Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Elephants and Giraffes...Oh My!


Along with visiting the children's orphanages in Kenya and Tanzania, we got the chance to visit an elephant orphanage. These little ones are brought to The David Sheldrick Wildlife Center to be cared for when they are discovered alone in the preserves.



About every 3 hours, the young elephants are brought to a large mud hole...

There they roll, and jump....slide and scoot.....

Wallow and frolick.....and try to sit on each other. It is pure joy in action!
Wild abandon!

In the end, they are covered in the red mud and very very happy!



The David Sheldrick Wildlife Center has a program where you can foster a baby elephant for only
$50. a year and thus make a huge contribution to the care of these little orphan elephants.
One actually gets quite a bit of information and updates on the particular elephant that you choose to foster.

We also got to visit the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife.

In 1974, Betty Leslie-Melville began the first successful project of raising the number of endangered Rothschild giraffes from 130 to over 300. AFEW's second project was to establish the first educational nature sanctuary in independent Africa. Last year AFEW brought over 40,000 African school children to the center free of charge to teach them how to conserve their animal heritage. Children now overflow the center, so more classroom space is needed.
Her home, The Giraffe Manor, is now a fantastic hotel, with giraffe's heads peeping through the windows




What a kiss! With a big blue tongue!
Tomorrow we make our last visit to The Deep Sea Slum.

1 comment:

Lisa Gatz said...

There is almost nothing cuter than baby elephants! I'll bet they were captivating in person. Nice kiss!