When an orphan goes wild, or starts a family, it’s the latest chapter in a story that can span decades. And it begins right here, at our Nursery. It’s where newly rescued orphans find sanctuary and a place to heal. Devoted Keepers watch over them around the clock, guiding them by day and sleeping beside them by night. Raising an orphaned elephant cannot be rushed, and many stay in our care for more than a decade before they are ready to reclaim their place in the wild. Our pioneering approach has raised 327 orphaned elephants and counting. Learn more about our Orphans’ Project: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/p…

With a year at the Nursery under her belt, Alia is reaching new heights! Rescue brought lone orphan Alia out of the wilderness, where she was barely fending for herself, and into the sanctuary of our Nairobi Nursery. She arrived shy but, as she recovered, she emerged as a quiet, bright girl and a talented nanny. This morning she took a break from looking after the little ones and, feeling especially intrepid, climbed up to enjoy some tasty, usually out-of-reach greens! You can become part of her journey back to the wild through an adoption and support the cost of specialised milk formula, round-the-clock Keeper care, veterinary treatments and more: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/o…

Our Voi mamas are home for breakfast! We had a full house at the stockades as ex-orphan mother-and-baby pairs poured in. Keeper Walter captured the lovely morning mayhem, which included mums Mweya, Mbirikani, Kihari, Sagalla, Arruba, and Naipoki. We love these family reunions, which show the power of your donations. Every big elephant here was orphaned as an infant and raised in our care with the help of our donors, and now they are living wild and nurturing their own families. If you’d like to help feed an orphaned elephant, you can do so here: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/s…

Want to tell Poppi apart from the rest of our orphan herd? Look for her ‘curlicue’ tail! Her unique kinky tail puts her in the hallowed halls of fame alongside Tamiyoi and Kiasa. Only time will tell whether she’ll be as nurturing as Tamiyoi, but she’s already showing signs of being as independent as Kiasa. Poppi hates being babied by the older orphans and can be quite churlish in her rejection. At night, after her milk bottle, she sleeps soundly in her bedroom, bunked up with a dedicated Keeper. She might think she’s a ‘big girl’, but at just 17 months old she needs a reassuring presence through the night. When she’s older, we bet she’ll be as strong as her mum, an Amboseli matriarch who died of natural causes. Meet Poppi: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/o…

We’d love to know what these two are saying. We bet Challa (the big one) has a few good stories to share! Both elephants are living wild, but their backgrounds could hardly be more different. Twenty-two-year-old Challa was orphaned as a calf and latched onto a herd of cows for company. He grew up at our Nursery and then our Ithumba Unit, raised by our Keepers until he was ready to go wild. Little Mambo, meanwhile, has only ever known a wild life. His mother, Mutara, was an orphan like Challa. We returned her to the wild, where she went on to start a family (Mambo is the eldest of her two calves). Now multi-generational herds live in Tsavo, and it all started with a rescue. Help make more stories like this possible: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org

Misheck can’t even take a tea break without Wangalla glued to his side! Our long-serving Keeper is a real favourite with some of our youngest orphans, and it’s because of him that Wangalla is alive today. When the tiny infant struggled with teething, Misheck would pull his chair outside her stable, armed with a bushel of fresh greens, and pluck every leaf off the branches one by one, selecting only the best. In the fullness of time, Wangalla’s journey will take her back to the wilds of Tsavo East, where her story began. For now, you can be part of it through an adoption, for yourself or as a gift for someone special: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/o…

Alarm bells rang when this cheetah was seen struggling with a limp. Cheetahs can reach speeds of up to 120 kph, so mobility can mean the difference between life and death. Our Mara Mobile Vet Unit sprang into action, sedating the beautiful big cat to examine its limb safely and check for fractures, cuts or tissue damage. Fortunately it was only a sprain, so targeted anti-inflammatory drugs and pain relief were all it needed. Cheetahs face threats from other big cats, people, prey loss and habitat loss. They need every helping hand they can get, including emergency treatments like this one, carried out in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service. Thank you to everyone who made it possible.

Breakfast for up to 200? In the dry season, it happens at Ithumba. It’s not just our ex-orphans and their families who stop by either. We’re known on the wider ‘elephant grapevine’, and wild herds with babies and big bulls come to visit too. In the dry season, congregations of up to 200 elephants have gathered at our Ithumba Reintegration Unit in Tsavo East! Knowing how many wild visitors we get, our catering staff (AKA our incredible Keepers) always leave out plenty of lucerne hay, while the water trough is fed by a nearby borehole with its own desalination plant to boot. In fact, the dry season one of the busiest times of year for our conservation teams. Discover why in our archival Field Notes article: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/n…

Rokka, then and now. She’s certainly a trier. As a baby, she just about worked out how to hold an empty bottle. Now’s she’s working on feeding herself a full one. The saga of her rescue remains etched in the memory of our pilots, who found her alone, scoured the landscape for her family and, when none was found, took her to safety in an hours-long, all-hands-on-deck operation. The last clip shows why it was worth it. Five years on, our spunky girl is thriving and learning to live as a wild elephant at our Voi Reintegration Unit. Her story: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/o…

There are 95 little reasons to be hopeful for the future of Africa’s elephants walking around Tsavo. Sia is one of them. She may be a little girl now, but when she is all grown up and raising babies of her own, she will still be standing side by side with her mother, ex-orphan Sagala. Elephants are a matriarchal species, which means that females form lifelong family units. Sia’s parentage is what makes her story extra special. We know who her father is, having witnessed her parents’ courtship – none other than our ex-orphan Laikipia: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/n…

What does a happy elephant sound like? Turn up the volume and find out. Elephants put the ‘happy’ in reunion. Wild herds erupt into joyous trumpets and trunk hugs when a long-absent loved one returns, and our orphans do the same. When Keeper Joseph came back from leave, Kaikai and Bungalu were beyond elated, greeting him with rumbles and trunk hugs. Both calves lost their mothers, and little Bungalu even survived a lion attack. Raised by Keepers like Joseph, they will one day reclaim their place in the wild. Discover their rescue stories and support their journeys by adopting: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/o…

Medwine went head-to-head with another bull rhino and came off worse. Territorial fights are a normal part of rhino life, but the wound to his head needed attention – enter our SWT/KWS Mara Mobile Vet Unit. KWS vet Dr Aminga darted him and, with support from Partakilat Conservancy staff, the team eased him into position for treatment. The wound was deep but had caused no lasting damage and was soon tended to. Medwine ambled off to a nearby salt lick, battle-scarred but none the worse for wear. His is one of 15,429 cases our veterinary teams have attended, in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service. Has a treatment of an injured wild animal stuck with you? Tell us below.