Elephant Sanctuaries: Safe or Reckless?
The Mondulkiri Project: Cambodia
My third and final experience with elephants was near the rural town of Mondulkiri, in the north east of Cambodia. Picturesque rolling hills dominate the landscape, much of it converted to field and farmland such that you could almost imagine that you were in the UK. The dark red soil betrays its exotic location, as does the endless chirping of cicadas and frogs in the trees.
There are numerous elephant sanctuaries in the area, though only two are NGOs: The Mondulkiri Project and The Elephant Valley Project. Elephant sanctuaries are an increasingly popular tourist attraction, offering a self-declared, morally superior way to experience elephants up close. But before I get into the sanctuaries themselves it is worth describing what the elephants who live there have been through.
Domestication or Domination?
Almost every captive elephant in Cambodia was taken from the wild. In fact the last successfully bred captive elephant was 30 years ago and she was at the sanctuary I visited. The vast majority would have been very young at the time of their capture. Either the mother is killed and the baby taken, or it is trapped in snares.
Once the elephant is taken it is then subjected to a process called “Phajaan” – this translates roughly as “breaking the spirit”.[1] The elephant’s front and back legs are bound with rope, they are then stretched, separated, and tied to trees so that the elephant is barely able to support its own weight. The elephant is then subjected to weeks of starvation, dehydration and beatings, until it relents to its captors will. If it attempts something not ordered of it, it is beaten; if it refuses to obey, it is beaten; if it fights back, it is beaten. When it is finally released from its bonds, carrying the physical and emotional scars of its ‘domestication’ process, it has learned that to disobey only brings pain and suffering.
It is then put to use in farming, logging, or providing rides for tourists. They are usually owned by a single mahout who will be its constant carer and companion for life. Many elephants previously used in the logging industry have been sold to companies providing elephant rides around temples and historic landmarks. The work is arduous and back breaking. The weight of the carriages and people on an elephant’s back is often so great that their backs literally break. They have no social contact with other elephants. They have no free will, no self-expression, and spend every night chained to trees.
Every working elephant will have been subject to this process. It claims to achieve domestication, however all it achieves is domination, subjugation, and imprisonment. An elephant will never submit to the will of man freely, its obedience must be forced through fear.
Elephants carry the effects of this trauma for life. In G. A. Bradshaw’s book, Elephants on the Edge, she explores in depth the ability to diagnose elephants with human disorders such as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) as well as dissociative identity disorders.[2] It is becoming increasingly apparent that elephants are capable of suffering from disorders only previously ascribed to man, and that we bear many psychological similarities in how we react to trauma.
These are the general backgrounds of the elephants that I met. All are survivors of abuse, struggling to find an identity and recovery outside of imprisonment. Unfortunately, not many sanctuaries are actually what they claim to be. Many offer tourists elephant rides, the very thing the elephants were “saved” from in the first place. In Cambodia, it is common for elephants to be rented from local mahouts and put on display on a day by day basis. The elephants in question do not actually live at the sanctuaries at all, and are very much still captive. Some sanctuaries that do own their elephants force them to perform a daily circuit so that tourists can always see them in a predictable manner. Whilst you may think that a sanctuary life with a forced schedule isn’t so bad, it is a form of domination. The forced schedule takes away the elephant’s free will and entrenches existing psychological issues.
After performing a lot of research, I found a sanctuary that I was prepared to visit, The Mondulkiri Project. All the reviews mentioned how genuine it was compared to others, the elephants were not ridden, and they were free to roam where they wished with no requests imposed upon them.
The Sanctuary
Upon arriving at the sanctuary, we were given an introduction by its founder – Mr Tree. An exuberant and animated man, he conveyed everything he said with large expressions and exaggerated gestures. He explained how he had started the NGO for a number of reasons.
