A must-do in Nairobi
is watching baby elephants feeding. You can do this at the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant
Orphanage on the edge of the Nairobi National Park in Langata. Daphne
developed the first formula milk that can be given to a baby elephants. It's a combination of milk powder designed for premature human babies,
coconut, vegetable oils and cereals. It has proved to be instrumental
in the survival of Kenya’s vulnerable milk dependent calves,
as a calf under two years old will die within 24 hours of becoming
orphaned without milk.
Visitors can watch feeding and bath time each morning in the orphanage
at Daphne’s house. It’s not easy to hand-rear an elephant;
they are complex feeders and it’s difficult to duplicate a
natural mother’s nurturing and support in captivity. Elephants
need to be taught, and it takes endless patience from the orphanage’s
trained keepers to teach a baby to suckle (the very young ones need
to suckle every 12 minutes), use their trunks and ears, roll in the
dust, and bathe. The keepers become the elephants' substitute mothers
and bottle-feed on demand, providing a back or arm for the baby to
rest its trunk on while feeding. They give them shade and the odd slathering
of suntan cream; in the wild a calf will stand under its mother’s
belly in intense sun.
It’s fantastic to see the baby elephants trotting along with
floppy trunks and ears. It's like watching a playground full of kids,
tearing around, chasing each other, arguing, even standing in a corner
and sulking! When the calves reach two years old they no
longer need milk and are released into Tsavo National Park.
Daphne Sheldrick frequently visits all the elephants she’s released
and they all remember her. It seems it’s true that
an elephant never forgets.
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