I just received a notice this morning that there will be three NEW hour-long programs on The Sheldrick Trust elephant and rhino rescue/rehabilitation efforts tonight on Animal Planet from 7 - 10 p.m. For those in the U.S., you'll be amazed at how fast and big the orphans have grown since the first series.

Thanks Jan - I will have a look on the program for when it will be here in Italy.
Great for my kids to watch as well and they are animal crazy.

Nico:

It was another wonderful program , one indeed you and the kids shouldn't miss. It showed again how deeply caring these animals are for one another on so many occasions. It followed many of the orphans showing their rescue and the poor condition they were in when found, and then showed them a year or two later.

It was also heartbreaking at times. Little Ndololo, the orphan rescued almost dead, and then found to be blind. The Trust put so much effort into this little bull. He learned to follow his keepers around by the sound of a stick/cane hitting the dirt. Then on a vet check they found some of his sight was returning! Not long after, Ndololo died suddenly. I happened to be in Amboseli about that time and they were attempting to catch another orphaned elephant. When the Trust keepers showed up for the rescue I asked Edwin, the head keeper in Nairobi, how Ndololo was doing. The tears just started streaming down his face and he had to walk away. It was then another keeper explained that Ndololo had just died (indeed while I was on the plane on my way there).

It also showed some very nice scenes of Mweiga, a young female living at the stockades in Voi. It was known that she had severe joint problems and also a heart condition. Not only the keepers, but the orphans themselves, went out of their way to see that she was happy. The orphans, even after they had gone "wild" and no longer lived in the stockades, always made sure that Mweiga was never alone, staying with her day and night and escorting her back to the stockades and staying with her. With many different medical treatments, Mweiga had been improving. Then just before I returned to Kenya the beginning of February, on her way back to the stockades, she just dropped to the ground and died suddenly. But again, she was accompanied by a dear elephant companion as well as devestated keepers.

The Trust has hired some very caring keepers for these babies. The men grow so attached to ther elephant family. They even sleep with the young babies to be sure the babies are never alone (young elephants are always close to their ele. families and never alone). They have now started broadcasting on the radio information about the elephants in their own individual tribal dialects to their people in the hopes of encouraging more people to care about their wildlife.

The caring and knowledge, correct feeding and veterinary care that Dame Daphne Sheldrick has founded and taught to the keepers benefits the species. It also benefits us humans in knowledge these experts have learned from the elephants!

For those who may not know of the work of the Trust, go to www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org. Consider adopting one of these orphans ($50.00 a year), learn more about elephants and rhinos and the work of the Trust and at the same time with your contribution help the Trust continue with its important work.

Thanks -

I saw a documentary last night on elephants rescuing a baby elephant; wonderful to see how they communcate with each other and work together to rescue a calf from the mud.... total team work!