The first was for the elephants themselves, to provide relief and recovery from their past lives. The second was to protect the forest. He has leased an area of forest for 30 years, thus providing protection from other industries. Finally, it was to provide sustainable income for the local indigenous people, the Budong. The Budong do not consider themselves Cambodian. They have their own language and culture, which historically was spent living in the forest, an option no longer available to them. The sanctuary provides workers with a potential job for life, free healthcare, and access to education for themselves and their children.
Mr Tree was proud to announce that he himself would not be staying to work at the sanctuary for much longer as he had already delegated the jobs to other local workers who could run it in his stead.
They have five elephants, all female: Sophie, Happy, Lucky, Comvine and Princess. Each had a similar background as either working for the logging industry or providing rides for tourists.
They gave us each a bunch of bananas to feed the elephants. and we set off down into the valley, trying our best not to slip on the wet, muddy slopes. We arrived at a small open area among the trees and our guide mimicked an elephant call, letting them know that we were there.
The elephants tended to stay in their own self-created territories and social groups. Sophie and Happy shared an area, Comvine and Princess another, with Lucky deciding to roam alone.
From the distance an elephant returned our guide’s call and we made our way through the trees towards it. Sure enough, striding towards us through the jungle, the huge form of an elephant approached. It is quite an experience to watch as an elephant walks directly up to you with nothing between you but air. I was filled with excitement and not a little echo of fear.
This was Sophie. She was the eldest of the elephants and the first to be bought by Mr Tree. She had been used by the Khmer Rouges soldiers under the brutal regime of Pol Pot in the late 1970’s when she was younger to transport soldiers, weapons, and machinery. The regime committed genocide against its own people, killing an estimated 1.7 million people – 21% of the population.[3] She no doubt witnessed unimaginable horrors alongside the Cambodian people during this tragic period of their history.
I had just finished reading a book called “The Gate” by French scholar François Bizot.[4] He was the only westerner to survive capture by the Khmer Rouges during the civil war. He was held captive and endured psychological and physical torture for four months before being released. It was an enlightening book on the psychology of imprisonment, and I found myself associating his experiences with the elephant before me. Bizot had formed an odd relationship with his captor, Comrade “Duch”, who was later convicted of ordering the murder of 17,000 civilians. He both loathed and felt empathy for the man. He was his source of food and shelter, his means of survival, and over time as his captivity began to become extended, he found himself beginning to feel affection for his captor despite the horrors he was committing. This warped relationship is reflective of the elephant’s relationship with their mahout. On the one hand they feel a kinship as they are the provider of food, shelter, and companionship, on the other they are always ready to attack and kill. A cursory google search of mahouts being killed by their elephants reveals the scope of this issue.
Sophie took bananas from our hands with her outstretched trunk, wandering among the group, not demanding to be fed but holding her trunk out in silent request. She probed our hands with the tip of her trunk, brushed it against our clothes, apparently quite calm and inquisitive. She allowed people to touch her, though whether she actually enjoyed such contact was difficult to say. She certainly didn’t allow anyone to touch her for long before wafting her trunk in the air and stepping away.
Happy arrived soon afterwards. She was a fair bit smaller than Sophie and a very different character. She would take a banana if offered, but she never asked for one. She allowed you to approach her if you had food, but if you did not then she would retreat away. Happy had been used in the logging industry and afterwards in giving rides for tourists.
Her ongoing psychological issues were apparent in her stillness. Comfortable and emotionally well-adjusted elephants are always moving – flapping ears, walking, exploring the air with their trunk. Happy did none of these. She stood as though apologising for being there. It is evidence of the fact that even after they are given freedom, the scars of their past are not easily overcome.
Sophie began to wander off towards a river and so we followed some distance behind. The river was flowing with great speed and force, but Sophie stepped into it like a warm bath. We started to cross a small wooden bridge when suddenly Sophie turned and decided to crouch down and crawl underneath the bridge itself. The whole structure began to sway and groan under the pressure of her bulk squeezing beneath it. We scrambled to get back as the bridge rocked and swayed, Sophie’s back scraping against the wood. The guide was evidently worried that the bridge might collapse, but Sophie managed to struggle through and was soon wadding through the water towards the bank. Our relieved guide quickly ushered us across the bridge, and as Sophie strolled off down the riverbank we headed in the opposite direction.
