Angela Sheldrick, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
The incredible relationship between humans and elephants
Having been born in Kenya, this charity is close to my heart and is one of the most inspiring organizations that drives me daily to connect with wildlife and know that someone is doing it right. I hope you will find this story as moving as I do about elephants. It is my dream to one day visit my old home and be able to meet some of these orphans. The beauty of keeping wildlife wild is that they can roam free in an environment they are supposed to be in.
A rare jewel in the crown of conservation efforts, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a special place
Angela heads The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and all its operations in Kenya and has done since 2001. Daughter of David and Daphne Sheldrick, Angela was brought up in the wilds of Tsavo East, where her famous naturalist father, David Sheldrick MBE, was the founding warden. As a result, she has been exposed to Kenya’s wildlife and wild places all her life. David Sheldrick was the founding warden of Tsavo National Park, who implemented and managed all wildlife protection initiatives and security operations in Tsavo East from 1948 until 1976. Aisha, a baby elephant, arrived in his care just days old. The pioneering lessons first learned while raising her in the seventies proved pivotal to the success of the infant orphaned elephants later raised through the Nairobi Nursery. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is founded in memory of the late David Sheldrick, who passed away in 1977.
Daphne Sheldrick. Founder of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
“All life has just one home, the earth, and we as the dominant species must take care of it.” Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick DBE
Dame Daphne Sheldrick was the Founder of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and Daphne’s involvement with wildlife spanned a lifetime. Born in Kenya on the 4th of June 1934, Daphne grew up amongst animals, both wild and domestic, before attending Nakuru Primary School and Kenya High School, where she graduated in 1950 with Honours. However instead of continuing on with her education, she opted for marriage.
“I could not have foreseen the impact The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust would have when I founded the organization in 1977. In that year my husband David passed away, and during that time of grieving, many of David’s friends and I decided it would be a fitting tribute to this great man and naturalist who tamed the unforgiving landscape of Tsavo East National Park as its founding warden, to establish an organization to secure his legacy, and build upon his pioneering conservation principles.”
40 Keepers who replace the baby elephant’s lost family are responsible for the love, care and attention these emotionally fragile creatures require.
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
“Daphne would have been humbled indeed by how far her conservation message has travelled and by just how many people she profoundly touched through her passion for the natural world.” Angela Sheldrick
Today, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT) operates the world’s most successful orphan elephant rescue and rehabilitation program. They have successfully raised 282 orphans, attended to over 8,853 veterinarian cases and created 22 De-Snaring teams by deploying boots on the ground to protect elephants, rhinos and other wild species from illegal wildlife activities.
Rescuing and rehabilitating orphaned infant elephants is at the core of what we do
My father, David Sheldrick, said it best: “The more one knows about animals, the more one realizes how much we still have to learn.” I have spent my entire life around elephants, yet they continue to astonish me in the very best way. One might think that, after working long days and sleepless nights by the little charges’ sides, our Keepers — many who have been with us for decades — might have also discovered all the secrets that elephants hold within them, but that is not the case. Instead, we have witnessed the orphans we raise from infancy behave remarkably and accomplish extraordinary feats. So put, they never cease to amaze us.
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
The love and dedication the Keepers show towards their orphaned charges is remarkable
A desperate dry season in Southern Kenya in 2021 left many elephants vulnerable to starvation, with milk-dependent calves particularly at risk. The Sheldrick Trust rescued tens of orphaned elephants during this time, giving these young, vulnerable and fragile babies a second chance at life.
Elephants having the time of their lives rolling around in the Red Mud
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
One big close family
Elephants grow up and live as part of a herd. The Trust replicates this family structure at their Nairobi Nursery, a world-leading center for rescued elephants recovering from the trauma of being orphaned. Here, calves are hand-raised by Keepers who act as surrogate mothers, providing the nurturing and comforting care they would have otherwise received from their herds.
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Rehabilitating orphaned elephants is a long-term endeavor. Many orphans are rescued, suffering from physical and psychological wounds, and need specialist veterinary and individualized care. It can take up to ten years for an orphan to be successfully reintegrated into the wild following their rescue, as they learn critical foraging, communication and social skills.
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Look, no hands! An orphaned elephant feeds itself a bottle of specialist formula milk at the SWT’s Voi Unit, one of three Reintegration Units based in protected conservation areas where orphans eventually go wild. As a result, the Trust has successfully reintroduced more than 170 orphaned elephants into wild elephant populations.
Every orphan saved goes some way to helping endangered elephant populations in Africa. Many orphans rescued by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust have gone on to start their own families when they returned to the wild. The Trust knows of 49 wild-born calves, each a beacon of hope for their species.
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
Elephants are “human” animals in terms of emotion, and in many other ways as well, encompassed by an invisible and mystical aura that reaches deep into the human soul in a mysterious way that defies human logic.
Every elephant we rear is returned back where it rightly belongs, to lead a normal elephant life amongst its own kind, to cover vast distances in enormous elephant strides, enjoying the companionship of others, fulfilling all the tasks in life elephants were designed to do such as modifying habitats to trigger wildlife’s cyclic and eternal rhythms between grasslands and scrublands essential to the long-term survival of grazing species as well as browsers.
During Daphne’s long association with the orphaned elephants, many have chosen to remain in touch with the human family that replaced their lost elephant family and whom they love as deeply as their elephant peers. Many have brought their wild-born babies to share them and their joy with their human families, and many have returned to seek the help of their human families when wounded or sick. All of Sheldrick’s orphaned elephants return to an everyday elephant life in the Tsavo National Park in Kenya, a protected area the size of the state of Michigan. It can offer an elephant the quality of life it deserves.
Credit Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Animals Saving Animals. Utilizing dogs’ incredible sense of smell, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust operates a Canine Unit which works in the Tsavo Conservation Area to sniff out illegal activities including poaching and logging. Specially chosen for their skills and athleticism, these furry anti-poaching pooches are accompanied by dedicated handlers and armed KWS rangers.
Adopt an orphan elephant, rhino or giraffe for yourself or as a gift – offering life and hope to an animal in need. We have.
Working across Kenya, our projects include anti-poaching, safeguarding the natural environment, enhancing community awareness, addressing animal welfare issues, providing veterinary assistance to animals in need, while rescuing and hand-rearing elephant and rhino orphans, along with other species, all of whom can ultimately enjoy a quality of life in wild terms when grown.
