30/10/2012
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a flexible charity, established in 1977 to honor the memory of a famous Naturalist, David Leslie William Sheldrick.Founder Warden of Tsavo East National Park in Kenya.
David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage is where you come close to elephant calves. Daphne Sheldrick, As part of the David Sheldrick Conservation Foundation, rehabilitates baby elephants and other wildlife here at her home just outside of Nairobi National Park.
These babies have lost their mothers to poaching, death, injuries, on getting lost in the wild or other tragedies. Daphne and her dedicated staff raise them to be released back into the wild when they are ready. It's worth visiting and witness the humanitarian care to the wildlife.
The Giraffe Center was started by Jock Leslie-Melville, the Kenyan grandson of a Scottish Earl, when he and his wife Betty captured a baby giraffe to start a programme of breeding giraffe in captivity at their home in Langata - home of the present center.
It was established in order to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe, giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi, that is found only in the grasslands of Africa.
By 1983 he had raised enough money to establish the Giraffe Visitor's Center as a tourist destination in Nairobi. The center is also home to several warthogs which freely roam the area along with the giraffes. The main attraction for visitors is feeding giraffes from a raised observation platform.
Sheldrick Baby Elephant Orphanage which is open 1 hr daily. You can visit between 11am and 12 noon every day, and see the elephants being fed and playing. In addition, there is a keeper who will give a talk about the elephants, where they came from, how they are getting on, and how some of the previous orphans are progressing. You can get really close to the elephants.
The orphanage also takes in rhinos and if you are lucky you will get the chance to see a young rhino.