The first week I was volunteering in Thailand I was lucky enough to volunteer with the wildlife group; this includes, but is not limited to, gibbons, bears, otters, deer, hogs, iguanas, and many others that my brain cant comprehend. There were so many to take care of that there were roughly 30-40 volunteers just feeding them daily. It took most of our time to prepare their food and to feed them than it took us to do anything else throughout the day.

My favorite wildlife that I got to work with were the bears. They had long claws that hurt you to just look at. The bears looked as if you could just cuddle them forever but you knew better than to cuddle an animal that eats its food in one bite. We would start off by preparing their breakfast which consisted of bananas, pineapple, mangos, and whatever other yummy fruits we could provide them with. Their mahout would coax them into the enclosure next door and close the gate so we were out of reach of their hungry claws. Then, we would go into their den and drop the fruit on the ground in each corner of the room. We would open the gate that separated them from their delicious meal and joyfully watch them stuff their cute, fuzzy faces.

One time our mahout was nice enough to let us climb the ladder to the top of the enclosure to watch them eat from above. To see these bears in complete satisfaction as the watermelon juice ran down their faces was just beautiful. I’ve never seen a bear up close before, let alone eat! It made me want to cuddle them even more. After we stared at them for quite some time, we then cleaned their enclosure. I quickly learned that bears make large messes in a very short amount of time! It took us the rest of the day to clean up after these cute, yet scary, creatures.

One of my favorite tasks I did while in Thailand was walking elephants. Only certain elephants got to have walks periodically throughout the day. I was lucky enough to walk 2 of those elephants in one day! We would prepare for our walks by chopping up a variety of fruits such as pineapple, watermelon, and bananas. We will carry 2 buckets of this fruit to keep the elephant interested in joining us on this walk. The sanctuary doesn’t use any sort of leash on these beautiful creatures so we use the fruit almost as an invisible leash so the elephant doesn’t decide to take a different route as us.

The length of the walk mainly depended on the mahout and his elephant. If the elephant wasn’t interested in walking at all, though, she was free to run back to her enclosure and she would be offered another walk later that day. The choice to go on a walk was 100% up to the elephant. The route of the walk on the other hand, was up to the mahout working with the elephant. The elephants and the mahouts seem to have a sacred bond that couldn’t be broken. The elephant would go anywhere the mahout would go, no questions asked. My fruit and I were simply just on the walk to keep the elephant entertained. Although with some elephants if you weren’t distributing the fruit fast enough you could be knocked over by her powerful, greedy shove. The fruit also aided us with how fast or slow we wanted to take this walk. The elephant would walk however fast the fruit was going.

Although the elephant weighed 10 times more than I do, she seemed to be more timid around me because I was so much smaller than her. She was very careful to not step too close to me in fear that she would step on my toes. But when it came to the fruit she did not show mercy when the fruit started to run low. If I took too long to give her her beloved pineapple, she would let me know. She would gently shove me or just stick her nosy trunk in my bucket and steal some fruit for herself.

When the walk came to an end, the elephants always knew it because they would trot eagerly to their enclosure knowing that it was bath time! We threw all the leftover fruit in their water bowl and began scrubbing their leathery skin with a brush and hosing them off at the same time. We got them to be squeaky clean only for the elephants to blow dirt on themselves 5 seconds later. It was still a fun experience!

Feeding these gentle giants was quite the different experience. We started off our work days by making their food (banana balls) and feeding them. Banana balls are just 3 simple ingredients: bananas, bran, and food pellets. We would mash these ingredients together with our hands and make jokes with each other while doing so. Then, we would make this sticky patty into different sized balls to feed to each individual elephant.

As I walked up to these gentle giants they ran to greet me because they knew what I had for them. Breakfast time! A cluster of elephants would stick their trunks out in hopes for a banana ball. Only one lucky elephant would get my banana balls while the other elephants would be greeted by my fellow volunteers. Once the elephants were done sucking down their breakfast like a vacuum, we would then provide them with “salad”.

This elephant sized salad was just simply banana tree trunks chopped up into bite-sized pieces. A salad for just one elephant was so heavy that it took two people to carry it into the enclosure. You had to be quick, though, because the elephants love their salad! If you were too slow the elephants would knock the salad out of your hands and knocking you over in the process. When everybody got the “okay” signal to start distributing the salad, it was like a game of tag with an elephant. Thankfully my teammate and I were quick enough to avoid the elephants hangry wrath.

Once the elephants had their stomachs satisfied, we then started cleaning up their large mess. It took about 5-10 people to clean up their enclosures after breakfast. They’re messy eaters! We had wheelbarrows and carts throughout the enclosure to assist us in cleaning the feces, food droppings, and any other kind of mess these gentle giants would leave behind. Once we were done, it was finally breakfast time for the humans.

Click here to read more stories from other SPC Study Abroad students who volunteered at the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand.