FAQ about Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home by best of ceylon - Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home Visitor Information - Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home

Udawalawe Elephant transit home or otherwise known as Udawalawe Elephant orphanage is a care home for baby elephants who are orphaned by natural causes. Udawalawe Elephant transit home rehabilitates and releases baby elephants back to wild.

Udawalawe Elephant transit home or “Ath Athuru Sewana” was declared in 1995 by the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation.

The Udawalawe Elephant transit home cares for orphanage elephant calves until they are capable enough to go back to the wild.

Udawalawe Elephant transit home is located in the western boarder of the 33,000 hectares Udawalawe national park. Because of this area baby elephant calves are free to roam wherever they want.

The best way to get to Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe is by a private vehicle. If you are travelling from Colombo to Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe it will take around 4 to 5 hours. If you are travelling from down south of Sri Lanka it will only take around 1to 2 hours depending of which part of the coast that you are staying.

You do not have to pre book your visit to Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe

Yes, Udawalawe Elephant transit is visited by wild elephants when the reservoir has the seasonal fluctuation.

The first baby elephant in Udawalawe Elephant transit home was the baby female elephant named Komali who was one year old when she came to Udawalwe Elephant Transit home. She was found by Dr.Nandana Atapattu near Anuradhapura area.

There have been more than 200 elephant calves in Udawalwe Elephant transit home that has been cared by the people at Udawalawe Elephant transit home.

The elephant’s calves at the Udawalawe elephant transit home are introduced back to the wild at the age of five.

The baby elephant calves are fed once every three hours at Udawalawe Elephant transit home.

Baby elephants receive milk daily at every three hours at 9.00 AM, 12NOON, 3PM and 6PM and is open for visitors in these specific time slots. Most of the visitors visit Udawalawe Elephant transit home before their morning safari or before the afternoon safari.

If you want to witness babay elepahnts being fed in Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home without hassle you should visit there 10-20 minutes before the feeding time and this makes you to get a good viewing point of the whole scenario.

The viewing platform is around 15 meters away from the baby elephants.

The direct answer will be “No”. The management of the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home doesn’t allow visitors to touch baby elephants nor to pose for pictures next to elephants.

If you need to take high quality pictures of baby elephants of Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home you should bring a professional camera with a zoom lens above 150mm.

A person should spend around 45minutes to one hour to get the correct picture of the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home.

Udawalawe Elephant transit home is merely a 10-20minutes drive from Udawalawe National Park main entrance.

The baby elephants are fed all the days all thorough out the year and being elephant calves they need special formula of milk to be fed. The pathetic cry and the elephants' charges for milk are agonizing to hear. Adapting orphaned elephant calves to powdered milk and a whole new environment that needs patience and care.

The morning feeding session will be the best time to see baby elephants up-close in Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home.

When it comes to milk intolerance special preparation is given to baby elephants at Udawalawe Elephant transit home. It is prepared with soy milk, rice broth and adding Jeevanee which is a rehydration solution for baby elephants at Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home.

A day rarely goes by without one or more elephant calves getting sick. Post-disease treatment, in general, is a long process in elephants since their recovery is slow. Likewise, separating the sick with contagious diseases from the healthiest is also a tedious task. Managing the health and welfare of elephant calves with very little support from the labs and the lack of medical knowledge and experience in the country is also another challenge facing Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home officials.

The ticket price for a tourist to enter the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home is around 5$, it will be around 1800 LKR for a local person to enter the Transit home.

Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home is listed on the World Animal Protection’s list of best practice elephant’s venues in Asia.

If you really want to enjoy your visit to Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home peacefully you should really avoid weekends and local school holiday days because the crowd on those days will be unbearable.

There are some decent accommodations near Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home, below mentioned are some of the accommodations that you spend a good night over near Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home

• Kalu’s Hideaway
• Grand Udawalawe
• Athgira River Camp
• Nildiya Mankada
• Jungle Paradise
• Private Organic House

If you aren’t staying overnight near Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home and only have time for a day trip to the Udawalawe Elephant Transit home the best place to stay in southern province where it has beautifully stretched sandy beaches.