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At the back
Travel & Leisure
Playing With Orphaned Infant Elephants At The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Words Oroni Tendera Sandwiched between the KWS staff quarters and the Nairobi national park, is the little known Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a safe haven for rescued orphaned infant elephants. “Our mission is to save elephants from us humans,” says the chief ranger as he ushStartupmagazine.co.ke September 2019
ers us into the orphanage. We position ourselves around an open field, the size of a basketball pitch; cameras rolling and clicking. The chief ranger walks to the middle of the field and snaps his fingers. Reacting from the cue, six young elephants emerge from a nearby bush, running. They surround him. “These orphans are very fragile and must be watched closely at all times. The keep-
ers protect them with blankets when it is cold. Right now we are going to feed them on human baby formula milk,” he says. Six keepers dressed in long green jackets and white gumboots emerge from the bush holding feeding bottles. They stand strategically, adjacent to the chief ranger and the calves. Gently, the six calves
