Friday, January 28, 2005

Elephant!




We were driving down a windy, narrow road in Pahang when we came across this beautiful baby. I was so excited because we had all thought it was a wild elephant.




But we later found out that it had belonged to the nearby elephant sanctuary and that it was too old to be kept in the center so they let it roam around on its own. Well, a semi-wild elephant - still exciting to see it in its natural habitat.




All these photos were taken inside the car (at that time, we didn't want to chance on a potential wild, therefore unpredictable elephant).

I have seen wild Borneo elephants though, by the Kinabatangan River, Sabah. It was crazy, we were watching them on a boat and the boatdriver decided that it was a good idea to go closer to the riverbank, and the bull elephant charged at us. It was scary!! But so exciting at the same time to see the elephants in their element (DNA studies have proven that this elephant species is indigenous to Borneo afterall, and not brought over by humans, centuries ago). The Kinabatangan River is so amazing with its abundance of wildlife (bearded pigs, macaques, storks, hornbills, etc.). It's so different from wildlife-scarce Sarawak, mostly because the people who live in that area are Muslims and therefore do not eat wild meat. In a way, Islam has done more for wildlife conservation than Christianity!

5 Comments:

At 1:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How cool! - char

 
At 11:12 PM, Blogger cabiria said...

he (she?) is so cute!
got to tell you later about the elephant riding thing in thailand. I felt very bad and not proud of being part of that, not at all.

 
At 10:55 AM, Blogger Cayce said...

char - elephants are my new favourite animal!

lets - i wanna hear it! btw, I was offered a chance to ride on an elephant at the elephant sanctuary and while, part of me wanted to, most of me felt so sorry for the animal. I couldn't do it, and felt that it wasn't right - to treat such a magnificient animal like it was just a ride.

So anyway, I'm watching Amazing Race with my sis and we watch my least favourite team, Kendra and whathisface, ride an elephant and I smugly told my sister about how I could have ridden an elephant but turned it down because of principles.

She said, "whadaya mean? You RODE an elephant once"

"WHAT??!!?? Yeah right - I don't remember this!"

"Yup, we both rode an elephant when we were kids - in the Manila Zoo.. So when does your stream of consciousness kick in??"

grrrr... *sigh*



u4ric: I think the poop factor might be a bigger problem than parking!!

 
At 8:42 AM, Blogger LK said...

Elephants are my very favourite animal and I am a bit jealous of you at the moment. I did get to see one close up at Singapore Zoo once, that was amazing. Bloody good zoo as well. Got anymore cool pictures?
(And thanks for the congrats, 8ys is quite scary actually, almost a third of my life..)

 
At 4:57 PM, Blogger Cayce said...

I think these are my best elephant pictures but I definitely do have more cool photos that I've haven't posted yet. Will do so soon though!

 

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