The worlds largest living land mammals are not just physically impressive but emotionally complex animals who are being driven into extinction by humans and their greed for their ivory tusks. Elephants have to be killed to take their tusks, add that into the already difficult human/wildlife conflict as elephants feed off farmers crops and trample their land and the outcome has been a rapid decline in elephant numbers across Africa, already going extinct in some areas and many elephant calves being left without mothers or herds and without them they also perish.

Here’s where the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust comes in, the worlds most successful orphaned elephant rescue, rehabilitate and release program offers a safe haven for the victims of elephant poaching as well as natural disasters such as drought.

Quick Facts

• By the end of 2021 a total of 282 orphaned elephants and 17 orphaned rhinos had been successfully raised by the Sheldrick trust with 111 currently dependent living at the Trust’s care centres.

• 45 known babies have been born to wild orphaned elephants who were bought up by Sheldricks

• 1182 injured animals were attended to in 2021 by the Sheldricks 6 mobile ground and 1 sky veterinary units.

• In 2021 a huge 9377 snares were collected and 318 wildlife offenders were arrested by the 22 mobile anti-poaching teams and 1 canine unit who patrolled over 57,000 kilometres of foot.

The History of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Originally the trust was named the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust after Daphne’s husband, the founding warden of Tsavo National Park in 1948, one of the largest and oldest parks in Kenya at a whopping 13,747 sq kilometres. David remains one of Africa’s most famous park wardens to this day.

While working in the park David and Daphne met and fell in love and for 25 years she worked alongside her husband in this beautiful and isolated part of the world surrounded by the wildlife she loved and spent her time rehabilitating. In 1955 she was made co-warden of the park alongside her husband.

Tending to and raising orphaned and sick animals didn’t just require helping them overcome their nutritional needs but also helping them overcome their physiological trauma experienced but the often violent and tragic deaths of their mothers and other family members.

When Daphne first began trying to raise orphaned elephants the survival rate was very low, and the very young, milk dependent calves especially couldn’t survive. Even though some of them ate, there was a complete lack of data at that time on elephant nutrition especially in young and the milk formulas Daphne tried were no match for the milk of an elephants mother. This lack of nutrition along with the emotional scars and trauma saw elephant after elephant waste away and die.

Eventually after trying and testing every combination she could think of, Daphne happened upon the missing ingredient, with which the elephants could survive and this final piece of the puzzle was coconut oil. With this knowledge, Daphne became the first person ever recorded to raise a newborn orphaned elephant and from this success the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was able to bloom, originally named the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust after David sadly passed away in 1977 from heart issues at the young age of 57.

What does the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Do for the Orphaned Elephants?

The now renamed Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was founded in 1977 and has since been one of the pioneering conservation organisations for wildlife and habitat protection in East Africa with their flagship program being the rehabilitation of orphaned elephants, which continues to be the most successful in the world.

The Sheldrick nursery was built at Daphnes home on the outskirts of Nairobi National Park where she moved to following David’s death and its here where the nursery stands today where the orphans up to around 3 - 4 years are brought until they are no longer mild dependent. Many of these orphans are victims of poaching and other wildlife/human conflict.

Once stabilised and no longer dependent on the milk, they are moved to one of either two holding centres in Tsavo National Park and from here are able to gradually re-wild themselves at their own pace which is usually between 8 - 10 years old.

At the nursery the elephants not only have to be physically cared for but emotionally too as Daphne learnt the hard way. The first orphan, Aisha, who was successfully raised on formula sadly passed away when Daphne left her in the very caring hands of her assistant as she travelled to attend her daughters wedding. The young elephant had become so attached to Daphne that she died of the emotional trauma of “losing” another mother. Daphne then realised that to raise these sensitive creatures in such unnatural conditions you couldn’t let them become too attached to just one person and so although the orphans always have a keeper sleeping in their stable at night to keep them company, these amazing carers swap calves each night so that neither keeper nor elephant can become too attached to one another.

Young elephants in the wild are raised with within strong family herds with female caregivers leading the way and nurturing them from their birth. The primary caregivers are of course their mothers but the herds are also made up of sisters cousins, aunts and grandmothers as well as friends. Young males stay within these herds until around 14 years whereas the females stay for life helping to care for the next generation.

At the nursery in Nairobi the keepers take the energetic youngsters into the outskirts of Nairobi National Park to browse and engage within natural, wild areas. At 11am they come bounding back as they know what time it is… the keepers are waiting with huge milk bottles in the mud bath area where the flocking tourists come to watch them drink and play for an hour.

At the Tsavo compounds once the orphans have become completely independent of milk at around 5 -7 while out on their walks they are allowed to go off and interact with the wild elephants they come across, these “wild” elephants are often ex-Sheldrick orphans themselves. Some will stay with these new wild friends for a few nights before returning to the Sheldricks base and some will stay gone, ready to be full time wild elephants. The important thing is the elephants choose when they are ready to go it alone.

In the afternoons the elephants head out again for walks and then come back in at 5pm to have their blankets put on and get tucked up for the night with their allocated keeper who sleeps on the “top bunk” of the stable and who report having little trunks reach up and pull their blankets off every few hours. These cheeky little orphans know how to get some attentions from their carers.

The Elephant / Keeper Relationship at Sheldricks

The keepers at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust are the custodians of these young elephants lives and have to give up much of their own to look after these young animals, providing the love and care these orphans have lost with the death of the own mothers and other family members. As with humans, these early years are crucial for them growing up to be well rounded and well behaved adult elephants. The love they experience when young teaches them how to love the young these will hopefully go on to have and raise.

Elephants are capable of feeling a ride range of emotions including jealousy and this can show itself in the orphans as they fight over who gets the attention of a particularly favoured keeper. Although the keepers are well trained pros and ensure all the calves get equal attention and one on one time.

The orphans even conduct the final interviews for new keepers as they go out walking with the shortlist of candidates and the Sheldricks staff observe who they become fond of and that candidate is the one who’s chosen.

When on their daily walks, the orphan elephants have also been known to bravely form a wall around the keepers when they’ve come across other potentially dangerous animals.

Once back in the wild the ex-orphans often bring their own wild born babies back to the Sheldricks compound straight after giving birth to show off their newborns. They often also show up when ill or injured with wounds from snares and spears, they are know they will be welcomed back and nursed better in a safe area.

What Can You Do To Help?

There’s many ways you can get involved in helping support the Sheldricks Wildlife Trust on their Get Involved page of their website. Donate, join an event, become a fundraiser, shop some of their products including watercolours by Angela Sheldrick, David and Daphne’s daughter and adopt an elephant which includes a certificate and e-mail updates about your elephant.

Here’s a few examples of how donations can help:

• $15 donation purchases a lifesaving tin of milk formula.

• $100 donation funds a wildlife film show at a rural school to help educate and inspire the future generations

• $450 funds the care of an orphan elephant for two weeks

• $1500 is the average cost to rescue an orphan in the wild and bring in to Sheldricks to be cared for

For help planning your safari including a visit to the Sheldricks Elephant Orphanage, contact me today!