Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Sanctuary

I really wanted to go and see some fauna that I have never seen before. I had planned on heading to Taman Negara to see if I could see anything in the wild, but I also planned to support some of the conservation and sanctuaries for sick and injured animals, like the Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Sanctuary. This place is incredible and the guides and elephants are very friendly.

Welcome sign to the Conservation Sanctuary

Not knowing much about elephants and only ever seeing them at a zoo at a distance, I really didn't quite understand how awesome their mass actually is. They are big and heavy and they can make very loud sounds. They are also very smart and seem to really try to communicate.

Baby elephant at the holding pen

I got there on a Friday, which due to the Muslim holy day, is a little quieter than normal and only has a feeding activity at about 2.45pm (check the times before you take my word for this). I knew it would be quiet, which is why I picked this day and drove from Kuala Lumpur. It is relatively easy to find and marked well by Tourism Malaysia (watch for the brown signs). The 9km road out there from the highway is a really nice forested and cool drive, but beware of the local traffic, chickens, dogs, and children running across the road. Also be aware that the road is not very wide and oncoming traffic can cause some issues, although this is minimised with a motorcycle.

On arriving you need to check yourself in and register at the visitor information centre before you cross the bridge and into the sanctuary itself. This is to ensure that you are informed about what you can and cannot do, and any safety information you need to know. It is also to keep track of the numbers of people going into the conservation area to maintain it and the elephants state of mind - there is a quota.

Real elephant skeleton on display at the registration centre

This is also the place you can make donations and unlike the temples, there is no donation box sitting around. If you want to make a donation, you need to see the registration staff. It costs about MYD$100 a day to feed a single elephant, so I'd recommend this as a starting donation as there are quite a few on the conservation and they eat about 200kgs of food daily. They are vegetarian and banana trees themselves make good food, which is why they can become a problem for farmers.

At the registration centre is a display room and a theatre which shows videos on how the elephants are translocated from areas of danger or concern to places like the conservation and Tanam Negara. The video was quite educational as I always thought of elephants as relatively docile creatures, but they are clearly difficult to manage.

In fact, there were lots of things I didn't know about elephants that I learned while being here. I didn't realise that Elephants have a similar life expectancy to humans and some have lived to be as old as 80 years in good environments that mimic their real wild environments. They have 4 teeth (tusks are not teeth) that are replaced up to 6 times as they loose them throughout their life and once their teeth are all gone, they die - usually because they can no longer eat. They are also very susceptible to trauma and just the traumatic experience of being moved somewhere can be enough to kill an elephant.

Part of the trauma issue is that they have really good memories. I have seen a documentary on their burial practices and that, in their native environment, they return to the burial grounds every year to pay respect to the dead. I have also heard that they are on the same level as primates for intelligence and tool use. They also make many more different noises than just a trumpeting sound, which is damn scary when they let forth a trumpet near you. They also have clicks, whistles and this deep grumble that reminds me of the crocodile rattle. There is even one instance of an elephant (Kosik) using its trunk inside its mouth to articulate Korean words. Eat your heart out Washoe!

I'd recommend you pay the MYD$50 for a guide to take you around the sanctuary. If anything it will keep you from getting zapped by electric fences, attacked by snakes and large spiders, and they carry a beating stick for anything larger - and apparently there are tigers on the sanctuary but they are well fed. I was afraid to ask what they were eating since they don't eat the elephants or humans (at least not that I heard). You can also get a guide for the Malaysian aboriginal community up the hill from the reservation centre to support them.

My guide, a pleasant and informative lady named Azmira, led me around the sanctuary and introduced me to the elephants, answering my many questions about various aspects and giving me some great general and specific information. First, we went to see the young ones and feed them some sugar cane and banana - I got to pat an elephant, hold the trunk, and pat its tongue (which was very warm). Then we went for a walk through the forest area and her and another guide showed me some of the bush medicine and poisons native to the area. Finally, after the video, she took me up to see the aboriginal community and the traditional house structures before getting me back in time for the adult elephant show and feeding session.



Greedy elephant who wanted more of everything

I had a brilliant day with the elephants and seeing the native Che' wong Orang Asli community. I'd recommend if you find yourself in Kuala Lumpur or even in Kuantan to take the effort to get out of the city and go and take a look at this marvellous sanctuary and lend some support to the efforts to keep them going.