Volunteering with animals in Thailand: Elephant Refuge and Wildlife Rescue Center

The Wildlife Rescue Center is home to a variety of rescued birds and other animals such as gibbons, macaques, lorises, sun and moon bears, civets, and other felids. The center tries to provide them with enclosures as close to nature as possible to rehabilitate the animals and where possible reintroduce them to the wild.

What are your tasks as volunteer?

As a volunteer at this project, you will spend the majority of your time on preparing and serving the food to the animals and cleaning their enclosures. Besides this, you will also help with the maintenance of the animal enclosures and facilities on the project. The Wildlife Rescue Center does not support the "hands on" contact with animals, so as volunteer you will not have any physical contact with the animals (unless explicitly permitted by a WRC-staff member).  

Every morning you will be assigned different tasks. These tasks can consist of:  

• preparing and serving of food to the different animals 
• cleaning the animal enclosures
• general maintenance
• reparations to fences and animal facilities.

Even though a big focus of the project is to give the animals a life as close to nature as possible and possibly reintroduce them to the wild, some animals will never leave the center anymore. They would unfortunately not be able to survive in the wild and will spend the rest of their lives in the center. 

Besides giving refuge to domesticated elephants, many of the animals that stay at the Elephant Refuge have been rescued from a life in which they were trained and forced to work on the streets as begging tools and tourist attractions, where they had to entertain tourists by performing tricks. Many of the rescued elephants are in a bad state when they arrive at the center and also often need to receive medical attention and supervision. In the center of the WFFT, they will receive the necessary help and care to be later released in the nature if possible.

Most of the elephants here are taken care of in a way that will prepare them for a life out in the nature. As a volunteer, you will have less contact with these animals as they have to learn to become independent and be able to survive on there own in the wild. Some other elephants will never leave the center anymore as their condition or state would not allow them to survive on their own. They will spend the rest of their lives at the center as happy and well taken care of as possible. 

What are your tasks as volunteer?

As a volunteer at the elephant project, you will be taught everything you need to know about the care of these magnificent animals. During the project, you will work hands-on with the elephants and some of the tasks you will get as a volunteer are: 

• collecting and harvesting food for the elephants
• washing them
• feeding them throughout the day
• walking them to a close by lake for a swim 
• cleaning and maintaining their enclosures.

Every working day is different, although there are some tasks that will have to be performed daily. In the evenings, you are free so you can either stay at the center for dinner and relax or go to Hua Hin or Cha Am with some other volunteers. 

• 1 week Wildlife Rescue Center
• 1 week Elephant Refuge
• Training and guidance at both of the projects
• All accommodation
  • 3/4 pax dorm room
• Daily breakfast, lunch and dinner
  • Lunch and dinner prepared by cooks
• Financial contribution to the projects for the care of the animals
• Free WiFi

• Flight tickets are not included in the price
• Pick-up transfer to the project is available
• You need to be minimum 18 years old to be able to partcipate at this project