Feeding Time at the Elephant Transit Camp in Udawalawe

What seemed like hundreds of local schoolkids turned up to witness the 9am milk feeding time at the Udawalawe elephant transit camp. I hadn't originally included this place on our photo tour because I'd read a lot of criticism about another popular tourist destination: Pinnewala elephant orphanage (near Kandy), which, by some accounts at least, was a bit if a tourist circus. Luckily one of our group expressed an interest and we had time yesterday to stop off here. I think we were all pleasantly surprised by the organisation at the camp - most of the inmates are looked after till they are old enough to take care of themselves in the main park (which covers more than 130,000 hectares). All the humans are herded into a small terraced viewing area under a flat roof and fenced off from the feeding area by about 20 feet.

One by one, or in small groups, the baby elephants, who by this time are queuing at the gate, come into the field and are fed - by bottle, or by simply pouring a few litres of milk into a funnel and a pipe. Crude but effective

Once fed the elephants move into the holding field right in front of the spectators to grab some leaves from branches left by the keepers.
This one ignored the leaves on offer and went straight for a watery mud shower.
The process lasts for about an hour and is 500rs well spent.

This little elephant is too young to cope among the 50+ older elephants at the camp so a gets special one-on-one feeding session.
He knows exactly where to go and which keeper to follow...

Bingo!