A Day at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center

Sometimes on our travels we find ourselves in a place that feels just right.

Sometimes we get to hold hands with a friendly gibbon.

Sometimes we glimpse a clouded leopard briefly. Sometimes we get to see the rarest otter in the world.

Sometimes we get to walk with an elephant called Lucky.

We did all these things and more on our day spent on a “behind the scenes” tour of the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center with the Wildlife Alliance. The Rescue Center is a special place about an hour or so from Phnom Penh where animals victimized by poaching or illegal animal trade can be cared for, rehabilitated, and in some cases released. Many of the animals here, though, cannot be released because they have been hurt too much or because there is simply no safe place in Cambodia to release them to. For those animals, the Center becomes their permanent home.

Animals like this include a young bull elephant who was found with the lower part of one of his legs missing. An organization that makes prostheses for many of Cambodia’s UXO victims was kind enough to adapt their methods to make an elephant-sized prosthetic so this bull can get along just as well as any of the other elephants at the sanctuary. As part of our tour we were able to watch his old prosthetic being changed for a new, bigger one.

Another highlight was interacting with Lucky, a young female elephant who likes to hang around with humans and even paint on them sometimes!

We ate lunch in the presence of wild monkeys….

Note: These are wild macaques which do not belong to the Center. The Center does not feed its animals with Coca Cola ;)

…were allowed to see the tigers up close…

….met some friendly and very expressive gibbons…

…and were even embraced by the nursery’s infant monkeys (much to my consternation… monkeys and me don’t always get along!).

We also got to see sun bears, a very rare hairy-nosed otter (the only one of its kind in captivity), some wild dogs, and many other creatures big and small.

Some of the stories told about these animals were truly horrible. The Center actually used to have more leopards, before someone poisoned them one night. The tigers were all rescued as cubs from a very cramped situation, and many of the bears have been partially blinded or severely traumatized from their previous lives kept in tiny cages. All these animals, for some reason, are highly sought after by poachers who will often resort to a variety of inhumae measures to obtain and keep them. Phnom Tamao is not a fancy, slick zoo. But it is a place where the animals are kept as safe from harm as possible in a country where they often have nowhere safe to go. You can tell that the keepers deeply love and respect their charges and every animal encounter on the tour was informative and (most importantly) ethical for the animals. We loved our tour with the Wildlife Alliance so much that we would gladly go again if we are ever back in Cambodia.

Here’s how you can have a behind the scenes tour at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center too:

1) Head over to the Wildlife Alliance website to book your tour.

2) Pay your donation of $150 per adult to the Alliance. This fee includes transport to and from the Center and Phnom Penh, lunch, a shirt painted by Lucky, water, and the Center’s entrance fee. Youth and children can visit at a discounted rate. Okay, so we know this donation is a splurge for most backpackers but trust us. It is so worth it and through it you help the Center keep on doing what it is doing.

Like saving cute babies like these:

All photos © Josh Eastwood

**This article was not sponsored, we did not receive any compensation for this review, and all opinions are our own**

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