Yesterday Camp WienerPohl field tripped to Malaysia's National Elephant Conservation Centre about an hour and a half outside KL. I've been intrigued for years with elephant behavior after reading a fascinating article discussing the erosion of elephant social structures due to land loss and poaching. (I think it was in the New York Times Sunday magazine back eight or nine years ago.) While the kids had a great time here, our guide's English was limited and we did not have a sense of the mission of the operation, outside of a 20 minute video (in a lovely air conditioned room!). I'll do some research to better understand the operation before our next visit.
What I did learn (from the video) is that Malaysia, as many countries in Southeast Asia, has problems with deforestation and the elephants are endangered due to loss of habitable land. The Malaysian government established an elephant translocation team with a mission to relocate elephants from isolated areas (due to deforestation) to Taman Negara, Malaysia's huge national park. (We are going there next week for Hari Raya.) The elephant translocation team is located at the National Elephant Conservation Centre. The drive to and from the reserve exemplified this as we drove through miles and miles of palm oil plantations. There were also several areas with burning.
http://www.nre.gov.my/English/Ecotourism/Pages/ConservationCentreGajah.aspx
We feed the baby elephants, watched the trainers bath the adult elephants in the river, saw the elephant show, feed the adult elephants, and then the kids and Robin bathed the baby elephants.
A big thank you to Robin for driving! We wouldn't do all of these adventures without you guys. (And if we tried, it couldn't nearly be as much fun!!!)
What I did learn (from the video) is that Malaysia, as many countries in Southeast Asia, has problems with deforestation and the elephants are endangered due to loss of habitable land. The Malaysian government established an elephant translocation team with a mission to relocate elephants from isolated areas (due to deforestation) to Taman Negara, Malaysia's huge national park. (We are going there next week for Hari Raya.) The elephant translocation team is located at the National Elephant Conservation Centre. The drive to and from the reserve exemplified this as we drove through miles and miles of palm oil plantations. There were also several areas with burning.
http://www.nre.gov.my/English/Ecotourism/Pages/ConservationCentreGajah.aspx
We feed the baby elephants, watched the trainers bath the adult elephants in the river, saw the elephant show, feed the adult elephants, and then the kids and Robin bathed the baby elephants.
A big thank you to Robin for driving! We wouldn't do all of these adventures without you guys. (And if we tried, it couldn't nearly be as much fun!!!)
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| Success - with Robin is only slightly worried about having waded in the elephant-dung filled river. |
Wow, that is getting up close and personal with the elephants! Violet and Ty were very courageous! I wonder what the elephant's skin felt like. Way cool.
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