Info

As a volunteer you will bath the elephants in the river, clean out and maintain their enclosures, and feed the baby elephants all with the help of the director of the handlers (who are known as Mahouts)

At Pinnawela they attempt to simulate, in a limited way, the conditions in the wild, and as often as possible.
Animals are allowed to roam freely during the day and a herd structure allowed to form.
08.00 The babies are fed on milk in the mornings and allowed to range freely on the 12 acres large grassland.
10.00 Each morning and afternoon 14.00 the animals are walked 400 meters to the river Maha Oya for a two-hour bath.
Between 16.30 and 1800 in the evening the animals are taken to their stalls and tethered for the night.
They are then given their evening feed which is milk again for the babies and leaves for the older ones. Plenty of food and water is available.
The leaves are mainly Coconut leaves (Cocos nucifera), but also branches from Jackfruit (Artocarpus integra), leaves, branches and logs of Kitul palm tree (Caryoty urens),
The elephants are stall fed. There is very little food material that they can gather from the premises of the orphanage except grass. Large quantities of food are brought in daily. Jackfruit, coconut, kitul, tamarind and grass form the bulk of the food given to the elephants at Pinnawela.
Each animal gets approximately 75 kg of green matter a day and in addition each gets 2kg of a food mixture containing maize, rice bran, powdered gingili seed and minerals. They have access to water twice a day from the river Maha Oya that runs by the Orphanage.

Duration

any to suit volunteer

Start Dates

Any

Costs / Benefits

Private transfers to and from airport. Food, accomodation all included for £1299 for a whole month or £799 for 2 weeks.

Requirements

Animal lovers!!!!