2 hours outside of Kuala Lumpur. We had the most excellent Mr Razali as our guide.
The elephants at the sanctuary were found injured and/or trapped. The sanctuary also runs an elephant rescue & relocation program. Much of the elephants’ natural habitat in Malaysia is now plantation crop & many elephants are trapped in “islands” of forest that are too small to sustain them. The sanctuary tries to mitigate this by relocating them to the national forest for protection.
The highlight our trip was the baby elephants – Siput (female, 10 months) and Shawal (male, 12 months old). They were just adorable.
at first, we were just in shock that we got to pet them. (here we are with siput)
but they were just so darn cute…. sawal liked to nibble on our hands
we tried to take as many photos as we could
we were there as volunteers, so we helped prepare their “baby formula” and feed them.
…and then we helped scrub them down.
the adult elephant’s feet were just fascinating
elephant montage