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The crying elephant
When I first saw this elephant I thought it was a statue! He was standing head high and with one leg bent looking too much like the epiphany of an alpha male elephant. Although he did stay still most of the time it most certainly wasn’t a statue but indeed a living breathing elephant. The tusks curving in towards each other at the end makes him look almost like a Mammoth from the Ice age, and the beautiful ears and coloring, what an incredible example of nature’s strength. But there was something about him that didn’t quite seem right and after we spoke to the boy who cared for him we found out that he’d almost been killed when poachers tried to take his tusks. I didn’t understand if they shot out his eyes or picked them out with knives but somehow they managed to make him blind on both eyes. There were also bullets that you could still feel with your hands as they had been trapped under his thick hide.
Since whatever they did to his eyes was non reversible there is now some sort of body fluid running out of them and it looks as if though he’s crying…
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Pinnewela elephant orphanage is a government run orphanage for elephants just east of Kandy on Sri Lanka. This is an incredible place to go for viewing elephants and it’s heartwarming to see how they take care of them all. Some come there because they’ve lost their parents, others because they lost a limb by stepping on a land mine, and some like the biggest male of them all was made blind by poachers and shot while they were trying to take his tusks. All in all there are around 70 elephants at the orphanage right now.
There are basically three spots to see the elephants, two costs and one is free. If you want the freebee just stand outside of the orphanage and wait when they come back from the bathing at the river and you’ll see them walk by. If you do buy a ticket you can go inside the park and get some one on one time with them, although the keepers expect a tip for close encounters. Included in the ticket is also entrance to the river where the elephants go and bathe two twice per day. This is by far the best place to see them and the scenery is absolutely stunning! The elephants are led by a man with a megaphone making a trumpet sound and then they all rush down into the water, they seem to love getting wet and splashing themselves with their trunks : ) don’t be afraid to walk up to them and touch to experience how huge these beautiful creatures really are!
If you go to the restaurant which is on the left path down to the river you’ll have a wonderful buffet at a reasonable price with a view that will take your breath away! One of the most beautiful sceneries for a restaurant I’ve ever seen. There’s also a bunch of souvenir shops along the road but we found the prices to be high compared to the rest of the country.
Camera: Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200
The crying elephant
When I first saw this elephant I thought it was a statue! He was standing head high and with one leg bent looking too much like the epiphany of an alpha male elephant. Although he did stay still most of the time it most certainly wasn’t a statue but indeed a living breathing elephant. The tusks curving in towards each other at the end makes him look almost like a Mammoth from the Ice age, and the beautiful ears and coloring, what an incredible example of nature’s strength. But there was something about him that didn’t quite seem right and after we spoke to the boy who cared for him we found out that he’d almost been killed when poachers tried to take his tusks. I didn’t understand if they shot out his eyes or picked them out with knives but somehow they managed to make him blind on both eyes. There were also bullets that you could still feel with your hands as they had been trapped under his thick hide.
Since whatever they did to his eyes was non reversible there is now some sort of body fluid running out of them and it looks as if though he’s crying…
---
Pinnewela elephant orphanage is a government run orphanage for elephants just east of Kandy on Sri Lanka. This is an incredible place to go for viewing elephants and it’s heartwarming to see how they take care of them all. Some come there because they’ve lost their parents, others because they lost a limb by stepping on a land mine, and some like the biggest male of them all was made blind by poachers and shot while they were trying to take his tusks. All in all there are around 70 elephants at the orphanage right now.
There are basically three spots to see the elephants, two costs and one is free. If you want the freebee just stand outside of the orphanage and wait when they come back from the bathing at the river and you’ll see them walk by. If you do buy a ticket you can go inside the park and get some one on one time with them, although the keepers expect a tip for close encounters. Included in the ticket is also entrance to the river where the elephants go and bathe two twice per day. This is by far the best place to see them and the scenery is absolutely stunning! The elephants are led by a man with a megaphone making a trumpet sound and then they all rush down into the water, they seem to love getting wet and splashing themselves with their trunks : ) don’t be afraid to walk up to them and touch to experience how huge these beautiful creatures really are!
If you go to the restaurant which is on the left path down to the river you’ll have a wonderful buffet at a reasonable price with a view that will take your breath away! One of the most beautiful sceneries for a restaurant I’ve ever seen. There’s also a bunch of souvenir shops along the road but we found the prices to be high compared to the rest of the country.
Camera: Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200