Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Phuket
Ethical Elephant Experiences
Unfortunately, there are controversies surrounding elephant experiences. Sadly, many elephants in Thailand suffer from poor treatment. These animals are sensitive and incredibly intelligent and require a monumental level of expertise and trust with their caregivers for proper care. Tourism often leads to the mistreatment or even worse treatment of elephants. It is very important to be a responsible tourist and ensure the elephants you visit receive proper care.
How do you know if an elephant’s experience is ethical? There are a few signs to look for.
- Elephants must have free range of their enclosure, with open access to the jungle, shade, open fields, water, and food. Since they are sensitive to their environment, they should never be deprived of a suitable space.
- Elephants must never be on a leash, tied down, or guided with a whip. This shows that the animal is being forced to do things against its will. The animal should always be able to choose if it would like to participate in activities.
- Avoid elephant breeders. Captive breeding involves inhumane separations of babies from their parents. Elephants are pack animals and spend their first 10 years, if not their entire life with their parents.
- Always research the organization ahead of time, and look for reviews that emphasize proper care and treatment of animals. Ideally, elephants should have a dedicated caregiver, as well as medical and cleaning staff to ensure proper care.
Elephant Sanctuary
With all that in mind, we came across Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. This organization runs several sanctuaries across Thailand with multiple camps in each sanctuary. They rescue all of their elephants, usually from the logging or entertainment industry. People forcefully domesticated these animals, making it impossible to release them into the wild. Unfortunately, many of them endured bleak lives, suffering beatings, forced labor, and confinement in very small areas with improper food.
The sanctuary made it clear that their elephants all have a single caregiver who will stay with them every day for their whole lives. This bond is very important for elephants who are highly social creatures. All of the animals have access to many acres of forest, field, pond, and shelter, and are free to roam and participate in activities as they choose. The rules for interaction are very strict, you may not ride them, or touch them anywhere but their trunk and side if they are comfortable. Although many of these animals grew up around humans and were improperly domesticated, meaning they are very used to human interaction.
Our Experience
Feeding the Elephants
The first part of the experience was feeding the elephants. They eat hundreds of kilograms of grass, bamboo, fruit, and other plants a day. If the elephants are hungry, they will allow you to feed them bananas straight from your hand. They seemed so comfortable with us and were very happy to eat. We also made a mixture of rice, tamarind, and banana. They explained that they put their medicines and supplements in the “elephant balls” as well.
We were free to roam the area and interact with the elephants. Each elephant at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary has a full-time caretaker who will be with them until one of them passes away. If we had a question about where an elephant came from, why it was in the sanctuary, or how to interact with them, the caretakers were happy to help. If an elephant was stressed or wanted to do something else, the caretaker would guide them out of the area which was nice to see.
Mud Baths
Next, it was time to have a mud bath with the elephants. There’s a large mud pit and the elephants happily started splashing themselves with mud. Elephants enjoy mud baths in the wild because it helps them cool off, remove pests, and protect their skin. Many of the elephants here were not allowed to take mud baths in captivity, so they are especially excited about this part.
They encourage you to only put mud on areas that are safe to touch. This part is not required if you’re squeamish or unable to get in the mud, but be warned: if you get it you WILL get mud everywhere! Don’t worry, there is a shower with shampoo directly afterward. Once we were all caked in mud, we took a group photo and the guides had us throw mud in the air, which the elephants seemed to like.
There is some controversy when it comes to bathing with elephants, with some claim that it is unethical. However, the reasons are that it might be unsafe for the human, and isn’t hygienic. I have seen articles that claim it is not ethical, but do not provide any reasons beyond this. It is worth noting, that all of these articles are from other elephant experiences who explicitly do not have baths with their elephants, so there is a clear conflict of interest in this claim.
I would consider it unethical if the elephants were being harmed or forced to bathe, however they have a choice to join, and trust me when I say they were very happy in the water. Of course, it’s not hygienic (but nobody thought it would be!) which is why showers with soap are provided immediately afterwards. We felt safe and comfortable during our experience, and it was clear the elephants at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Phuket are very well taken care of and happy in their environment, so we found this acceptable.
Shower
Next, it was time to get the mud off. There is a large swimming hole beside the mud pit where you can scrub down the elephants. Usually, these large creatures will find sticks and trees to scratch against in the wild. We were able to brush them down in the water with bristle brushes.
After the elephants finished bathing, they walked out to a shower area with water showers. As the elephants hose down, the humans get to shower with soap provided. Luckily they told us before arriving to bring towels and a change of clothes. Throughout the entire experience, the elephants seemed so happy and relaxed. I was very worried for the stress level of the animals, but thankfully during the experience I felt as though they were more calm than any of the humans around them.
Thai cooking class
With the bathing done, the elephants went their own way around the large enclosure and we settled in for lunch. There was a huge buffet of delicious Thai food to choose from. Before we got started, they asked for volunteers to show how to make pad Thai. Even though we had done a Thai cooking class the day before, nobody else volunteered so I jumped in. The smell of tamarind, peanuts, and chili sauce wafted throughout the sanctuary and it was time to dig in.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we were really happy with our experience at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Phuket. Going into it we were very aware of the controversies around elephant experiences in Thailand and were nervous if the conditions of the elephants were good. Thankfully, we were more than impressed. Staff members dedicate themselves to caring for these beautiful creatures, and they genuinely seem to love and respect the animals. The elephants themselves are very happy and seem quite healthy, especially since many of them come from abusive situations.
We were also very impressed by the guides. They were so funny and gave lots of information. Any questions we had about the elephants they could answer easily. Throughout the day they helped us take pictures and videos on our cameras and phones which turned out great. They also had a dedicated photographer and videographer who captured candid moments from our experience, and the photos were free which was so nice. If you’re looking for an elephant experience in Thailand, we will happily vouch for Elephant Sanctuary.
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