MandaLao Elephant Sanctuary, Laos

We spent the day at the MandaLao Elephant Sanctuary where they do an outstanding job of raising awareness and education around the plight of the elephants in South East Asia. They rescue the elephants from Camps where they are still being ridden even though this now against the law in Laos. The law is very weak here with no enforcement of any of the laws, in fact there is no police presence at all on the streets. Although it is a very safe and peaceful country there is a lot of corruption and it is still communist.

We walked with two elephants and their Mahoots through the bush for a few hours just watching them interact in their natural habitat, eating the jungle vegetation, scratching themselves on trees, showering themselves with dirt cooling down in the streams we came across and also coming to us for a scratch or some more bananas. Each elephant has a Mahoot as a friend and carer, these young men become a Mahoot as young as 12 and stay with their Elephant for many many years, until they can train another to take over for them if they decide to leave. The Elephants understand up to 60 words and many hand signals. We were blown away when the staff discussed the high level of emotional intelligence that the elephants have, they are right up there with the most intelligent and emotionally aware animals on earth. The sense joy, sadness, and grief. They use tools, have a sense of humor with their mahoots and even show some artistic ability. The presence they had in their natural forest environment was incredible.

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