Since 2019, Wild Welfare US and Wild Welfare have partnered to bring positive welfare changes to the residents of Lok Kawi Wildlife Park (LKWP) located in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The facility was under considerable scrutiny and criticism for the care and management of many of the species. LKWP is operated by the Sabah Wildlife Department and primarily focuses on native wildlife in need of life-long human care due to anthropogenic causes. Wild Welfare US has partnered with The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee to transform the elephant care program at LKWP.
Wild Welfare conducted an initial welfare audit of LKWP in 2018, and just a year later, was asked to return and repeat the audit . . . thus begun a long-term collaborative project between Wild Welfare US and the Sabah Wildlife Department. Our efforts have focused primarily on transforming the elephant program to one where each of the 16 elephants can receive comprehensive care needed to thrive, and also building capacity across all staff to improve the enrichment programs throughout the park. With on-going support from The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the Nancy Carol Draper Foundation, we’ve been able to return to LKWP to teach the theory and practice of Protected Contact (PC) elephant management to both the elephant care staff and the elephants.
LKWP elephant staff were hosted by The Elephant Sanctuary to experience full immersion into PC management. Each of the 4 elephant staff from LKWP spent a month working side by side Sanctuary caregivers and saw all aspects of comprehensive elephant care. Members from Sabah’s office of the Secretary of the Environment, Culture, and Tourism and the Director of the Sabah Wildlife Department visited The Elephant Sanctuary and the North Carolina Zoo to see first hand the results of protected contact management – the SWD officially adopted a policy of PC management for all elephants managed in captivity.
In order to fully implement PC management at LKWP, facility modifications continue, and when completed, not only will all 16 resident elephants be managed in PC, but they will have more space and freedom. We hold deep gratitude to Jon Coe of Jon Coe Design, and Mike Graetz of Design for Life, for their invaluable contributions to the conceptualization and designs of these extensive modifications.