The guide didn’t need to call out to discover the where abouts of the next elephant as she was already approaching through the forest. This was Lucky. Lucky had also been used in the logging industry, and she carried a terrible reminder of her years of abuse. Once she was about five meters from us, she stopped and refused to come any closer. The guide explained that Lucky did not allow anyone to approach her, elephant or man. We could throw bananas over to her but that was all. He also pointed out her tail, which was shorter than it should have been and devoid of hair. Her old mahout had cut off the end of her tail in order to make a bracelet from the hair to sell to tourists.
When Lucky first arrived at the Sanctuary, she had avoided everyone. She wouldn’t even tolerate being near someone for long enough to throw a banana. The fact that she was now able to approach people, even if at a distance, suggested that she was undergoing a partial recovery. Elephants are incredibly forgiving animals, considering the abuse they endure at our hands. Part of what makes this possible is their cognitive ability to differentiate between specific human individuals. They know who in particular has abused them, and who has shown kindness. When given the opportunity, they seem to decide that the cruel individuals are the exception, rather than the norm, even though it may go against all their experience.
Lucky made a hasty retreat once all the bananas were gone, the stump of her tail swatting the air.
Next, we headed to a large clearing a little deeper into the forest. The guide gave out an elephant call once more. We didn’t hear a reply but from one end of the clearing Sophie began to approach once more. She was known for covering large distances on her walks. Then, from the other side of the clearing, another elephant emerged.
She was huge, almost the same size as a bull and bulging with thick muscles. This was Comvine. The youngest and newest of the elephants, she was 30 years of age – the only elephant there that was younger than me. She was also the last elephant to be born in captivity in Cambodia. She had never lived as a wild elephant, but she was still separated from her mother at a very young age and subjected to the same training and abuse as the others. Her owner had wanted to sell her, along with her mother, to a company in Siem Reap that provides elephant rides around Ankor Wat. Mr. Tree had managed to buy Comvine, but not her mother, who was sold to the company in Siem Reap. I had visited Ankor Wat the week before and seen a queue of elephants waiting at the side of the road. I still wonder if Comvine’s mother had been one of them.
Upon seeing Comvine, Sophie promptly turned and began walking away. The social groups in the sanctuary do not enjoy mixing.
Comvine was by far the most confident elephant. She knew that you had bananas, she knew all the places you were likely to try and hide them, and she made sure that she got every single one. She reached her trunk behind peoples’ backs, grabbed their hands and tugged them back into view, banana in hand. She reached into pockets and probed at bags until she was satisfied that all had been eaten. I was forced to show her my empty hands, fingers splayed, on multiple occasions to convince her that I truly had none left. She could be quite forceful, and it’s quite intimidating when an elephant stands stubbornly close to you. She was not aggressive in any way, but I always had in my mind that these were traumatised elephants.
The effects of trauma can last for a lifetime. ‘The Elephant Sanctuary’ in Tennessee for example owned an elephant called Winkie. Winkie was born in Myanmar in 1966.[5] She was captured and sold into the exotic animal trade market at only one year of age. She eventually found herself at Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, WI, where she developed a reputation for being a ‘dangerous’ elephant. She attacked staff and was known for having a ‘violent streak’.
She was eventually retired to the The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee after 30 years of abuse and isolation at the zoo. At the sanctuary she showed signs of good progress. She formed a strong bond with another elephant called Sissy and began to socialise better within the herd. Joanna Burke had cared for her since her arrival at the sanctuary and on 21 July 2006 had been performing a routine inspection of Winkie when something went awry. They believe that she had been attempting to check on an infection in her eye when Winkie spun around, knocked her to the floor, and stamped on her chest. She was killed instantly.
Something, whatever it was, triggered Winkie’s trauma. Winkie spent the following weeks in a deep depression. Gone were her enthusiastic vocalisations and jovial manner. She had no greetings for her friends, either elephant or human.
