THESE orphaned baby elephants share traits of any human baby: they want to drink milk, play and get dirty all day long.
When the once-a-day show starts at the Nairobi, Kenya site at 11am, crowds gather behind the ropes as handlers lead their “babies” to the waiting water hole and bottles of milk formula.
The milk, perfected by Elephant Orphanage founder Dame Daphne Sheldrick over 28 years, is the aim of the elephants’ affection until all liquid is gone and it is time to nudge one another, flick water around and play in the mud.
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, set up in honour of Dr Sheldrick’s late husband in 1987, established the orphanage that rescues baby elephants left orphaned from poachers and occasionally farmers killing their mothers.
There is a story behind every elephant and the handlers know them all. As well as learning the history of each animal, the handlers spend 24 hours a day with “their” elephants, even sleeping beside them.
Feeding happens every three hours and the elephants are at the orphanage for about three years before being taken to one of two rehabilitation centres in Tsavo East National Park where the orphans stay as a group until they are accepted by a wild herd.
Maxwell the blind rhinoceros also lives at the orphanage. He was found four months ago and will be kept in an enclosure to ensure his safety until he can be released in to a protected sanctuary.
Visit www.sheldrickwildlifestust.org.
Down the road is the not-for-profit Giraffe Centre where Daisy the three-year-old giraffe saunters up to the viewing deck to eat pellets from the hands (and mouths) of visitors.
Betty and Jock Leslie-Melville founded the centre in 1979 to help save the endangered Rothschild Giraffe.
- The journalist travelled courtesy of the Travel Directors in West Leederville.