Hope you’re ready for another of Hope’s Animal Adventures! We spent a day at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand and she couldn’t wait to share her thoughts on the awesome edventure of being up close and personal with Asian Elephants.

“We went to an Elephant Nature Park and we fed elephants, petted elephants, had lunch, washed the elephants in the river and did a nature walk to see more elephants.

The purpose of the Nature Reserve was to care for elephants hurt by logging accidents, land mines, and tourists. The metal seats in many tourist areas hurt the elephants backs.

We fed the elephants zucchini, watermelon and pumpkin. We put the food in their trunk and then the elephant put the food in their mouth. They stuffed the food in and we heard loud crunches as they ate using their teeth.

• 

  

  

I was scared to pet the elephants at first. By petting the elephants I found out that they were nicer than they looked.

Each person got one bucket. We got to wash a hurt elephant. Joy and I also caught little fish and shrimp in the river. To wash the elephants we scooped water in the buckets and threw it on their body. The elephant liked it.

The elephants were not led by hooks they led them by food. That is nicer to the elephants.

Some of elephants were very old. One was close to 90 years old. The elephants are cared for by tons of people including volunteer vets.

It was really fun washing them, petting them and caring for them. But it was very dirty because the elephants throw dirt on themselves. The dust is like sunscreen for the elephants and it protects them from bugs.

W