How Baby Elephant Adjusted to New Elephant Family at DSWT: As the very first orphan at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust there were no other baby elephant orphans there! His human Keepers, unsurprisingly, spoiled him rotten. Is it any wonder that, given such a vibrant personality, Ajok could (and would!) charm the socks off anyone?

Baby Elephant’s Personality Traits: As “the most extraverted and mischievous of all the orphans” Ajok captivated visitors’ with his charming elephant ways. He especially enjoyed showing off as he splashed around in his mudbath and as he frolicked at the orphanage with his “zebra friends”.

And since Ajok “completed his Nursery period” in record time, he was “fully rehabilitated” by the time he was 4, completely “comfortable & fraternizing” among “the wild elephant herds at Voi” at that still tender age.

Baby Elephant’s Notoriety:

If an award could be given for “Most Successful Orphan” Ajok would claim that title hands-down. His rehabilitation and transition back into the wild (where Ajok has lived now for many years) was quite swift. At the age of “only six years old” Ajok “joined the wild herds on a permanent basis”. This was amazing since calf was orphaned at the tender age of one week old. Ajok not would have remembered his mama or even other elephant herds.

Ajok was featured as one of the elephants in Love, Life, and Elephants : An African Love Story by Dame Daphne Sheldrick: Book Review Essay Part 4 : Meet the Elephants!

Baby Elephant’s New Friends: As there were no other orphaned elephants at DSWT Nursery at the time little Ajok formed a bond with the “orphaned zebras” who were being cared for at the time. However, the orphaned elephant, “undaunted by anything, even the wild herds” would come to “form a close friendship with a wild age-mate” which could possibly explain how and why he would transition back into the wild with such ease. And his return visits to the DSWT elephant orphanage would be quite rare.

His Keeper’s Diary includes updates on Ajok and his other sweet elephant friends

Image: Elephant Meeting a New Friend / Elephant Drawing Illustration by zhudandan CC Flickr

Image: CC Flickr:  Featured Illustration Elephant Drawing by Biswajit Das Kunst; Elephant Meeting a New Friend / Elephant Drawing Illustration by zhudandan

Learn more about Ajok by reading Love, Life and Elephants by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

Learn more about The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s ( DSWT ) Fostering Program and how to Adopt Ajok . One of the “Big Boys Raised From Infancy”

Note: At The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/ you may “foster your orphan”  from 1 year to up to 10 years! And before you submit your donation you “may select a few more orphans to foster” at the same time (for those of us who cannot decide!)

The orphaned elephants at The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust are “reliant on your kind support”  and, as always, the future of our elephants is in our hands.

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Image: CC Flickr Illustration Elephant Drawing by Biswajit Das Kunst