This incident shows how unpredictable elephants suffering from trauma can be. The Tennessee sanctuary now practices ‘Protected Contact Management, where a safety barrier is always between the elephants and their carers.
All of this was flying through my mind as Comvine swiped at a fellow tourist playfully to grab a banana, and I found myself wondering if such contact was really such a good idea.
The last elephant we were to meet was 40-year-old Princess. She was smaller than Comvine and had a very gentle nature. Comvine and Princess had become inseparable since Comvine arrived at the sanctuary, and they followed each other around all day. Comvine, though younger, was certainly the boss of the two, with Princess quite happy to allow her to be.
We watched as they broke off branches, stripped the leaves and used them to whip their backs to rid themselves of flies and mosquitoes. Once that was done, they kicked and dug up the earth to access some wet mud, grabbed large clumps in their trunks and flung it over their backs. They would occasionally give their head a shake, splattering us all with flecks of clay. All of this rounded off with a good scratch against a tree with a force that almost ripped the trees out of the earth. In many zoos you will see that trees have metal wires wrapped around them to prevent this sort of behaviour. Such zoos value the aesthetics of their habitats more than the emotional well-being of the animals that pay their salaries.
After lunch we were told that we would go to look for the elephants along the river. We would be able to get in the river and if the elephants wanted to get in too then we could throw water over their backs to help clean the mud off.
They said that Comvine would arrive first, once she had gone Princess would come, followed by Sophie. This was when a little flag went up in my brain. Until this point everything about the sanctuary had seemed legitimate in its enforcement of welfare. What gave me pause for doubt was that the elephants were to arrive in a certain order. What are the chances that the elephants would walk past the same part of the river, in the same order, every single day? I wanted to believe that it was true, but I couldn’t help but be sceptical. Were the carers guiding the elephants to the river and making them wait in a queue, sending them down to us in a pre-planned schedule? This would go against everything the sanctuary apparently stood for, which was supposed to be giving the elephants their independence back, no longer having to take orders from man.
We made our way down to the river, changed into our swimming suits and climbed in, armed with bananas. The river was fairly strong at this time of year and we had to struggle to find purchase among the rocks where we wouldn’t be swept away.
Soon enough Comvine lumbered down the slope. It began to rain whilst we waited and Comvine had to navigate the slope carefully to avoid sliding on the mud. She reached the water’s edge and there she stopped and waited. We all stood in the water with our bananas, waiting to see if she would come any closer.
After a few minutes of trying to decide what to do she climbed into the water with us. As it was already raining by this point, she didn’t need to splash around all that much to get wet or to clean the mud off her back but we all splashed her back anyway and she seemed unperturbed by our presence. Though it has to be said that this was also in large part due to the presence of bananas.
After a few minutes of standing in the water with us, and when she was convinced no more bananas were forthcoming, she climbed out of the water and wandered away down the path.
Next came Princess, followed by Sophie, both of whom decided not to get into the water. Princess didn’t stay all that long, probably due to the fact that she liked to stay near Comvine who had already gone on ahead. Another reason for me doubting the sincerity of this particular setup was that these elephants were not walking together. Of course, they do not always have to be joined at the hip, but it was clear to me that Princess wanted to re-join Comvine, and made a hasty exit to do so.
Whilst Sophie was there, she stood at the edge of the water, and we were all in the river, waiting to see if she would come in. A few people held out bananas to see if they could tempt her inside. I remember looking up at her, watching her trunk reaching out and trying to reach the bananas without having to get into the water. She clearly didn’t want to get in. It was then that I realised that what we were doing was not OK. We were holding treats just out of reach of an elephant recovering from trauma, who had so much of the life she was entitled to denied from her. I quickly climbed out of the river and fed her all the bananas that I had on the bank. One or two others joined me, and soon Sophie also turned away and walked off into the forest.
