Sumatran Elephants

This adventure began with off-roading and ended with elephants! We only spent one day in the village of Tangkahan, but it was a day we won’t soon forget.

The Road to Tangkahan

John told us about the plight of the Sumatran elephants while we were in the jungle. Another victim of Indonesia’s extreme deforestation, fewer than 2,500 wild Sumatran elephants have survived and the species is now critically endangered. We wanted to learn more so we set out to the Conservation Response Unit (CRU) and ecotourism site at Tangkahan about 27 miles (43km) from Bukit Lawang. Although that isn’t far, it took our driver nearly three hours to get there thanks to some of the craziest unsurfaced roads we’ve encountered yet. Not only were they rocky and uneven, they were also littered with cows!

moooooove over….

our chariot

perfectly ordered palm trees…

The Elephants of Tangkahan

Centers like the Tangkahan CRU were started by the Indonesian government in response to the staggering decline in the wild elephant population over the last 25 years. Meeting the gentle giants who live and work there was definitely worth the drive. That’s correct, these elephants are on the job. They work six days a week earning their keep by helping to educate curious tourists like us, but they also patrol the jungle in search of illegal logging activities and help drive away wild elephants when they get too close to areas populated by people. Most of them were transferred to Tangkahan after being rescued from various heartbreaking situations. The three adorable calves in the photos were all born there.

Meeting Adana

We got to choose which elephant to work with. Naturally, we were tempted to pick one of the littles, but then we saw Adana off in the corner. She’s nearly 50-years-old and she’s a girl after my own heart. It was a blisteringly hot day so she chose a shady chillin’ spot in the river. Perfect. As we bathed and fed Adana, what most impressed me was her extremely gentle nature and her caretaker’s attention to her. Elephant caretakers/trainers are called mahouts and each elephant at Tangkahan has their very own mahout. Adana and her mahout have been together since the day she was rescued and it shows in their respect and affection for one another.

We thoroughly enjoyed helping out with Adana’s bath time. Her skin was surprisingly rough and covered with single corse hairs about half an inch long. Her mahout encouraged us to put our backs into it while we were scrubbing and she loved it!  

Adana might look like a baby, but that’s because Sumatran elephants are the smallest subspecies of Asian elephants, all of which are smaller than the better known African species. Fully grown, Sumatran elephants weigh around 5 tons, stand between 5 and 9 feet at the shoulder, and can be up to 20 feet long. They also tend to have larger ears and longer tusks than other Asian elephants. A few other fun facts we learned — these elephants eat about 50,000 calories every day, start mating around the age of 12, and are pregnant for 18 months birthing just one calve at a time. 

Awwww…I think they said her baby is about 3 years old.

Everybody Loves Diego

Diego made quite a show of playing with and feeding Adana her yummy banana treats before her breakfast. She seemed quite amused, returned his playfulness, and added a dose of affection. 

The Elephant in the Room

These elephants are captive so you may be wondering why we would support something like this with our tourism dollars. It’s complicated. Truth be told, I have to step off my western high horse to visit facilities like these and I’m always apprehensive. They certainly aren’t zoos, but the animals are still far from free. That said, sanctuaries like these are generally born of necessity. Without the CRU, Adana would face a far worse fate than getting bathed by a pair of random Texans while being hand-fed bananas and told she’s a pretty girl. 

Wild elephant herds are massive and powerful and they require a tremendous amount of land to roam free without posing a threat to human livelihood. But plantations have already destroyed 70% of Indonesia’s wild elephant habitat in just one generation. Without proper space, conflicts arise where elephants handily destroy crops, homes, and sometimes they even hurt or kill people. We don’t think about elephants in terms like “danger” or “nuisance,” but that is a reality in Indonesia. Locals affected by human-elephant conflict inevitably retaliate. Sadly, life in captivity seems to be the only viable alternative to death that is currently available in these situations.

I don’t mean to be a downer. On the contrary, it was a really special day. It’s just hard for me to face certain realities of the world. I think God hardwired me to help and sometimes the helpful path isn’t all that clear. I’d like to offer up some way you can help, but I’m not certain  what that looks like aside from repeating my call to evaluate your shopping choices back home and try to understand the impact that you have on the world at large. Let’s wrap this up on a positive note with a video of our experience at the Tangkahan CRU.