Day 2 – Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Orphaned Elephant Project

Day 2 continued with a trip to the Sheldrick baby elephant nursery. Located inside the Nairobi National Park, Our visit to the nursery was a high point of my visit to Kenya. And you know, elephants are pretty, wild and vegan!

The orphanage was first conceived in the 1940s by David and Daphne Sheldrick. The story and success of their project are stunning. To date, the project has successfully raised more than 250 orphaned elephants that would have otherwise perished in the wild. I think one of the most remarkable aspects of the project is that each elephant has an assigned human surrogate parent. The surrogate lives and sleeps with the calf, feeding the calf every three hours, round the clock. The humans assure that the calves play, wash, rest, eat, and are socialized with the ultimate goal of reintroduction into the wild. 

Please check out The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT) website https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org to learn more about all the work this amazing organization is doing. SWT works in at least 8 different regions in Kenya, to secure wildlife health and protect native species, populations and habitat from harm mostly caused by humans.

In the pictures below, the gentlemen dressed in green are the human surrogates that care for the calves. What a tremendous gift they give to the entire world by doing this work.

The little female below has a reputation for misbehaving at the nursery. She pushes the other calves around and teaches the younger orphans bad manners! Here, she is spraying water at me! She snorted and trumpeted a little when she saw me jump. I think she was pretty proud of herself! Sassy girl!

It costs about $1000.00 USD annually to feed and care for an orphaned elephant. This includes human caregivers, food, toys, medical care, and housing. We plan to foster a baby elephant to support the sustainable future of these pretty wild vegans.