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 For
over 25 years, from 1955 until 1976 ,Kenya born Daphne
Sheldrick lived and worked alongside her late husband,
David, the famous founder Warden of Kenya's giant Tsavo
National Park. During that time she raised and
rehabilitated back into the wild community orphans of
misfortune from many different wild species, including
Elephants aged two and upwards; Black Rhinos, Buffaloes,
Zebra, Eland, Kudu, Impala, Duikers, Reedbuck, Dikdiks,
Warthogs and many smaller animals such as civets,
mongooses and birds. She is a recognized International
authority on the rearing of wild creatures and is the
first person to have perfected the milk formula and
necessary husbandry for both infant milk dependent
Elephants and Rhinos. The key to her success has been
her life-long experience of wild creatures, an in-depth
knowledge of animal psychology, the behavioral
characteristics of the different species, and, of
course, that most essential component, a sincere and
deep empathy. For her work in this field Daphne
Sheldrick was decorated by the Queen in 1989 with an
M.B.E., elevated to U.N.E.P.’s elite Global 500 Roll of
Honour in 1992, among the first 500 people worldwide to
have been accorded this particular honour, and awarded
an Honorary Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery
by Glasgow University in June 2000. In December 2001
her work was honoured by the Kenya Government through a
prestigious decoration - a Moran of the Burning Spear
(M.B.S.), and in 2002 by the B.B.C. when she received
their Lifetime Achievement Award. In the November
2005 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine Daphne Sheldrick
was named as one of 35 people worldwide who have made a
difference in terms of animal husbandry and wildlife
conservation. In the 2006 New Year’s Honours List,
Queen Elizabeth II appointed Dr. Daphne Sheldrick to
Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the
British Empire, the first Knighthood to be awarded in
Kenya since the country received Independence in 1963.
Daphne Sheldrick’s involvement with wildlife has spanned
a lifetime. Born in Kenya on the 4th June 1934, she
grew up amongst animals, both wild and domestic. She
was educated at Nakuru Primary School and the Kenya High
School where she matriculated in 1950 with Honours and
the possibility of a bursary for University Entrance in
the Cambridge School Leaving Certificate, achieving the
position of 8th in the Colony. Instead
Daphne opted for marriage. Living as she did within a
National Park, she had the opportunity to observe and
study most species at both the field level and in a
captive situation. Rearing their orphaned young has
brought to her a unique and unparalleled understanding
of the "inside story" of wild creatures. - knowledge of
their minds and emotions, the role of instinct where it
impacts on behaviour, the importance of scent and
chemistry in their daily lives, telepathic capabilities,
individuality, vocalizations, and the ability to
interpret the subtleties of a complex body language.
Since the death of her husband in
1977, she has lived and worked in the Nairobi National
Park, courtesy of the Kenya Government, her home
duplicating as the Orphans' Nursery. It is here that
she has successfully hand-reared over 70 newborn
Elephant orphans, some from just hours old, the first
time this has ever been achieved. Having completed
their two milk dependent years, these orphans, along
with the human family of Keepers who replace the lost
elephant family, grow up in the Tsavo National Park,
where they mingle freely and at will with the wild herds
and eventually become fully integrated back into the
wild community. Some of Daphne's orphans have now had
wild born young, which they have brought back to show
their human family. Daphne has also successfully
raised and rehabilitated over a dozen Black Rhino
orphans from newborn, some of whom have had wild born
young which they have shared with their human friends.
Her expertise has been instrumental in helping many
other elephants Africa wide, South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Namibia, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Cameroon to
name a few as well as elephants in India, Thailand, and
Siri Lanka.
 Daphne
Sheldrick has tirelessly campaigned at an International
level against the abuse of captive animals, most notably
in securing the freedom of some of the Tuli elephant
calves kidnapped from their living families in Botswana
which were being subjected to brutal "training" in South
Africa. Daphne Sheldrick is recognized internationally
as probably the world authority on both the African
Elephant and the Black Rhinoceros, with a broad
knowledge of Natural History and the interlocking role
of different species within the environment.
Through four books, numerous
articles, lectures and television appearances, she has
promoted wildlife conservation worldwide. The BBC
Documentary “Elephant
Diaries” depicting her work with the orphaned
elephants, filmed over a period of a full year, has
received world-wide acclaim, attracting a viewership of
6 million in England alone for the five evenings it was
shown on BBC 1. The series will now go to America on
the Animal Planet channel and thereafter world wide.
Currently Daphne is working on her Memoirs, the
completion of which is anticipated by the end of 2006.
Through the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, established
after the death of her husband in 1977 in his memory,
she has made a further significant contribution to
wildlife conservation in Kenya, supporting the Kenya
Wildlife Service by meeting contingency needs during
times of economic constraint; funding fuel for
anti-poaching forces, de-snaring Park boundaries and
mobilizing a fully equipped Mobile Veterinary Unit to
deal with the sick and wounded in the Tsavo ecosystem as
well as Amboseli , the Shimba Hills and Chuyulu National
Parks promptly and unobtrusively responding whenever
possible, just as
David would have wished.
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