Folks, our visit to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage has to be one of the most heart-warming and the most impactful excursions during our trip to Kenya this past summer.

Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya

Every time we visit Kenya to see family we always make it a point to stop by The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in the Karen neighborhood of Nairobi. This visit was just as memorable as our previous ones!

I tried my best to pick just a handful of pictures to include in this story, but I had hard time choosing which ones to share because they are all so heartwarming.  I apologize in advance if there are too many pictures in this post.

A long time fan of the elephant orphanage

Hitesh has been following the work of The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage for over three decades now.  He has even adopted a baby elephants for ten years and as the baby elephants get older and get released back into the wild, Hitesh adopts another young elephant. The adoption program provides essential care and food for orphaned elephants in Kenya.

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was founded in 1977 by Daphne Sheldrick in honor of her late husband David Sheldrick who was a renowned naturalist and conservationist in Kenya. The main objective of this organization is conservation, preservation and protection of wildlife.

They address many conservation issues facing Kenya such as anti-poaching,   preservation of the natural environment, increasing local community awareness, addressing animal welfare issues, and providing veterinary assistance to animals in need.  But what they are most well known for is rescuing and hand-rearing elephant and rhino orphans.

The Orphan’s Project

The bread and butter of this NGO is their Orphans’ Project. This project is what put The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on the world map. The Orphan’s Project has been hugely successful in rescuing orphaned elephants and rehabilitating them back into the wild. To date The David they have successfully hand-raised over 150 infant elephants and have effectively reintegrated them back into the wild.

Our visit to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

We stopped by The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust during their public viewing hour, and then went back after-hours for the foster parent visiting hour as well. This honor is only given to adoptive parents of baby elephants, and since we had fostered an elephant named Ngilai, we were able to visit with him during the foster parent visiting hour.

11-12noon Visiting Hour

First let me tell you about the public viewing time from 11-12noon. The Sheldrick Wildlife Conservation Center is only open to the public for 1 hour, seven days a week. This is when the public can come and watch the young elephants being fed by their caregivers.

While we patiently waited for the little elephants to make their appearance we got to observe the caregivers getting ready for the feeding time.

We watched them spread acacia branches for the elephants all over the grounds and watched them get the milk bottles ready for the young elephants. There were even puddles of water created on these grounds, as we found out baby elephants like to cool themselves off in the muddy water and play in these puddles.

Giant bottles of milk for the baby elephants

Waiting for the little elephants to arrive, we couldn’t help but smile at the huge bottles of milk in wheelbarrows. These giant baby bottles were sitting in the shade ready for the young elephants.

Local kids, and tourists from all over the world

The audience includes tourists from all parts of the world and local visitors as well – little visitors that is 😊.  Kenya has an outstanding program to encourage the younger generation to have a vested interest in preserving their wildlife, and you know how they foster this?  They provide free admission to all school kids to animal parks and conservation centers. During our visit we saw three groups of elementary school kids all waiting excitedly to see the baby elephants.

The little elephants finally arrive!

 Like a preschool where little kids are set free to play in the playground, we see a long line of baby elephants trotting down the path towards us with ears flopping and trunks swinging.  It’s a hilarious sight to see 😄.

Then we realize that they are all running towards their caregivers for their bottles of milk.😀😀

These little ones guzzle milk in mere seconds LOL

We saw some baby elephants so hungry that they guzzle their huge milk bottles empty within seconds and push and prod the caregiver for more.

But once they finish their allocated milk quota, they are encouraged to eat the leaves of the acacia branches for healthy veggie nutrients.

Pea the ostrich who thinks she is one of the elephants LOL

The ostrich you see in the photos was adopted by the shelter as a chick and has stayed at the facility ever since. Her name is Pea and she trotted down the path alongside the baby elephants 😄 . It seems she actually thinks she is one of the elephants and spends all her time with them at the shelter. We were told that she is so protective of the younger elephants that she will follow them around to make sure they are safe ❤️.

During this one-hour viewing time, the young elephants are close enough that we are allowed to pet them as they walk by.

$4 a month to foster an elephant

This was one lively and endearing experience. You just can’t help but feel warmth and affection for these beautiful gentle animals. In fact, during the public viewing hour I overheard a couple of American teens who were discussing among themselves and talking to each other:

“Dude, it’s only $50 bucks a year to foster a baby elephant. That’s like what 4 dollars a month? We should seriously foster a couple of elephants.”   American teenagers

What I heard made me smile 😊. That is the impact of The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. It touches you in such a way that you want to do more for this precious wildlife.

Foster Parent Visiting Hour

This is a one hour viewing time from 4-5pm for those of us who have fostered elephants through the center’s Orphans’ Project.  We had to show our foster certificate and we had to make reservations in advance for this unique opportunity to get up close with our foster baby elephants.

