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Friday, June 10, 2011

a different sort of orphan

When I was in Nairobi, Kenya, I visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Orphans Project where they care for baby elephants (up to the age of three). They are open each day for a morning feeding/play time where the keepers feed the elephants a specially formulated milk and talk about each of the orphans in their care.

Elephants need their mother's milk for the first three years of their lives so when a mother elephant is killed, due to poaching or as a result of drought, the baby often dies as well.  The elephants need 24-hour care, have a specialized diet (they are unable to digest cow milk), so the keepers have a big job caring for these babies.  Once the elephants are old enough to survive without milk, they are transferred to Tsavo National Park (about 4 hours outside of Nairobi).






In addition to caring for the elephants, they have a couple of orphaned rhinos as well.

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