This December Crystal’s sister, Emily, is here visiting us in Cambodia. Last week we took her up to Siem Reap province and while we were there we visited the Cambodia Elephant Sanctuary. This is the smaller of the two Elephant sanctuaries in Siem Reap. Both sanctuaries are for rescued elephants who were used for labor or tourism in the province. The larger sanctuary is the Kulen Elephant Forest where ten rescued elephants live in and roam around 1100 acres of protected forest. Most elephant sanctuaries in Cambodia are committed to ethical tourism and at a minimum are no ride, no chain, no stick. Depending on the needs of the rescued elephants some sanctuaries are completely free roaming and others provide more supports.

Cambodia Elephant Sanctuary has three rescued elephants who are acclimated to people and who can’t be fully returned to the wild (due to age, injury, or so on). While this sanctuary is less than five years old, it is associated with the Elephant Sanctuary in Krabi, Thailand and benefits from the experience of that sanctuary.

Elephants are a proud part of the Khmer culture but most of the wild population were killed or driven away during the wars because of poaching, landmines, unexploded ordinance, and habitat destruction. In 2023, it was estimated that there were only between 400 to 600 wild Asian Elephants remaining in Cambodia. There are less than 50,000 Asian Elephants remaining in the world. More than 50% of the population of wild Asian Elephants are in India.

Our first activity was to prepare a high-calorie high-nutrition snack for the elephants. The guides explained that the elephants need to eat upwards of 300 kilograms of food a day but that the majority of their diet are low-calorie high-fiber plants. This snack is particularly good for the elderly elephants who benefit from the boost in nutrition.

We then carefully handfed the elephants the snack balls that we’d prepared. The guides told us how to approach each elephant. For instance, one elephant was blind in one eye so we needed to approach where they could see us. The kids were a bit nervous since we were gently offering the snack balls directly to the elephants as they were too soft for a trunk to pick-up.

Afterwards we fed the elephants bananas which they took from us with their trunks. The kids felt more comfortable with this activities since it didn’t involve extending their hand towards an open mouth larger than their head.

After their snack the elephants headed over to eat some banana leaves and stalks. This was an opportunity to be close to them under the careful instruction of the guides.

The next activity on the schedule was a mud bath. The elephants scooped up mud and threw it over their backs as we assisted spreading mud on hard-to-reach places. The guides explained that elephants use the mud to clean themselves.

Then the elephants headed down to a swift-flooding creek where we joined them in washing off the mud.

After their bath the elephants scooped up dust with their trunk and threw it over their backs. The guides said that this was their natural sunscreen that protected them from the heat of the day.

Then it was snack time again. This time we offered the elephants bananas and other fruit.

There are many more elephant sanctuaries – like Elephant Valley Project – in the north-eastern corner of Cambodia. There are also herds of wild elephants living in the Cardamom Mountains and Mondulkiri province however these populations are shrinking due to humanity and habitat loss. In 2023 the Ministry of Environment published a 10 year plan to protect the remaining wild elephant herds.