Baby Elephant Orphanage

On Saturday 14 February, 2009 we met another couple, the Elams and their son and daughter-in-law and visited the baby elephant orphanage. It is located on the edge of the Nairobi National Park. It was so much fun to see the elephants up close. We had a place right on the rope near the watering hole and got to see everything so well. The elephants are orphaned for various reasons, most commonly they fall in a well and can't get out, or their mothers are killed for their tusks. They are rescued at varying ages, some as young as just a few weeks old. They only show the trainers feeding them for one hour a day because they don't want the elephants to get too used to human contact.They are fed a special baby formula that is made for human babies in England. They are fed every three hours for the first year and then every four hours for the next year. Their trainers stay with them 24 hours a day and even sleep near them. They rotate different trainers so that the babies don't get too attached to one. Elephants are extremely social animals and exhibit most of the emotions that humans do. They get extremely lonely if they are left on their own. They are kept at the orphanage for a few years and then they take them to another orphanage where they are free to come and go with elephants in the wild.They gradually stay out with the other elephants more and more until they are comfortable and then eventually they don't come back to the orphanage. This last process can take as long as 8 years. Elephants live to be about 60 years old and they age just about like humans. It was a fascinating experience for us. We really felt like we were in Africa!