That pretty much marked the end of our time at the sanctuary. We saw Sophie and Lucky once more on the way back. Both were walking right down the centre of the river, an astonishing feat of strength given their age and the speed of the river. They walked through it as though it were nothing more than a puddle.
Final Reflections
Overall, my experience at the sanctuary was positive, though I found myself plagued with doubt. Was this type of interaction with elephants safe? If the elephants are recovering from trauma inflicted by humans, is it appropriate to have random human tourists visiting so often? What about the river experience, why did the elephants come in such a structured order at a set time?
PETA would argue that this use of elephants should end. They argue that any interaction between humans and wild animals that isn’t a part of their natural life should not occur, even going to the lengths of asking for wild animals in captivity to be put down rather than to continue living in such conditions.
There is a place for this sort of stance, however it is very easy to leap to such judgmental conclusions without appreciating the full picture
In this instance for example, the elephant sanctuary needs money to keep its elephants safe, healthy and with a place to live. This means they need to charge tourists to visit. Without such visits they would not be able to stay open and the elephants would be sold back into worse situations. The local Budong workers would lose their jobs, and the forest would likely be sold to agriculture and cut down.
It would be wonderful if such a sanctuary could gain enough funding to enable it to reduce the number of tourist visits, however this is not the reality. Even the experience of washing the elephants in the river is one that I believe is born out of attempting to remain competitive compared with other sanctuaries. Tourists want to be able to be in the rivers with the elephants and have that experience, if the Modulkiri Project stopped doing it they might lose tourists to other sanctuaries.
In every situation it is the elephants who pay. If the sanctuary closes, they lose, but in order to remain open they must endure a situation that, whilst better than any other in Cambodia, is not ideal. One has to hope that sanctuaries like these are stepping stones on a path to something better.
Update
Since visiting I became aware that The Elephant Valley Project in Mondulkiri does not allow any interaction with its elephants.[6] They feed themselves, no food is given to them by tourists, and they are not bathed in rivers either. I would recommend this sanctuary over The Mondulkiri Project, simply due to that fact that it allows the elephants full autonomy. I would hope that The Mondulkiri Project follows suit very soon!
It has also been announced that elephant rides around Ankor Wat are ending. This is fantastic news and a wonderful victory for the elephants.[7] This of course will affect Comvine’s mother, who was still working at Ankor Wat giving rides. The elephants were to be relocated to a forest area by the end of 2019, though details of the new home have not been released.
[1] Paul Christian, ‘The Barbaric Tradition of ‘Breaking the Spirit’ of Elephants’ One Green Planet (2014) <The Barbaric Tradition of ‘Breaking the Spirit’ of Elephants for Their Use in the Tourism Industry – One Green Planet> Accessed on 25 October 2019.
[2] G A Bradshaw, Elephants on the Edge: What animals teach us about humanity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009)
[3] Zoltan Istvan, ‘”Killing Fields” Lure Tourists in Cambodia’ National Geographic (10 January 2003) <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/news-killing-fields-cambodia-tourist> Accessed on 25 October 2019.
[4] François Bizot, The Gate (Vintage, 2000).
[5] The Elephant Sanctuary, ‘Winkie’ The Elephant Sanctuary (2019) <https://www.elephants.com/elephants/winkie> Accessed on 25 October 2019
[6] Elephant Valley Project, ‘Ethos and Facts’ Elephant Valley Project (2019) <https://elephantvalleyproject.org/sanctuary-ethos/> Accessed on 25 October 2019
[7] [1] A Mirchandani, ‘Ankor Wat stop Elephant Rides’ Vice (5 November 2019) <https://www.vice.com/en/article/wjw35x/angkor-wat-stop-elephant-rides-cambodia> Accessed on 15 November 2019.
Photograph of Phajaan
[8] Louise Boyle, ‘Elephant Training Process Known as ‘The Crush’ Revealed in Rarely-Seen Footage’ The Independent (24 June 2020) <https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/elephant-baby-training-video-thailand-tourism-the-crush-a9582081.html> Accessed on 31 August 2021
