Nairobi National Park

This park was once the setting for the strangest of human rituals, a live via satellite photo op as Kenya President Moi put the torch to millions of dollars worth of ivory. While the publicity surrounding poaching and the ivory trade has been much quieter over the past decade, the pressures on elephant and rhino have not diminished. Whatever breather was granted by the temporary ban on ivory or rhino horn trade cannot compete with the growing human population, land grabbing, and turbulent weather patterns that made last year in Kenya the driest since 1911. All these forces combine, like AIDS among our kind, to leave behind orphans.

Now the photo op belongs to orphaned elephants and rhino being cared for by Daphne Sheldrick, who runs an orphanage on the edge of Nairobi Park. Her orphanage is featured in a new book by photographer Gerry Ellis Wild Orphans.

In the Sixties, Sheldrick was the first to perfect a milk formula for orphaned black rhino calves. An early orphan became the dominant stud at Solio Ranch, by 1985 home to the largest rhino population of black rhino left in Kenya. Sheldrick managed to do the same for young elephants, and proudly noted, "We've returned thirty elephants to the wild. That's a whole herd!"

Elephants need space, and fittingly are being returned to the vast Tsavo National Park, where David Sheldrick was founder warden before his death in 1977. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust which supports the orphanage and other key conservation projects was named in his memory. Visitors to Kenya can usually see the orphan elephants and rhino being cared for between 11-12 daily; check the web site below for details.

It is heartwarming to see the relationships the animals develop with their human keepers, particularly the very social elephants. I watched as a very young calf wrapped its trunk gently around his keeper�s neck and it suckled on a large bottle of milk formula. The photo op was nearly lost on me as tears clouded my focus. For more information about how you can help this very worthwhile effort see www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org