With its objective of protection and preservation of endangered species, especially elephants and black rhino, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is an obvious 'must see' for us. Barry knew the place from a previous stay in Nairobi, and visiting again their elephant nursery in the Nairobi National Park is for certain spending a fun few hours. Watching the young elephants running for their morning bath in a mud pool - not before having stopped over for another milk bottle with their keepers - gives us a real blast. Joyful and still wavering on their legs, they throw themselves in the mud with a clear smile on their face of pure enjoyment! Get too close to these 'puppies' of 100kg at less than 1-year old and you might get mud splashed at you, but all this is nothing else than fun. The keepers tell us all about the personal stories of each elephant, aged between 2-month and 2,5-year old. Each one of them had a dramatic start in life, losing their mother from poaching in most cases, but had the chance to be rescued by the Sheldrick Trust some of them at a very early age, requiring even more care and attention from the keepers.

After such an entertaining moment watching the elephants bathing, how could we resist to not adopt one of these orphans and therefore to support the Sheldrick Trust? The fostering program is really appealing and to have seen with our own eyes the dedication of the keepers and the life-long commitment of the Sheldrick family, you can be sure every donation counts well.

If you'd like to support the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, see: www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/asp/fostering.asp and www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/html/help.html

Some complementary information: the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a small, flexible charity, established in 1977 to honor the memory of a famous naturalist, David Sheldrick, the founder Warden of Tsavo East National Park in Kenya, where he served from 1948 until 1976.

The Trust has played an extremely significant role in Kenya’s conservation effort since it was founded in 1977, speaking out when necessary on controversial issues and stepping in unobtrusively and rapidly to bridge a gap or meet a shortfall that jeopardizes wildlife during times of Governmental economic constraints. Dr. Daphne Sheldrick (David's widow) was the first person in the entire world to successfully hand rear newborn fully milk dependent African elephant orphans, something that spanned 28 years of trial and error to achieve.

The Trust has trained a team of competent Elephant Keeper who replace the orphans’ lost elephant family until such time as the transition to the wild herds has been accomplished, something that can take up to l0 years, since elephant calves duplicate their human counterparts in terms of development through age progression. Elephants have a rapid metabolism, and need regular feeding 24 hours a day, initially on demand, but after the age of 5 months, gradually encouraged to slot into a 3 hourly routine during their first fully milk dependent year of life. The second year is also milk dependent, but is a gradual weaning off milk stage as the calf's intake of vegetation increases. If the orphaned Nursery Elephants are doing well when they reach the age of l year, they are transferred to Tsavo National Park, to be absorbed into the older echelon of orphans and begin their long and gradual period of re-integration back into the wild community.

By the year 2008, the Trust had successfully saved and hand-reared over 82 infant African elephant calves, two from the day of birth. Currently, over 40 of the Trust’s hand-reared elephants are fully established and living free amongst their wild peers in Tsavo, some returning with wild born young to show their erstwhile human family. 

To know more about the Sheldrick Trust, please visit www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/