Rescued Elephant's New Life in Nature Preserve

One of the coolest parts about my trip with @destination_srilanka was the amount of wild animal encounters we had. I didn’t realize how diverse both the landscapes and wildlife were, so it is very encouraging to see that there are many sanctuaries, rehab centers, and wildlife preserves throughout the country. - On this specific occasion we visited a 46 year old female elephant at @elephant_freedom park. She was rescued after a long torturous career in the tourism industry where she was constantly being ridden and chained up. Unfortunately these types of operations are very common in Southeast Asia and are only alive because of the support of tourists. - Projects like @elephant_freedom aim to rescue elephants from these situations in order to rehab them to hopefully release back to the wild. In some cases this is not possible as the elephant is too dependent on humans to survive, but at the very least they provide a safe, chain free environment for the elephants to roam. - We also visited other locations (one of which was a full on nature preserve) where the animals were truly in the wild. We had to take a safari Jeep a few miles into the park to find them and got about 50 meters away. So cool to see such majestic creatures in their natural habitat and not in an enclosed area. - If you visit any of these countries and want to see elephants, I would encourage you to either find a nature preserve or sanctuary. Oftentimes the money you pay for admission goes toward helping free more elephants so do your research before hand and find a reputable organization to support:) Be blessed and stay stoked😎🤙 -