What the dedicated staff of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage does with baby elephants was covered in yesterday's post.

When the babies reach a bit more than two years, and when there are at least three of them at about this age, the process of releasing into the wild begins. Skills are taught daily during walks in the park, so not everything will be new to the babies, but with Nairobi Park basically in the city and not very large, an elephant population there would not work, so they need to move to Tsavo.

Orphans have been being released in Tsavo for almost forty years, so the keepers get a lot of help from former charges who take it upon themselves to teach the new kids some of the ropes and introduce them around. (They also are happy to greet their 'adoptive moms' even many years later.) With the releases happening regularly, there will always be a buddy from the orphanage, one well known to the babies, who has made the transition but will recognize and remember the new additions, and visa/versa.

Needless to say, Sam was completely knocked out by our visit. Since he is only three and a half, he REALLY wanted to touch one of the babies. (Actually, most of the adults were itching to scratch, too.) Before long, one little ten month old walked straight over to where he was anxiously waiting for contact, sniffed him with her floppy little trunk and enjoyed a long-awaited petting session. By the end of the exchange, Sam was covered in mud ... and smiles of total joy.

We 'adopted' a little guy named Kamboyo who was found near one of the gates of Tsavo at approximately six months of age, apparently having been separated from his family when local farmers drove off a herd of elephants who threatened crops. He'd been alone for quite a while, as he was thin and very sunburned, a fact of his life that will always be obvious since it has caused his ears to fold over.

I worried a bit about the terminology and wondered how Sam would interpret the whole "adoption/orphanage" thing. My fears were groundless, however. When describing our visit to friends, we knew he understood the situation perfectly:

An orphanage is a place for kids and elephants that don't have families. We 'dopted Kamboyo to help, not to bring, because he needs an elephant family. When your family comes, you go home. The kids go home to houses. The elephants go home to Tsavo.