Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center

On our last full day in Nairobi we did some touristy things.  First, we went to the Elephant Orphanage where they rescue young elephants who are orphaned due to poaching, parent death or any other reason.  If left alone in the wild at such a young age the baby elephants would not survive.  So, they are cared for at the orphanage until they are about 2 or 3 years old and then reintroduced to the wild.

In order to create an authentic environment for the elephants the orphanage is only open for one hour each week.  This is when people can come watch during a feeding time. It was so fun to watch the baby elephants come down from the hill in anticipation of their feeding! They were like little children- they knew exactly where they were going and what was about to happen. They each ran to their "spot" where a caretaker was waiting with 2 bottles.  In many cases if the bottle was not at their mouth fast enough they started to grunt and groan! After they had their bottles we watched them munch on leaves, play with each other and drink water using their trunks.

Here is a short video clip if you want to see more. It is so interesting to hear how because elephants are so intelligent the caretakers must help them heal from the trauma they experienced.


Coming for their food!!!


Baby Elephant!! This little one was the youngest in the group. He or she is only about 2 months old.

The workers are so gentle and sweet with the baby elephants! They feed, wash and even sleep with the babies, just as their mothers would do.

Baby Bottles- they each get two at feeding time!

Play time!


The other place we visited was a Giraffe Center where they care for giraffes. It is not an orphanage like with the elephants, but was instead established to protect endangered giraffes. The giraffes have a huge open space to roam and are not shy about coming over to be fed by visitors.


Their tongues feel very rough!

Ron feeding the giraffe.

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