Showing posts with label
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
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Showing posts with label
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
Show all posts
I recently rediscovered this touching photo of one of the baby orphan elephants and a keeper at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya.
I so look forward to visiting this amazing place whenever I am in Nairobi. As a sponsor of three orphans, I get to attend the daily evening session when the babies are brought to their stockades after spending the day in the nearby forest. One of the keepers sleeps in the stockade with a different orphan each night to provide a sense of security to the orphans, most of which have been badly traumatized by watching their families die at the hands of poachers.
You can sponsor an orphan for only $50/year. Details are at www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org.
An orphan elephant gets a helping hand from a caregiver at Nairobi's David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
The center runs a center for orphanaed baby elephants, usually after their mothers were murdered by poachers in Kenya. The babies are provided with special milk and emotional support to help them recover from the trauma of watching their mothers, and sometimes their entire family, gunned down for their ivory. The DSWT is the most successful orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in
the world and one of the pioneering conservation organizations for
wildlife and habitat protection in East Africa.
This photo was taken during my 2016 visit to the orphanage during the noon feeding, which is open to the public. The Nairobi center typicalls has around 35 orphans in residence. Once they are considered ready, they are transferred to one of the Trust's reintegration centers, where the orphans can interact with wild elephants, learning proper elephant behavior. Some of the ex-orphans have returned to the reintegration centers to show off their newborn calves. The Trust has so far raised some 150 calves and released them into their natural habitat.
I am sponsoring three orphans. If you want to get involved by sponsoring a baby elephant, you can do so for only $50/year.
www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org
