Instagram – June 4th, 2019

Celebrating what would have been Dame Daphne Sheldrick’s 85th birthday with the graduation of three young elephants to the Voi Reintegration Unit at @sheldricktrust – a step towards their new, totally wild lives. She would have been so proud! ❤️🐘 #Repost @sheldricktrust with @get_repost
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Today would have been Dame Daphne Sheldrick’s 85th birthday. While she is no longer with us in body, she is very much here in spirit. Daphne’s passion and compassion for wildlife spanned a lifetime. She pioneered the Orphans’ Project, developing the techniques to successfully raise orphaned milk-dependent elephants and help them reclaim their birthright when grown: a life back in the wild among their own kind.

Because of the foundations laid by Daphne, more than 244 orphaned elephants have been saved and over 130 of those have already reintegrated back to the wild. This morning, three more orphans rescued by the SWT took a giant step in that direction as they graduated from our Nursery to our Voi Reintegration Unit. The first of our three Reintegration Units that now exist, the Voi stockades were originally built by David Sheldrick and sit behind Daphne and David’s former home in Tsavo. This is where the Orphans’ Project began, and today we see three youngsters — all of whom were saved by the project Daphne developed — taking the next step in a journey that will, one day, lead them back to a truly wild life. What better way to pay tribute to our founder’s remarkable legacy.

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Photos © David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
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