Issue link: https://nest.uberflip.com/i/596850
Today the DSWT is the most successful orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world having saved more than 150 orphaned elephants, and one of the pioneering conservation organizations for wildlife and habitat protection in East Africa. Why is the DSWT needed? Young calves are tended to not only by their mothers, but also by other females of the herd. There are many eyewitness accounts of the females in the herd gathering around to welcome the new-born. Within minutes of the birth, the mother and other females trumpet and rumble. This kinship and social contact allows the young elephants to successfully reach other stages in life cycles. Infancy is not only an important time for the young calves, but also for the young mothers- to-be. It is through the close interaction and kinship between the two that allows the young females to develop necessary skills required for motherhood. When an elephant is orphaned they miss out on all of these learned experiences. Elephants development is very similar to humans and in infancy they are all but helpless. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust raises orphan elephants from across Kenya in stages that mirror maternal care in the wild. Most of these elephants were orphaned by poachers or by farmers protecting crops. Many are infants separated from their group after falling into wells dug for livestock. Elephants, especially females will stay with their family for life following the matriarch and learning integral skills and survival techniques passed down from generation to generation (such as where to look for water in droughts). When elephants are poached and the babies removed from their herd these important lessons are lost. How long do elephants live? The simplest–though slightly misleading– answer to "how long do elephants live?" is, somewhere between 60 and 70 years.