Love, Life, and Elephants

by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

  Epilogue: David

  ‘With the death of an Elder, an entire Encyclopedia goes with him.’

  – Anon

  The love songs of the fifties and sixties, for me, are exceedingly emotive. I close my eyes and am transported back thirty-five years, enveloped in David’s arms during a Saturday night dance at the Voi Hotel, and my memory allows me to feel and live the enchantment all over again.

  Seldom a night passes that David does not appear in my dreams, and the sense of loss on waking still leaves a void in my heart. When David died on 13 June 1977, aged fifty-seven, I can honestly say that I was more deeply in love with him than ever. We were married for seventeen enchanting years, and for all that time I experienced a pervading sense of loving warmth and security coupled with deep admiration and respect. David was always there for me, always right; there to make decisive difficult decisions, to take control, to sort out problems, to create, inspire or fix anything. He was an exciting man to live with; knowledgeable, passionate, considerate, compassionate and kind. He loved and protected me in the truest sense.

  Life with David was a continuous adventure of seeing and understanding. When we worked together it was as though a magic wand made everything intriguing and interesting. The brilliance of his enquiring mind and the imprint of his deep respect and love of Nature continue to inspire me and the work of the Trust established in his memory every single day. He would be especially proud of our success in raising the orphaned elephants and other wild animals so that they can return to the natural wild life that is their birthright.

  I have turned many pages since David’s death, but he is never far from my thoughts. I loved him with all my heart and soul, and I miss him sometimes so much that it hurts. And yet, if David had lived to grow old with me, he would be in his nineties now, something I cannot envisage, for he remains forever timeless in my heart and mind, magnetic, strong and handsome. I know that he would be immeasurably proud of Angela and all his grandchildren, of their love of Nature and wildlife. He remains a role model for Angela’s two boys, who mirror him in many ways. He would be proud of the work of the Trust that seeks to perpetuate his ethics and his contribution to the natural world, for which he cared so passionately. I would like to think that this book is a fitting tribute to him, but also to other early Park Wardens like him who battled against all the odds to ensure that the current generation of Kenyans retain their irreplaceable indigenous wildlife to enjoy for themselves and share with the rest of the world. It is a priceless resource that enriches them and their country immeasurably.

  Acknowledgements

  I owe my love of animals to my wonderful parents, who right from the word go instilled in me empathy for all life. My late husband, David, reinforced that and further enriched my understanding of animals. As a naturalist he was a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge, way ahead of his time, recognizing the inter-relatedness of every form of life as vital to the health of the whole. His humility, professionalism, unwavering courage and impeccable integrity have been the guiding lights in my own conservation career. My gratitude to him for everything that he was, for the magical years that we shared, and for what the Trust, established in his memory, has been able to achieve is infinite.

  I am deeply indebted to my family as a whole, but especially to my two sisters, Sheila and Betty, who have always been there for me during the dark days of life, and to David Read for injecting fun and laughter back into my life. My daughters have been a source of pride and strength, by my side throughout, and have given me the gift and endless joy of grandchildren. Jill has been my companion, shouldering the early hard graft with me when the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was in its infancy. Together we pounded the streets and did the rounds with cap in hand to raise funding for the wildlife cause. She shared her bedroom with the first orphaned elephant before we even had a stable, and more recently has been my travelling companion, sympathetic to my phobia of being lost. Her father, and my first husband, Bill Woodley, was my friend throughout, a truly enlightened man.

  Angela, my talented, beautiful and artistic daughter by David, is so like him, excelling at all she undertakes. She was only thirteen years old when David died and I will always be deeply indebted to Marti and Illie Anderson, Galana Ranch neighbours during our Tsavo time, who sponsored her Cape Town University course and enabled her to travel home for the holidays so that we could be together. In adulthood Angela has taken the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to new heights in a way that I could never have achieved. Her sharp business acumen, perception and wisdom have steered the Trust proficiently, true to David’s conservation principles. I am similarly deeply indebted to the husbands of my two girls, whose help I have always been able to count upon, and who have unselfishly shared my daughters with me. It was Jean-François Chavrier, Jill’s French husband, who gave the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust its first vehicle, his own little Renault 4 shipped to us from France, and who with Jill helped establish the Trust’s first anti-poaching de-snaring patrols to rid Tsavo’s boundaries of the infamous wire snares that have caused so much animal suffering to this day. Angela’s husband, Robert Carr-Hartley, has been the steadfast and stable ‘rock’ on whom we can always rely to calm troubled waters, and is unstintingly there for us whenever needed. Robert’s passion for wilderness and all that it encompasses, his perceptive vision, his quiet determination and endurance to achieve his conservation dreams, are a rare gift that has richly rewarded the Trust and benefited the greater conservation cause as well.

