Chiang Mai Activities

Chiang Mai Night Safari

#265 of 265 things to do in Chiang Mai

#21658 of 21668 things to do in Asia

2 reviews | Write a review

  • Address
    • Rte 121/Th Klorng Chonprathan
  • Website
  • Phone
    • 0 5399 9050
  • Price
    • adult/child day ฿100/฿50, adult/child night ฿500/฿300
  • Hours
    • 1pm-midnight Mon-Fri, 10am-midnight Sat & Sun

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Lonely Planet review for Chiang Mai Night Safari

The slick Night Safari was one of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s mega-projects, intended to upgrade Chiang Mai’s image to appeal to the business-class tourist.

 

Traveller reviews for Chiang Mai Night Safari (2)

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    PLEASE PLEASE do not visit the Chiang Mai Night Safari.

    daisydoos1973 does not recommend this,

    We recently visited the Chiang Mai Night Safari, naively assuming that the animals would be well looked after - we were wrong.

    Just past the entrance, there was a man with an elephant, selling bunches of bananas for tourists to feed to the elephant. Having visited the Elephant Nature Park the day before, we had found out that elephants being used for this purpose are usually not treated well - they are often underfed, in order to ensure they co-operate, & tourists are often allowed to use flash photography, which damages the elephant's eyes.

    The first part of the safari involves walking round part of the park with a guide. It was dark when we were doing this, & the guide shined a torch into the eyes of all of the animals to allow us to see them, & banged on the glass/cage/railings. He also allowed people on the tour to use flash photography right in the faces of the animals, despite this being damaging to the animals' eyes.

    The next part of the safari involves going on a tram through part of the park where you can see animals such as deer, zebras & giraffes. Bizarrely, at every stopping point when the light came on for us to see the animals in their enclosures, all of the animals seemed to be in exactly the right position, i.e. sitting/lying at the fence or even on a plinth; considering some of the enclosures looked quite big, this seemed rather suspicious - how come all of the animals were in the right place? I suspect that either they are chained up to make sure the tourists see them, or they aren't fed enough, so that they come to the fence to try & get the food which tourists can buy to throw/feed to the animals.

    Throughout the tram ride, tourists were again using flash photography. Although the Thai commentator was saying - very quietly - not to use flash photography because it damages the animals' eyes, they were not enforcing this. I ended up having to tell people over & over again to stop using their flash, because the Thai commentator wasn't loud or emphatic enough.

    The final animal enclosure on the first tram ride is the elephant enclosure - the Thai commentator introduces one of the elephants as the 'dancing elephant' because it has been trained to rock back & forward when the light shines on it -this was heartbreaking, particularly as we could see very clearly that the elephant was chained to the rock it was standing on. This made us wonder even more about the other animals being 'in position'.

    There is a second tram ride, but we couldn't bear to see any more, so left the safari early, feeling very sad at what we had seen & gutted that we had supported this awful tourist attraction.

    I urge you NOT to visit the Chaing Mai Night Safari.

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    "Nightmare at the Night Safari"

    anadelrio does not recommend this,

    I have not been to the Night Safari. However...

    http://www.chiangmai-mail.com/

    The title of this review is actually the headline from an article in the January 06, 2009
    Chiang Mai Mail. To summarize, in 2008, more than 300 animals died at the night safari, "including 46 Rusa deer, 29 giant flying squirrels, 17 Hog deer, 12 zebras and 3 cheetahs." Since the original report appeared in the Bangkok Post, there have been protests at the safari. Apparently the deaths may have been caused by "incorrect feeding and lack of expert veterinary care." Visitors to Chiang Mai may wish to learn more about the situation before deciding to visit the safari.

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