On Saturday, some of us visited the elephant orphanage in Nairobi. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was set up in the 70's to honour David and his commitment to the conservation of endangered wildlife. One of it's projects is to rescue orphaned African Elephants, raise them and release them back into the wild when they are old enough to look after themselves.
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| Me in Sities' stable; the keepers sleep in here every night |
For one hour each day, the trust permits the public to visit the sanctuary in Nairobi National Park. There you can see the elephants and hear about the work that the charity does. The guys explained that baby elephants need their mothers milk for 3 years and cannot survive in the wild without them. So they bring them to Nairobi and look after them until they are 3-4 years old. The elephants live in the park in the wild but are fed by the keepers and are brought into the stables every night at 5pm for their protection. As they need milk every few hours, each elephant has a keeper sleeping with them in the stable! When the elephants are old enough to be released, they are taken to a national park in Kenya to integrate into a herd. However, this does not happen immediately; it takes between 5 and 9 years for them to be fully accepted and so still need some care from the trust.
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| The orphaned baby elephants |
The hour we spent there was amazing! The elephants were so playful and friendly and we even got to touch them. The story and the experience was inspiring. The trust does great work in the name of a great man and it is all about the animals, not a tourist attraction. Some of the stories are awful and the main reason for the baby's being orphaned is still poaching for the ivory of the mother. Quite shocking in this age.
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| Sities |
So on the way out I decided to adopt one of the baby elephants to help with her care. Her name is Sities and she is nearly 2 years old. She was born in January 2010 and was rescued as a 7 week old calf when she walked into Mgeno Ranch in Tsavo Conservation Area. Her mother had been killed by poachers for her tusks.
I hope to continue my support of the project in the years to come; it is very worthwhile.
RA
#ibmcsc #kenya4
RA
#ibmcsc #kenya4
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