Program II · Elephant

SheldrickWildlife Trust

Dame Daphne Sheldrick developed the breakthrough baby Elephant milk formula for a rescued orphan in the ’70s, and then worked out how to return the grown Elephant to the wild. Every animal the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust helps today is raised her way.

Elephant Archives · Guided Safaris^® Research Lab

Gilgil · Kenya

A farm in the Rift Valley

Daphne Jenkins was born in Kenya on June 4, 1934, and grew up on the family farm at Gilgil.

Sheldrick

Today

To Tsavo

Daphne came to Tsavo in 1953, to the wilderness David Sheldrick was shaping as the park’s founding warden. A year later an abandoned calf named Samson was rescued and needed a safe place to grow, so David built the stockades at Voi. Today that ground is the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Voi Reintegration Unit.

An orphaned Elephant calf asleep on a mattress under a bright woolen blanket — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Tsavo East

The Orphans

Daphne and David married in 1960. By then he was hand-rearing orphaned Elephants, and heartbreak came with it: by the Trust’s account, only those over 2 years old survived. David held to one rule through all of it. Every orphan was taken in only to secure its dependent years and must one day be released back into the wild.

Aisha

The formula

Two decades of trial came down to one bottle: a baby milk formula from Europe, made with coconut oil, first tried on the infant Aisha in the mid-1970s. The Trust calls Dame Daphne the first person to perfect the milk formula and husbandry needed to raise milk-dependent Elephants and Rhino.

Aisha left Daphne a second lesson, as lasting as the first: an orphan thrives with a whole family of carers around it. The Keepers still take turns today, so every calf grows up with many familiar faces beside it.

Two Keepers in green coats bottle-feeding a young orphaned Elephant beside its stable — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Nairobi National Park

The Sheldrick Trust

When David Sheldrick died in June 1977, Daphne carried his work forward and founded the Trust in his memory. A year later the Kenyan government gave her leave to build a home in Nairobi National Park, and the orphanage grew up around it.

Rhino came first. By the Trust’s account, the first decade went largely to them, helping fund the Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary in Tsavo West and supporting the founding of the sanctuaries at Lake Nakuru and Meru. For four decades the Trust carried David’s name. In 2019 that name became the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, as Dame Daphne had wished, the name she and David shared.

A Keeper in a green coat leading a line of orphaned Elephants through the trees at sunrise, the smallest in a red plaid blanket — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

The Nairobi Nursery

The Orphanage

A calf can lose its herd to poaching, habitat loss, conflict with people or drought, or be found alone, stuck in mud or trapped in a well. When the Kenya Wildlife Service makes the call, the Sheldrick Trust’s teams set out with helicopter and planes to bring the calf home.

For most orphans, home starts at the Nairobi Nursery, which began in 1987 with a two-week-old calf named Olmeg. Each one sleeps in its own stable, with a Keeper on a bunk beside it through the night. Since 2018 the most fragile newborns have found their start at Kaluku, the Trust’s field headquarters on the edge of Tsavo East.

The orphanage is a haven for more than Elephants. Baby Rhino, Buffalo, Zebra and other orphans are rescued and raised here too, with the same care.

A Keeper in a green coat tending a young orphaned Elephant, patterned blankets hanging behind them — 2

An orphaned Giraffe calf resting on red earth in a wooden stockade, a Keeper crouching beside it — 3

A Keeper asleep on his bunk under a mosquito net, one hand resting on the head of an orphaned Hippo calf wrapped in a red blanket — 5

An orphaned Rhino calf drinking from a bottle a Keeper holds, a Zebra foal close beside it — 6

A white-haired woman in a green dress with her arms around an Elephant’s trunk, more of the herd behind them — 8

Behind the scenes · Nairobi

Private Visit

Guided Safaris^® journeys offer a Private Donor visit behind the scenes in Nairobi, exclusively hosted by the program, where guests adopt the orphans. Each donor receives a Personalized Adoption Certificate, routine updates and a monthly newsletter directly from the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

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An orphaned Elephant calf resting its head on a stable door, a checked blanket hanging behind it — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Voi · Ithumba · Umani Springs

Into the wild

In 1989 Olmeg and Taru became the first Nursery orphans to move on to Voi, and in 1991 Eleanor walked back into the wilds of Tsavo. Around the age of 3, orphans now leave the Nursery with their friends beside them, bound for one of three reintegration units: Voi, David Sheldrick’s original stockades; Ithumba in northern Tsavo East, opened in 2004; or Umani Springs in the Kibwezi Forest, opened in 2014 as a gentler home for orphans with lasting injuries.

The orphans are weaned slowly off the milk, the Keepers step back, and ex-orphans and wild Elephants take over as mentors. The journey can take up to 10 years, at a pace each orphan sets, and the Sheldrick Trust says the decision to leave belongs to each Elephant. By the Trust’s account, most keep coming back to visit for the rest of their wild lives.

