Charity Columnist

Dr Daphne Sheldrick

Letter from Kenya, by Dr Daphne Sheldrick DBE of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a charity which rescues elephants and rhino injured in the wild.

It is uncanny that most Elephant rescues always seem to happen on a Sunday. Yet again this happened for the rescue of tiny Lesanju, on Sunday 15th October 2006.

The little elephant fell down a well dug to access water for the Samburu cattle in the Milgis Lugga, this is the largest seasonal watercourse between the stunningly beautiful Mathews and the Ndotos mountain ranges in the Northern Frontier of Kenya. She was rescued from a deep sand well by the brother of a very respected Samburu Chief named Lesanju who died only very recently, and at the request of the rescuer, (his brother) and Helen Douglas-Dufresne, who heads the recently formed Milgis Trust, (and who was instrumental in coordinating the rescue and saving this tiny calf) our latest little elephant has been named Lesanju.

She is only about four weeks old, and she arrived in a JetRanger III Helicopter that landed, literally, at our doorstep, kindly loaned by Mr. Halvor Astrup, the owner of Enoiset Ranch near Nanyuki.

The little elephant had been without her mother for some thirty six hours before being rescued and had and was being held at a remote Samburu manyatta, far removed from any...