Dak Lak elephants enjoying free life in new tourism model

Freed from tourist-carrying work, elephants in the central highlands province of Dak Lak are still attracting visitors who want to see the endangered animals enjoying their true life in the wild.

Two elephants looking for food at the Yok Don National Park.

Since Dak Lak authorities co-operated with the Animals Asia Foundation to phase out the elephant-riding tourism industry and turned to the elephant-friendly tourism model in 2017, 10 elephants have been returned to life in the wild at the Yok Don National Park.

Under the model, elephants do not have to carry tourists but are free to search for food and live freely in the forest of the park which covers over 115,500 hectares.

The animals live in areas which have lush trees and near large lakes which provide them enough food and drink even in dry seasons.

48-year-old Kham Phanh playing in a lake at the park.

A staff member from the park said that since being brought here, their health has dramatically improved.

A 28-year-old male elephant, Thong Ngan, searching for food.

A visitor to the park, Dinh Thuy Ngan, said that she and her family really enjoyed watching the big elephants freely wandering the forest at Yok Don National Park.

"This is our first visit to the park and we had a very good experience seeing the happy elephants," ngan said. "I visited Dak Lak once and saw the tired elephants carrying tourists all day. I'm happy that they are given free life in their forest home now."

Ngan and her family watch the elephants at the park.

Statistics from the park said that more than 2,000 visitors registered to participate in the elephant-friendly tourism model in 2022 alone. Many people even spent many days just following elephants, watching them find food, bathing and living in the forest.

Dak Lak used to be known as Vietnam’s kingdom of elephants and in the 1980s, the province had more than 500 elephants. This number has sadly declined to only 140 today.

They live mainly in Buon Don and Lak districts. Most are domesticated and there are only 37 left in the wild.