msafiri_2017_4

66 / WILDLIFE / Conservation
Getty Images
WHAT DO actresses Lupita
Nyong’o, Demi Lovato and Kristin
Davis have in common? Elephant selfies
− or rather“elfies” − they captured at
the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in
Nairobi. At this world-renowned
elephant orphanage, the baby elephants
are the real celebrities. For an hour each
day, the public can visit the nursery to
watch orphaned baby elephants, boisterously
charge towards their keepers, who
wield enormous bottles of milk.
Few things can be more delightful
than witnessing elephants, varying in
size from a St. Bernard dag to a Volkswagen
Beetle, trooping in from nearby
bushes for their midday feed. Visitors
from every corner of the world have the
unique experience of watching the
orphanage’s playful wards wallow in
mud holes and occasionally pass within
petting distance of a rope barrier separating
them from their human audience.
RESCUE AND REFUGE
Wildlife protection is ingrained in
the fabric of Kenya’s nationhood, predating
the country’s independence. As
early as 1899 the British colonial
government took deliberate steps to
conserve wildlife through enforcing
hunting restrictions and creating game
reserves to protect wildlife habitats. In
Kenya’s post-independence years, a
number of wildlife sanctuaries and
orphanages were founded that still offer
rehabilitation, rescue and refuge. In the
face of increasingly sophisticated and
lethal wildlife crime, habitat loss and
growing rates of human/animal conflict,
the work of these organisations is more
critical than ever.
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
is among the most prominent of these
initiatives, and encouraging the public to
witness the work that is done there helps
raise awareness of the importance of
protecting all wildlife.
Rob Brandford, the Trust’s executive
director, calls the daily visiting hour “an
incredible tool in helping to shape hearts
and minds,” echoing the sentiments of
Edwin Lusichi, the nursery’s head keeper,
who hopes that, if nothing else, guests
leave with appreciation of the idea that
elephants and all other wildlife deserve
to live unharmed.
Established in 1977 by Dr. Dame
Daphne Sheldrick in honour of her late
husband, Tsavo East National Park
founding warden David Sheldrick, the
Trust has its headquarters in Nairobi
National Park. This is also where the
elephant nursery is located. At time of
writing this nursery is home to 25 baby
elephants orphaned due to a number of
factors: poachers who kill for the ivory
trade; revenge attacks by communities
when elephants venture into their farms or
destroy their crops; or accidental lethal
falls of elephants down water wells.
WATCHING THEM PLAY
Once rescued, the baby elephants are
hand-reared by their keepers and fed a
special milk formula perfected over the
years by Dame Daphne. At the age of
three, most of the elephants are ready
to “graduate” from the nursery to one
of three reintegration units in the wider
Tsavo conservation area. The process