Today was a full day in Nairobi. We stayed away from the downtown part, absolutely no interest in that.
This afternoon we visited the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphange in Nairobi, Kenya. This is a scientific and charitable organization that is devoted to saving orphaned baby elephants. These little guys are orphaned mostly from interaction with us humans, things like falling into man-made wells, poaching of their mothers, or getting lost in stampedes.
The elephant keepers are completely devoted to their charges. They have to feed them milk every three hours around the clock. Because elephants are such social animals, they need to feel like they are in a group. The keepers spend the night with each baby so they can keep their feedings on schedule. The keepers rotate so that the elephants don't get attached to one particular person. It takes about two to three years to raise a baby to the level where they can go out to a wild area, but up to ten years before they can be completely let out in the wild.
We saw two groups today- one group that ranged in age between two months old to 18 months old, and the second group from 18 to about 25 months old. We, of course after seeing these guys, adopted Lamuete, a 16 month old baby who got lost from her herd in a stampede.
Did you get to pet a baby? How big would a two-month old be?
ReplyDeleteHow many elephants are in the park? How close do you get to be? That must have been amazing.
ReplyDeleteamy