Orphaned Elephants browsing on a red rocky rise with their Keepers, a far hill rising through the haze — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Anti-poaching

The rangers

Every orphan goes back to the wild, so the wild has to be safe. The Sheldrick Trust’s first anti-poaching team went out with the Kenya Wildlife Service in Tsavo in 1999, and today the rangers train at the KWS law enforcement academy at Manyani and work side by side with KWS rangers. Together they stand against snares, ivory and horn poaching, charcoal burning and illegal logging, mostly in the Greater Tsavo Conservation Area and also in Meru and on the coast.

A ranger in green field kit holding coils of wire snares pulled from the bush — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

A foster family

Next generation

Dame Daphne’s daughter, Angela Sheldrick, took the helm in 2001 and still runs the Trust. With Robert Carr-Hartley she designed the digital fostering program, and the orphans gained families far from Kenya. The Keepers began recording each orphan’s days, and on the 15th of every month foster parents still hear how their orphan is doing.

Every fostering helps them, paying for the milk, the Keepers, the rescues, the ranger patrols and the flying for every orphan in care.

A kneeling Keeper cupping the face of a young orphaned Elephant, its trunk curled over his head — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Mobile Veterinary Units

A vet in the field

The first Mobile Veterinary Unit took to the road in Tsavo in November 2003, so that help could reach a wounded animal where it stands. The Trust funds and equips the units, each led by a Kenya Wildlife Service vet with KWS capture rangers and a driver from the Trust. The vets treat snare, spear, arrow and gunshot wounds and disease in Elephants, Rhino, Giraffes, Zebras and Lions, and the aim is always the same: back on its feet in the wild.

Around Amboseli the vets treat Elephants found by Big Life’s rangers, and Sky Vets flies the on-duty vet to an animal in need anywhere in Kenya.

A veterinary team in the field kneeling beside a sedated, blindfolded Giraffe as they treat it — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

The Aerial Unit

Helicopter patrol

The Aerial Unit began in 2008 with a single Super Cub, and the view from above changed what could be saved. Today the unit flies an average of 220 hours a month, covering around 17,300 miles, on daily security patrols, veterinary interventions for injured Elephants and other wildlife, search and rescue for orphaned calves, firefighting, easing conflict between people and wildlife, and emergency medevacs. Many rescues begin with what a pilot notices from the air: dragging footprints that point to a snare, a tiny bump that means a poisoned arrow.

A helicopter flying low over golden plains, a Rhino on the dirt track below it — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Water and habitat

Community

When drought comes to dry Tsavo, the Trust drills boreholes, runs water bowsers and fills troughs so that the wild has water. With partners the Trust protects habitat such as the Kibwezi Forest, which the Trust calls one of Kenya’s last remaining groundwater woodlands. Beehive fences have kept the peace between Elephants and farmers since 2014, and school lunches, field trips and scholarships reach the children who will inherit all of it.

A herd of red-dusted Elephants gathered at water on the dry plain, a windmill turning behind them — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Each elephant is a unique individual, just as are we, and each has its own unique personality.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick, in her essay “Elephant Emotions”, on why Elephants move us so deeply, drawn from her 55 years with Elephants and the orphans she raised

After her

The orphans bring their calves home

The world took notice: the MBE in 1989, the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1992, an honorary doctorate from Glasgow University in 2000 and, in 2006, appointment as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Dame Daphne told her own story in her autobiography, An African Love Story.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick passed away in April 2018, aged 83, and the family she built carries on. Orphans she never met now bring calves of their own back to the Keepers who raised them.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick as a young woman in a spotted dress, standing beside an adult Elephant — Photo courtesy © Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Conservation StoriesDispatches

Two Keepers in green coats bottle-feeding an orphaned Elephant at the stockade

Travel with the workSignature Guided Safaris^® Journeys

A safari vehicle on the open plain at dusk, cushions and a fire laid out in the grass

Journey · Kenya

Private Kenya Safari

Kenya’s Elephant country in one exclusive itinerary, from Segera to Private Mara, with a private donor Sheldrick visit, by request.

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An Elephant family drinking at the water’s edge at dusk

Journey · Across Africa

Private Africa Safari

From Gorillas to the Big Game country of Segera, Private Mara and Mombo, on an exclusive Private Jet Safari.

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The partnersOn the ground

Sheldrick Wildlife TrustNairobi · Tsavo
Big Life FoundationAmboseli

Amboseli Trust for ElephantsAmboseli
Kenya Wildlife ServiceKenya

Great Plains FoundationChyulu Hills

Working with travel partners and conservation projects in the field, the Guided Safaris^® research lab teams share new ideas from across Africa that highlight key conservation efforts on ground. Staying in close contact throughout this supplier chain ensures that the whole network shares a responsible and innovative approach.

Next · Program III

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The Great Plains Foundation’s Big Cats Initiative secures land for Lions, Leopards and Cheetahs beyond Africa’s national parks.

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A Living Thread

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