Baby Elephant Reseach Program started on 5 October 2006

Since 1974, there have been 111 orphaned elephants under the care of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. 67 of them have survived but sadly, 44 have not. In the period from July 2004 until July 2006, a total of no less than 14 babies have died. © The use of photographs from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust website are with permission of Daphne Sheldrick.

Little Oltukaj 2004	Ziwani 2004	Sagalla 2004	Seyia 2004
Jipe 2004	Nalitu 2005	Ndololo 2005	Purai 2005
Kwale 2005	Narripi 2005	Lumo 2005	Yiari 2006
Mosso 2006	Nkiito 2006	These little ones are the reason this research program was set up, in the hope that future ele-babies have a better chance of survival.

Shimba was the first baby-elephant in the DSWT to enter the research program, where tests are done and data collected about the influence of extreme stress and the correlation between this and the sudden death of the baby elephant, often within 24 hours from the onset of the first symptoms, of until now unexplained, acute pneumonia.

These two photographs are of Shimba, 5 weeks old and his mother. She died of exhaustion and malnutrition. Her trunk had been severely damaged by a poacher's wire, which had prevented her from eating enough over a long period of time.

Because of Shimb'as shocking test results and as a preventative measure, it was decided to also include both Chyulu and Lenana in the program. They were brought to the nursery in August and September. Since the program began, aside from the mandatory antibiotics, all baby elephants arriving at the Trust received a first aid-cocktail of body-friendly meds. These are geared to curb the damage caused by the extreme stress that these babies are under and to protect, and if necessary rebuild, the intestinal flora. Apart from the first-aid cocktail, every new baby also gets necessary food supplements and homeopathic remedies that have been precisely tuned to its needs, to help the ele get its immune system back into good shape.

This specific information becomes available through the testing of a urine / saliva swab, which is taken as soon as the baby arrives and is sent by courier and airplane from Nairobi to the practice in Amsterdam.

As soon as the testing is done, the meds-list is sent by email to Daphne Sheldrick and the new baby gets its medication that same day, in its next feed milk bottle.

The organisation "Friends of the Elephant" covers all the additional costs of treatment and medication. Read more about the baby elephants that have come into the program since August 2006.

You can also read about my work with Daphne Sheldrick in the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Newsletter 2006 (1,57MB pdf document, see the second paragraph on page 12).