Elephant Orphanage!!

Guys, did you know there are baby animal orphanages in Nairobi?

Baby elephants!!!

SO ADORABLE!!!!

On Saturday en route to dropping off residents at the airport, we went to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which serves as an orphanage and rehabilitation center for rescued elephants and rhinos. There were 33 elephants (29 of whom came out to eat lunch and romp) and 2 ostriches there when we visited. The elephants we met ranged in ages from 3 months to 3 years, and had been rescued after falling down wells or mines, being rejected from their herds, or (most commonly) having their mothers killed by poachers. Have I told you this week how much I hate poachers?

Oh hai elephants!

Yummy!

The elephants stay at this orphanage til they are 3-4 years old, then they are taken out to one of the big national parks where they are slowly rehabbed (learning skillz for the wilderness from older elephants) and introduced into existing herds during days while still spending nights with the rangers. The hardest lesson to me seemed to be teaching the elephants to fear/avoid humans again so they have a better chance of survival--these babies seem SO close with their keepers/rangers, it must be hard to teach them to avoid humans (poachers!) in the future.


The elephants came tumbling and running down the hill to the viewing area in two large groups. Each group was fed from bottles (the little babies had poor trunk control and needed rangers to feed them, but the older guys were much better at feeding themselves), then drank from barrels, splashed around in mud holes, and were led around the edges for close viewing and petting. The youngsters also were not good at splashing themselves with mud/dirt yet for sun protection, so the rangers would shovel dirt all over them which they LOVED.

We like dirt! Shovel more dirt please!

There were two teeeeeny babies who were out of control adorable. The smallest little dude was so snuggly and had the longest eyelashes. The older group of elephants (2-3yrs old) were getting their tusks in and were also so doofy and adorable, tumbling and bumbling all over each other.

I'm scared to cross the bridge! Hold my trunk!

So teeny!! He can fit in my suitcase, right??

By far the best $5 I spent in Africa!!


We spent the rest of the day doing some souvenier shopping with the residents who were leaving (heavy haggling at the Masai Market), eating some amazing Ethiopian food, and then the Ob-Gyn resident and I caught a bus back in the rainstorm back to Naivasha (classic African matatu experience with 15 people in one van and a hole in the floor only covered in carpet we discovered once we drove through the first deep puddle. Lets just say we sat with our feet tucked up in a very uncomfortable position to keep mostly dry for the rest of the 1.5 hour trip home).

This Sunday we were planning to do the biking and hiking safari through Hell's Gate National Park here in Naivasha--the park the set of The Lion King was designed after!! Unfortunately the pouring rain restarted at 4am and continued until noon, then started again at 2pm. We fit in some grocery shopping but no good outside adventures for us. We looked ahead to next week's predictions, so hopefully we can do both Hell's Gate and climb Mt. Longonot (a volcano with most of its top blown off) next weekend once the new residents (2 UW internal medicine residents, 1 Kenyan medicine resident, and 1 Kenyan Ob-Gyn resident) arrive. I still have yet to get a 'boat safari' out on Lake Naivasha, so hopefully that will get tucked into to some afternoon soon! The lake is giant and gorgeous, and I would love to get a good tour and some hippo viewing in. Hopefully it all happens soon!

--M