The first thing all the foster parents are asked to do when we arrived at the shelter was to line up alongside the path where the young elephants walk back from being out in the half-way house. This is a nature park (part of Nairobi National Park) where they are taught how to live in the wild.  The orphanage shares its land with the Nairobi National Park (a wild animal park within the city of Nairobi). There is no fence between the orphanage and the national park, so animals can roam freely back and forth even if they are not part of the orphanage.

We wait by the sidelines like parents waiting for their kids after a game

Just as parents wait on the sidelines after a soccer game to high-five their children, we patiently wait for the baby elephant troop to come through.

And then, one after another from through the bushes the little elephants start marching down the path towards us in a long line. As they come down the path, the head of the Sheldrick center shouts out the names of every baby elephant as he or she walks by.

Everyone is excited to see their foster children and we were asked to just watch and not pet them as the baby elephants walked past us. The young elephants continued down the path towards the Sheldrick compound where they knew exactly where their shed is and headed straight for their resting place for the evening.

Visit with our foster child

During this foster parent-visiting hour we had the opportunity to see all the orphaned baby elephants up close, and had many opportunities to feed them a few acacia branches as well.

We walked around the compound interacting with all the elephants, but what we were really looking for is Ngilai, the young elephant we fostered. We finally found him hanging out in his pen.

A shed for each elephant and the caregiver

In the Sheldrick compound there are multiple sheds where elephants and their caregivers sleep. Each stall houses one elephant and their caregiver. The names of the elephants are outside each stall.

In each shed there is a bed for the caregiver and straw and leaves for the young elephants to sleep on. The caregivers have living quarters at the Sheldrick Center, however at night they sleep with their adopted elephant.

Just as babies need their milk every 3 hours when they are young, so do these baby elephants and the caregivers sleep with their elephants mainly so they can feed them during the night.

The elephant-caregiver relationship

When you talk to the caregivers you realize that just as a parent loves and knows everything about their child, the caregivers love their young elephants and know all their personalities and temperaments. This is a very special bond. They provide the role of Mother and Father while the elephants are at the orphanage until they are ready to be released back into the wild. This relationship can last from 3 to 8 years, sometimes even a decade.

Once you’ve experienced seeing baby elephants up close and personal, and see how gentle their personas are, you walk away wanting to foster more orphaned elephants.

Not just orphaned elephants but orphaned giraffes and rhinos too

We even caught sight of an orphaned giraffe and an orphaned rhino, and of course Pea the ostrich who just chose to make this place her home was in her pen here in the compound as well.

Elephants do have long memories

There are so many wonderful stories I can share about this amazing conservation facility but there are too many to tell in this article. Let me just share this one story about a baby elephant that was raised by her caregiver and released back into the wild.

She came back to the shelter many years later with a young baby of her own and went looking for her caregiver to show him her young son. It just so happens the caregiver was still working at the center and was able to recount this story. Have you heard the saying “Elephants have long memories”? They really do.

Donation for a worthy cause

Whether you make it to Kenya or not, I encourage you to take a look at The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust web site.  As those teens chatted among themselves, it’s only $4 a month to foster an orphaned elephant, but what that money can do for these elephants is far-reaching.  It allows the Sheldrick facility to hire more caregivers to provide the Mother figure that these elephants need to successfully re-enter the wild.

Most of the elephants live at the center for many years before they are ready to go back into the wild. This is a long-term commitment. The Sheldrick center needs donations to keep the Orphan’s Project going for decades and to be able to provide gainful employment to these caregivers who stay with the orphaned elephants for years.

Here’s a trivia question for you.

Wonder what milk is in those huge bottles that the baby elephants drink out of?

Here is something I found out, it took the Sheldrick center ten years of research to figure out the right milk formula to feed the baby elephants, and you know what they came up with? It turned out to be specialized baby formula.

They feed the baby elephants modified baby formula from the same baby formula we feed our babies. And just as we sterilize our baby bottles before putting milk in them, the same is done for the huge bottles that are used for the baby elephants too. While walking around the compound we caught sight of a huge sterilizing machine with multiple bottles getting sterilized.

The Sheldrick Center for Wild Life

Take a look at their web site for more information on Sheldrick’s conservation projects and for details on their Orphan’s Project. The main objective of the Orphan’s Project is to protect the future of Kenya’s threatened elephant and rhino populations as they try to survive and escape ivory and horn poachers. Sheldrick Orphan’s Project

Fostering Program Here you can find a list of orphaned elephants who need fostering.  Each orphaned elephant needs multiple foster parents to provide the necessary care to keep the animals healthy and fed at the orphanage. So check it out, and see if you like one of the young elephants, and become a foster parent.

For more information on the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage check out their web site. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust