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THE ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE….and a RHINO ALERT!

The DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST rescues orphaned elephants and rhinos, and also runs a veterinary service for Kenya’s national parks. It’s the brainchild of David Sheldrick’s widow, founded the year after his untimely death in 1976. Since that time, Daphne Sheldrick has been working out the methods used by the Trust to rescue and rehabilitate almost 100 orphaned elephants that would surely have died without their intervention - more than 40 elephants are now part of wild herds in TSAVO (EAST) NATIONAL PARK, perhaps the last place in Eastern Africa large enough to allow for the natural ecological cycle of elephants and the land and vegetation that sustains them. Please go to the Sheldrick Trust site - they are worthy of your support, and a little bit will go a long way for the elephants, and offer you a wonderful experience with your own adopted orphan, or in giving a gift to someone else. CHECK IT OUT

OK…the commercial is over (mostly)....and here comes the story of our visit:

There were 20 orphans present the day we visited (currently 21), which was almost double the highest number to date, 12. Facilities are crowded, and additional stockades are being built. Raising a milk-fed baby elephant costs about US$750.00 monthly, so you can do the math on what the Trust needs. The regular visits cost tourists 300 Kenyan shillings (about US$4.00), and there may have been 75 people there when we visited. That’s not enough to keep the place going, hence their “adopt-an-orphan” program ($50.00 annually), and other fund-raising appeals. We spent some time talking with David and Daphne Sheldrick’s daughter, and learned that the Trust gets NO government money - it is entirely self-supporting. EVERY day, about 250 Kenyan school-children visit, to become acquainted with some of their patrimony….sadly, most of them haven’t a clue - a question often asked as they see the baby elephants is “Are these elephants full size?” These folks are doing a monumental and important task…..

The Trust also rehabs and releases abandoned baby rhinos - once the first contingent of 11 orphan elephants had left the scene, we got to see the newest rhino orphan, and he was the smallest they’ve ever had to work with. Apparently born prematurely and barely 8 inches tall when found, he is only now approximately the size of a normal newborn:

Shortly after he left, while we were enjoying the group of nine larger elephant orphans, we heard a rustling in the bushes…..

Looking over, we could see that a very large rhinoceros was coming to visit. NOW, they informed us that 6-year old Shida (2 years or so in the wild) was in the habit of coming back to see the tourists again - but he was no longer the little rhino that had been hand-raised and released into Nairobi National Park, immediately adjacent to the (unfenced) elephant rehabilitation site. Usually, Shida missed the excitement, and came back early enough to be locked in his stockade, which is always left open for him - he would spend an hour or so eating a treat of some kind, and then be released back to the bush, where he is learning to be an independent male rhino - a rather difficult and dangerous feat. Today, we got to see him:

The keepers warned everyone to move back from the rope that separated us from the baby elephants, which were being herded into a group AWAY from Shida. I wanted to skulk quietly away to where I could get behind something solid, but the crowd was between me and anything that felt the least bit safe. Some of the tourists were crowding up to the rope to take pictures, despite the attempts of the head keeper to get them to move back. Rhinos are not mean, but they get a bit crazy when things don’t go in the way they expected. And 70 tourists can add up to a lot of unexpected stuff for a rhino to deal with….I didn’t want to be in his path if he decided to run through us for some other locale!

I kept telling myself how truly placid and even cuddly a rhino can be, as I watched Shida debate what to do next…it may have been my imagination, but the keepers seemed somewhat spooked, which did nothing good for my own growing sense of dread. But, it all ended well - after glowering (anthropomorphism, I know) at us for a bit, Shida headed off for his stall, and the copra scraps he loves. We all relaxed, and the (bigger) elephant babies resumed sucking the giant bottles, and presented themselves again for scratching.

Lest you think that I’m simply joking about the nature of rhinos, they really ARE fairly placid, friendly beasts….here is Maxwell, a blind, 3 1/2 year old specimen that will have to be confined for his natural life, because a blind male will simply be killed by the other males, since he has no way to size them up and know when to fight and when to retreat.

After having his face rubbed, Maxwell would sidle up to the bars so we could reach in and rub the (relatively) soft skin under his legs….nothing like an armpit rub/scratch. He just practically groaned, and leaned over against the gate, closed his eyes and enjoyed it all! A lot like a dog, except that you had to be really careful to avoid getting any body parts between Maxwell and the bars, because he weighs a couple of tons already - and he’s still growing! Maxwell, like Shida, is a black rhino - a browsing animal that eats leaves and twigs from the various bushes, trees, etc. in the Park. Shida was in his pen the second time we went to the orphanage, and although he is genuinely “wild”, he reacted exactly the same way to a good armpit rub! Loved it.

Once Shida has finished his copra scraps and has gone back to the bush, one of the local scavengers can be counted on to arrive for the cleanup—we just love these guys! And before you ask, this *is* the normal feeding posture for warthogs….funny, isn’t it? She shuffles back and forth and side to side on her wrists (I think), snuffling up the last of the scraps!

There were four or five of them wandering about the orphanage—they’re wild ones from the Park, but they know a good thing when they see it. No big risk of predation in here, and free food in various places. Avoiding the humans isn’t a big problem, nor is it a big priority, if a meal or a snack is available! Anyone who wanted could have their photo taken with a warthog—as long as the copra lasted, anyhow!

When we went back, it was in the evening - and since we had adopted an orphan for Sophia, we could take the paperwork and our visit was free. Don’t forget to give them a phone call ahead so they know how many to plan for - but as adoptive “parents”, you can go every day at 5:15 to watch the orphans return from the forest where they spend the day with their keepers, and get fed in their night stalls. We have video of SABACHI, SOPHIA’S ORPHAN but she may have to wait until we get home to see it. Meanwhile, here she is

She’s a pretty little thing, don’t you think? You can have your own, of course - get regular e-mail updates on progress, plus the annual report of the trust (worth keeping). If you stick with it, you can actually follow your elephant as s/he is released, and get progress reports for years—the released females NEVER forget their original “family”, and actually bring their calves back to the Tsavo station to introduce them to the keepers they remember! A lot has been learned about elephant psychology and sociology through the work of the Trust - it’s very touching.

For $50.00 a year, you can get (or give) a LOT of joy while you’re helping an incredibly dedicated band of people save one of God’s most magnificent creations. DO IT NOW, it’s easy and fun.

Next time, we go to Lake Nakuru—and no pitch for charity is involved!