Exciting news for elephant lovers everywhere! Vietnam is about to begin its first ethical elephant tours, replacing chains and cruel rides with education and observation of these beautiful animals in their natural habitat.

Yok Don National Park, as part of an initiative by Animals Asia with funding from the Olsen Animal Trust, has ended all tourist elephant rides, offering new tourism experiences instead. The park’s four elephants are free to roam the natural forest of the park, meaning tourists can learn about the normal behavior of elephants and see them at their best. In the past, these elephants worked for nine hours each day entertaining tourists.


They were chained to trees, with no access to drinking water. And as well as carrying heavy riding baskets on their backs, these poor elephants weren’t allowed to touch each other or express any of their natural behaviors like roaming, dusting, mudding, scratching parasites from their skin or foraging as they would in the wild. When you realize these tourist tours lasted anything between 10 minutes and entire days, you can only imagine the trauma and exhaustion of these poor elephants!

Today, the elephants are already looking better! They are growing more confident, roaming farther, and now spending up to 18 hours foraging a day like they would do if they were in the wild. Animals Asia Animal Welfare Manager Dionne Slagter said: “This project has entirely changed the lives of the elephants at the park and it is also providing a much better experience for the tourists. Exploitation has been replaced with respect and if successful, it’s a model we could see spread across the country and even the region.”

If anyone needs more proof that this is a great move for elephants and everyone all around, feedback from the 11 tourist groups who have visited the elephants in the past two weeks is extremely positive. From comments like “Authentic and natural, few tourists/small groups ensure you have a great elephant experience,” and “The tour was 100 percent in favor of the elephants’ best welfare,” it is clear to see that this idea to give elephants their freedom back is what people want to see.

No more crushing, no more bullhooks, no more working beyond the point of exhaustion. If this project continues to be successful it will have an incredible impact on tourism throughout Vietnam and beyond. Vietnam’s wild population of Asian elephants is thought to be below 100 now, with less than 80 living in captivity like those at Yok Don National Park. We need more initiatives like this to keep our beautiful elephants happy, safe, and alive!


Image Source: Animals Asia

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