  My thanks are due to Simon Trevor, who, in the Trust’s infancy, allowed us access to the documentary films he made alongside David while working in Tsavo. I thank him also for introducing us to what is now the Trust land abutting Tsavo’s Athi River boundary that serves as the base for all the Trust’s field operations.

  The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust owes its inception to the vision of the late John Sutton, and my brother Peter (now also deceased), who obtained permission for me to reside in the Nairobi National Park. I am deeply indebted to the compassion and kindness of the Kenyan authorities for granting me this privilege and to those Wildlife Directors with whom I have been able to work closely since David’s passing. But it was the late Bob Poole, Head of the Kenya Office of the US-based African Wildlife Foundation, who nurtured the fledgling David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and gave it wings to fly independently in the fullness of time. I am likewise deeply grateful to the Trustees and Advisory Committee of the Trust, who have guided its conservation contribution, faithful always to the mission statement, of which David would have approved.

  Never a day passes that I do not silently give a prayer of thanks to the skills of the South African surgeons who saved my leg after I had been felled by a wild elephant I mistook for Eleanor, leaving me on crutches for fifteen long months. Dr Ponky Firer expertly repaired seriously shattered bones, restoring to me a working limb that has given me little trouble since, and Dr Jeff Sochen saved it through bone irrigation, ridding it of the bacteria that had invaded the compound fracture. My younger sister, Betty, selflessly and diligently nursed me throughout this ordeal, and I will always be most deeply grateful for her patience and companionship and to my niece, Sally, for taking me in. I am deeply indebted to all who contributed financially towards the repair of my leg; to Jin Tatsumura, with whom I did the elephant slot for the prestigious Gaia Symphony and who treated me to specialized alternative medicine in Japan. That I now have a fully functional right leg is due in no small measure to him and the amazing hospitality afforded us in Japan.

  This book would probably never have made the shelves had it not been for my agent, Patrick Walsh of Conville & Walsh, who travelled to Kenya and forced me to sit down and write the outline needed to attract publishers. I am also deeply indebted to Gillian Stern, my editor, who so willingly and proficiently undertook the daunting task of compressing over 1,000 pages of original material into the current manageable memoir. Thank you, Gillian, for doing an unenviable and remarkable job. I al
so thank Eleo Gordon, my Viking publisher, for her guidance and understanding throughout this process.

  I sincerely thank the many people around the world who have generously and consistently supported the Trust’s efforts, and thank our US Friends’ Board and local Trustees who have given of their time free to empower the Trust further. I personally owe a huge debt of gratitude to the US Friends’ Founding President, Stephen Smith, for help over personal legal issues relating to filming contracts. Thank you so much, Stephen.

  And last, but by no means least, my life has been enriched every day, beyond measure, by the many animal orphans that have passed through our hands over the years – even though rearing wild orphans is invariably a cocktail of joy tempered with a good dose of tears. It has been the elephants themselves, who by example have demonstrated how to cope with adversity – to mourn and grieve, as one must, but then to turn the page and focus on giving to the living. They, who have suffered so much at the hands of humans, never lose the ability to forgive, even though, being elephants, they will never be able to forget.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Abdul (bulbul)

  acacias

  Adolf Woermann

  African Explosives and Chemical Industries Company

  African Wildlife Foundation

  Aggett, Boyce (Uncle Boyce)

  Aggett, Ellen see Chart, Ellen

  Aggett, Emma Jane (Great-Granny

  Aggett)

  Aggett, Ethel (Great-Aunt Ethel)

  Aggett, Thomas (Great-Grandpa Aggett)

  Aggett, George

  Ahamed (elephant)

  Ajok (elephant)

  Ali (keeper)

  Amboseli (rhino)

  Amboseli National Reserve

  Anderson, Marti and Illie

  antelopes

  see also bushbuck; dikdiks; duikers; elands; impalas; kudus

  Aruba (elephant)

  Aruba Dam

  Aruba Lodge

  Athi River

  Baby (eland)

  Bales, Betty

  Angela’s birth

  childhood

  Daphne’s bone graft

  David’s death

  and Graham

  Jill’s wedding

  in South Africa

  Bales, Graham

  Bales, Sally

  Balthazar (warthog)

  Bandit (impala)

  baobabs

  Baring, