Sadly, The Sumatra jungle is quickly being burnt up for land to plant "Sawit" (the tree used to make Palm oil.) These Elephants have lost their habitat and were being snared and killed when they would stomp through the sawit plantations. Inside Chevron camp is some of the only untouched jungle. And my understanding is that they have given use of part of the jungle to the tribe that helps to take care of the elephants.
So you can visit pretty much any day to feed and ride the elephants! We showed up with a car load of food, watermelon, pineapple, apples, etc, plus a load of sugarcane.
They loved it.
Right when we hopped out of the car they came up and Ella hands the elephant a whole watermelon. It took Ainsley awhile to warm up :)
After feeding them we took our turn to ride the largest female through their trail in the jungle. It was amazing! A bit scary too, as some of the slopes were quite steep and I felt like I was going to fall off the back! The elephants were so amazing to watch. Using their knees to pull out of the mud. THe baby holding the mamas tail.
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