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 You love elephants! And because you do, you know that riding one, buying a painting made by one, feeding a begging one on the city streets or watching one stand on its head is not part of a humane, eco-friendly travel itinerary (see my article: Eco-Adventure Travel: Seven Reasons Never to Ride an Elephant). Fortunately, there are several alternatives that offer an even deeper, closer and more personal connection to your beloved species. For example, why ride an elephant when you can bathe with one?
Here are some non-detrimental ways to commune with the elephant species:
- Volunteer at the Elephant Nature Park. The Elephant Nature Park is possibly the only true elephant conservation park in Thailand. World-famous conservationist, Lek, is often available at the park to inspire visitors. The Elephant Nature Park accepts volunteers for seven (or multiples of seven) days during which a visitor of any age swims with, bathes and feeds elephants by hand—much more intimate than riding one, by far. The park cares for retired, rescued and rehabilitating elephants, which appear delighted in their right to roam unchained and free, socialize in newly created family bonds and interact with humans through Positive Reinforcement Training (a bull-hook-free environment). The park also accepts visitors for a paired-down one to three day visit. This is an up-close and personal, feel-good experience appropriate for a single tourist, romantic couple or entire family.
- Participate in the Journey to Freedom Project. The more fit traveler will relish the Journey To Freedom experience, a project organized by the Elephant Nature Park, wherein volunteers actually live in the remote high-altitude rainforest in the hut-like homes of the Karen Hill Tribe about 90 miles from the Burmese border. The elephants in the Journey to Freedom Project have been returned from the tourist industry to the Karen Tribe owners, where they now live unchained and utterly free. Participating in the Journey to Freedom requires an active fitness level as it involves mountaintop hikes to track the project's "newly wild" elephants. Once located, volunteers follow as the elephants lead through pristine rain forests, rice fields, caves and untouched waterfalls. The visitor gets to experience the life of a remote tribe that grows and weaves its own fabric, cuts its own lumber and lives mainly without plumbing or electricity. This is an encounter that will change the adventurous traveler’s life forever, help return tourist elephants to the wild and offer an unparalleled connection with the Asian elephant species.
- Visit a Performing Animal Welfare Society Sanctuary. If you love elephants, but can't make it to Asia, consider a magical visit to a Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in northern California. PAWS rescues America's abused and retired circus, zoo, movie and privately owned elephants. PAWS believes that all elephants should remain in the wild, but offers protection and retirement for those who were captured and brought to North America. You can visit either of PAWS sanctuaries on designated days of the year. There you can eat a vegetarian lunch with the elephants gathered nearby, tour the sanctuary grounds and see African or Asian elephants—as well as rescued entertainment-industry bears, tigers and more—magnificently close. PAWS is a major advocate of the Protected Contact Training Method and monitors the USDA's enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act with public awareness campaigns and social activism. PAWS is doing the real work and is a true sanctuary.
- See the film Born to Be Wild in IMAX 3D. Let the three-dimensional entertainment of a breathtaking IMAX film bring you closer to the elephant species without leaving your hometown. The Born to be Wild film documents orphaned orangutans and elephants and the extraordinary people who rescue and raise them—saving endangered species one life at a time. Instead of taking your family to see the disingenuous blockbuster film, Water For Elephants, which promotes sympathy for circuses while utilizing performing elephants during the making of the film, see a documentary portraying elephants in all their wild glory and humans exhibiting true respect and compassion toward them.
- Join an Elephant-Protection Mailing List or Advocacy Organization. This besieged species can be supported during more than just your vacation. Learn something about how you can aid this amazing creature’s cause every day. Add your name to the Elephant Voices mailing list, organized by famous African elephant researcher Joyce Poole. Or sign up for In Defense of Animal's elephant task force newsletter. (Also, regularly check their breaking news page, which includes their action alerts.) Both of these organizations have Facebook and Twitter pages as well.
- Donate to the Serengeti Foundation. The biggest threat to all endangered wildlife is habitat destruction caused by human overpopulation that consumes too many natural resources. If you truly love elephants and all world species, consider donating to the Serengeti Foundation, a charity that actively purchases natural habitat to conserve, protect and preserve the animals that live on them. With land in Africa, Thailand and now the USA (protecting wild horses), 100% of your donation will go directly toward privately protecting parts of the world so wildlife and their habitats can thrive.
Please share this free-press information with everyone. Here’s a shortened link to copy and paste: http://bit.ly/o2vQpn (or click the "Email This" or "Share This" links below right).
Additional resources:
Eco-Adventure Travel: Seven Reasons Never to Ride an Elephant
Circus Elephants: Seeing With Newly Informed Eyes
Tonya Kay's Eco Tourist, Episode 10: What Healthy Elephants Do (Video)
Tonya Kay's Eco Tourist, Episode 6: Rally For Street Begging Elephants (Video)
Tonya Kay's Eco Tourist, Episode 4: Baby Elephant (Video)
Questioning the Sacred Cow of Cultural Sensitivity in the Name of Animals
Six Ways to Drop Tourism and Really Travel
How to Beat Jet Lag Naturally
More articles on Eco Travel and Leisure
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