It is located northwest of Kegalle town along the Colombo - Kandy main road. The orphanage is in a twenty five acre coconut land near Maha Oya. The wide area of shallow water and the huge rocks of Maha Oya make the ideal place to these magnificent animals.
This facility was established in year 1975 as a conservation breading center for Elephants by Sri Lanka Wildlife department. It was started with a heard of five baby Elephants. In year 1978 it was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka. Pinnawala Elephant orphanage is treated as one of the largest breading center in the world. Today the heard has grown up to 69 elephants.
Daily activities:
During a visit to the orphanage you can evident two main activities. One is the bottle feeding and the second one is the elephant bath.
Feeding time is a must see activity, where all the baby elephants are bottle fed by powdered milk using feeding bottles. at 09.15 am , 01.15 pm and 05.00 pm in the evening.
Daily Bath
The other attraction is the daily bath of the elephants. This is the most attractive event from all. A prior notice is given to the onlookers before the elephants are led out from the orphanage where they bath in Maha Oya which is about 150 meters form the orphanage. The view of how they go in a line to the Maha Oya is magnificent.
Breeding Program
The Asian Elephant has been endangered due to poaching and deforestation, with only about 50,000 estimated in the wilderness worldwide. In Sri Lanka its numbers are far lower with less than 3,000 estimated. Poaching and capturing wild elephants is therefore illegal, having led to the Pinnawela orphanage starting its breeding program in 1982. Generally breeding of captive elephants is a challenge as there is a high degree of still births and sometimes the females become aggressive killing their own calves. However, Pinnawela has had quite a successful track record, recording its 50th successful birth on 24th May 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment