Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust)

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT), originally the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, was founded in 1977 by Daphne Sheldrick in memory of her husband David, the founding warden of Tsavo East National Park. Dame Daphne pioneered a milk formula and a method of hand-rearing infant elephants, and the Trust now describes its Orphans’ Project as the most successful orphan elephant rescue and rehabilitation programme in the world. It has successfully raised 327 orphans, and many of the elephants it returned to the wild have since had wild-born calves of their own. It also cares for orphaned rhinos, giraffes and other animals.

Orphans are first cared for at the Nairobi Nursery in Nairobi National Park, then move to one of three reintegration units, at Voi and Ithumba in Tsavo East National Park and at Umani Springs in the Kibwezi Forest, where they gradually return to wild herds. The Trust’s field headquarters is at Kaluku, on the border of Tsavo East.

Beyond the orphans, the Trust runs around 30 anti-poaching teams, a canine unit, mobile veterinary units (which have attended more than 15,000 cases), aerial surveillance, water provision for wildlife in dry seasons, habitat protection and community outreach work, in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service.

You can visit the Nairobi Nursery every day from 11am to 12 noon to watch the orphans’ mud bath and milk feed, by advance booking only. You can also foster an orphan elephant or rhino, or donate. The Trust is a registered charity in the UK (1103836), a 501(c)(3) in the USA (EIN 30-0224549) and a registered charity in Canada (739215754 RR0001), and is funded entirely by voluntary donations.