Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
January 19, 2020 day 5
“The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust embraces all measures that complement the conservation, preservation, and protection of wildlife. These include anti-poaching, safeguarding the natural environment, enhancing community awareness, addressing animal welfare issues, providing veterinary assistance to animals in need, rescuing and hand-rearing elephant and rhino orphans, along with other species that can ultimately enjoy a quality of life in the wild terms when grown.”
"About The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust: A Haven for Elephants and Rhinos".
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The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust program in Kenya operates an orphan elephant rescue and wildlife rehabilitation. Daphne Sheldrick founded it in 1977 in honor of her late husband, David Sheldrick. Since 2001 both of them have passed and now the trust is being run by their daughter Andela Sheldrick. During Daphne's involvement with wildlife, she was recognized as the international authority on the rearing of wild creatures. Perfecting a mild formula for infant milk-dependent elephants, she was the first to discover that coconut oil was the nearest substitute for the fat in elephant milk.
Seeing the baby elephants
Right up the road from the Nairobi national park, on the same reserve is The Sheldrick Wildlife elephant sanctuary. We got there early got good parking and a good spot in line, when we were first ushered in our guide brought us to the furthest part of the roped area that was under the trees. He told us this spot gets less crowded, stays cooler in the shade, rehabilitation, and is close to where they feed the bottles to the babies! Out came 7 babies at first running into the arena for their milk. The speaker introduced each elephant and told us some of each of their stories. Almost every one of them had a traumatic past that brought them to the orphanage. Next came out 12 teenagers who each got 2 bottles of milk as well as some of the branches that were scattered around for them. They all ran around having fun playing with each other and with in the mud hole.
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Adopting an elephant
We learned it takes $900 a month to feed and care for just one of the orphaned elephants. And for just $50 a year, you can adopt one of these amazing creatures all going towards helping the orphans. Enkesha is the little one I adopted when she was making her rounds around the arena and stopped right in front of us to enjoy her twigs. She almost sat on us leaning up against the thin rope that separated us. Her story had a very sad beginning, she was found with her trunk nearly severed off by a snare. Her heard was still around her not leaving her side, making it hard for the field vets to get close enough to help her. They were able to get close only after using helicopters to move the heard away. After putting her to sleep under her mother's watchful eye who would not go too far away. The conclusion was made she would need to go in to get the trunk taken care of if she was ever going to keep it. Her trunk was operated on but she would not hold still enough to keep the stitches closed. It has healed more and more on its own with the support of the staff. When we were there she was just learning how to close the wound on her own so she could use it to drink!
English and Swahili