the david sheldrick wildlife trust - orphaned elephants
Nairobi, Kenya
One of our adventu
res in Nairobi was to visit The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust which was started by Dame Daphne Sheldrick in memory of her husband. The trust houses orphaned elephants that are found all over Africa for various reasons including losing their mothers, falling down wells and other manholes, or due to attacks by other animals.
On the way into the center there was a monkey sitting on top of the entrance sign. We were lucky enough to see several groups of monkeys (two varieties) wandering around the grounds. That mad my day already!
The day we visited there were 21 orphans at the center that we saw in two groups (first group was 9 orphans from 3 to 13 months and the second group was 10 orphans from 8 to 22 months). They live at the center for three years before being reintroduced to the wild. The youngest elephant we saw was Olkej (three months). We also saw another elephant that was attacked by hyenas and lost it’s tail and part of it’s ear. They are all very playful and love getting their milk by bottle and then rolling around in the mud. The keepers sleep with the orphans (in the wild they are kept warm at night by all the adults surrounding them) and feed them every three hours with human baby formula milk (cows milk is too fatty).
We were also lucky enough (sad though) to see a baby black rhino that had been orphaned and was living at the center. The other residents of the center are a group of warthogs that roam around and splash through the mud when the elephants are done.
Great experience and neat to see the little elephants up close and in person - inspiring organization!