You get a massive headache :-(

More often than not, you get stepped on - heavy ouch!
- head butted - windy ouch!
- slapped with a trunk - dizzy ouch!
- and maybe gored with a male elephant's tusks, too - super ouch!

It's a good thing that elephants are not like dogs - they don't bark and jump on you, too!!!!
But then again....literally...no one cares and that is why the general public must also realised that
the staff are as important as the elephants are, too.

RESCUED ELEPHANTS BROUGHT BACK TO THE CENTRE
During a wild elephant translocation exercise, the unit will try its best not to bring back a
captured elephant UNLESS  ;

1. The elephant is ill or seriously injured.......................
                          
                                                                           
                                      Two very sorry looking young wild elephants

Any injured elephant is always treated immediately at the location of the capture and also at the Centre
supervised by the Officer-In-Charge.  At the Centre's Treatment & Quarantine Section, ALL domesticated
and still wild elephants are also isolated from the rest of the herd with  only a select few of the staff are
allowed to managed the injured wild elephant.  Visitors are strictly forbidden from entering the paddock
although the injured wild elephant is secured by steel chains.

An injured elephant which is under treatment MUST be kept in chains - if not, the elephant will rub its wound
against the wall and thus will not only prolong the healing process but will also encourage horseflies to lay their
eggs in the open wound! The elephant's body tissues are usually weak and even a gentle rubbing against anything
hard will tear open the skin.
Thus, do not be angry with us if you see any recently rescued elephant is kept under chains.

Baby and very young elephants are also needed to be kept in chains as they always have a curius tendency
to rub their body against hard surfaces or objects.  Due to their young age, their skins grow strong
and hardened slowly and as such,  they will easily get bruises and torn skins due to the  sensations of rubbings.

Visitors with guides MUST always remind their guides to ALWAYS observe and respect the rules & regulations
while visiting the sanctuary INCLUDING staying away from entering the Treatment & Quarantine Section.

                       OR

..........the unit will try its best not to bring back a captured elephant UNLESS  ;

2.  It is separated and left alone without any chance of surviving on its own

Any wild elephants that are brought back to the Centre are always left on its own for the first few weeks to
build trust with a selected handler while at the same time is given medical treatment  if the need arises.
Any elephants found lost and wondering in the jungles are usually reported to us by villagers and these solo
elephants  were most likeliest separated by the herd due to various reasons such as , immediate threat from
gunshots fired  in the air by villagers or security guards employed by plantation owners, violent thunderstorms,
rising floods in the river etc etc

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The initial reaction of the rescued wild elephant will be to growl, snarl and squeak while expanding its ears,
the tail standing upright and  lowering its body each time the staff approaches as a sign of both anger and fear. However, daily delivery of food & water supplies to the elephant will slowly familiarise it to the sight, sounds and
smell of the staff making the delivery.

The name of the rescued wild elephant is usually given based on the location of the capture.  for e.g. Lasah
was captured near a small town called Lasah in Perak!

Sometimes, the general public will inform us of injured wild elephants  but it is more often than not that the
report arrived too late for us to do anything :-(  and when word comes out in the papers that a wild elephant dies
- there's no guessing who gets the blame!!!!

The trainers’ dominance is established early in the life of the elephant and is maintained throughout the lifetime of
both the trainer and the elephant. As the social bonds between the trainer and the elephant develop, the need
for physical discipline decreases.

It may take between 2 months to 5 months to gain the trust, break its will and train an elephant depending on the
age, health and physical condition of the animal

  it begins with a " mari sini ! "
 
 

Through training programmes, we allow our elephants ;
1.  Daily exercises when we bring them walks in the morning - Mondays to Thursdays
2. We tax their intelligence by encouraging them to allow visitors to ride, handfeed and scrub bath
    them in the nearby river - only with a thoroughly trained elephant.
3. We provide the social interactions necessary when we interact with the elephants during training
    sessions, riding sessions and token handfeeding times.

Training is important as in the future, the trained elephant will be utilised for the ALL-important job
of tracking down, pacifying and relocating wild elephants from reduced natural habitats to permanent
and undisturbed jungle reserves. And training HAS to be employed during the early years of an
elephant's presence at the sanctuary.

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The daily schedule of work here is as follows ;
0800 to 1000am
- Maintenance of the covered holding area where the elephants are kept overnight.
This includes collecting the droppings, waste food and hosing the floor with water.  Occasionally,
disinfectant is applied to the floorings to ensure that no threats from vermint and diseases. 
The elephants are also given cattle feed or pellets and loaves of bread for breakfast while the men are
doing the cleaning up.

Delivery of bread, cattle feed and fruits to 2 big old female elephants - Cek Mek & Mek Bunga -  are also
done in the nearby jungles by 4WD vehicles

EXCEPT on Fridays to Sundays - the elephants are given training by individual trainers at the soccer field
about 300 metres away. The distance allows the elephants to have a good exercise in walking.
The traning regime includes the basic commands such as - walk - stop - sit down - stand up - walk backwards
- turning to the right or left - lying sideways or climbing up a 10 steps staircase in malay , indian and burmese.

The elephants are then released into the 3 acre free enclosure surrounded by an  8.9V electrical impulse
fence which also has continuous water supply and a pool for them to swim in.

1000am - morning tea break for the staff & trainers. This will be followed by equipment maintenance, food stock check and office reports to be prepared at the main administrative office.

12noon - Delivery of sugar cane to the elephants in the free enclosure

1230 noon to 2pm - Lunch & prayer break

2pm - The elephants are escorted from the free enclosure into the holding area for washing and handfeeding of
a variety of fruits and banana stems as well as in preparation for the activities with visitors.
ALL the fruits will be washed to ensure that the elephants are provided with toxic-free and infection-free food!

ALL visitors & guides are strongly discouraged from approaching the elephants OR the holding area unless
ALL the elephants are secured by the staff on duty for safety reasons!

The reasons as to why the elephants are not allowed to remain in the free enclosure throughout
the whole night are that - continued dominance over the elephants has to be maintained and trees
that fall onto the surrounding fence will create a bridge as a means  for the elephants to escape into
the nearby huge jungle environment.

5pm - Work for the day ends

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The staff, from time to time , are sent to seminars, workshops or educational visits either locally or
  abroad such as Bangkok, China and Singapore to further enhance and exchange knowledge and
  experience with the relevant people involved with elephant conservation and management.

The Centre also , at one time or another, was home to the following elephants ;

Some  wild elephants caught were also sent to ; Taiping Zoo(Perak) - National Zoo(Kuala Lumpur)
- Tokyo Zoo(Japan) - Singapore Zoo  & Melbourne Zoo, Australia
 

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