The Elephant Orphanage by Uda Walawe In the south of Sri Lanka, small elephants are nursed up and prepared for their life in the wild. Three times a day there is a public feeding. You can take pictures and support the facility with your entrance fee.

It happens again and again that baby elephants lose their mother. This can happen, for example, due to illness or an accident. But often humans are also the cause: Elephants are secretly killed because they trample or distort the harvest in fields.

When the mother dies, the little elephants are left alone and helpless. Without human support, they would have no chance of surviving in the wild. In order to preserve the elephant population in Sri Lanka, which had shrunk sharply in the decades before, the Elephant Transit Home was founded in Uda Walawe in 1995.

Uda Walawe Elephant Orphanage It takes in injured or orphaned elephants. The animals receive milk and food and receive medical care. From the very beginning, the aim is to be able to release the animals back into the wild after a few years. But the care doesn't end there. Reintroduced elephants wear a ribbon with a transmitter around their necks for another four years. During this time, the condition of the animals is regularly checked by the gamekeepers.

The Elephant Orphanage by Uda Walawe In the south of Sri Lanka, small elephants are nursed up and prepared for their life in the wild. Three times a day there is a public feeding. You can take pictures and support the facility with your entrance fee.

It happens again and again that baby elephants lose their mother. This can happen, for example, due to illness or an accident. But often humans are also the cause: Elephants are secretly killed because they trample or distort the harvest in fields.

When the mother dies, the little elephants are left alone and helpless. Without human support, they would have no chance of surviving in the wild. In order to preserve the elephant population in Sri Lanka, which had shrunk sharply in the decades before, the Elephant Transit Home was founded in Uda Walawe in 1995.

Uda Walawe Elephant Orphanage It takes in injured or orphaned elephants. The animals receive milk and food and receive medical care. From the very beginning, the aim is to be able to release the animals back into the wild after a few years. But the care doesn't end there. Reintroduced elephants wear a ribbon with a transmitter around their necks for another four years. During this time, the condition of the animals is regularly checked by the gamekeepers.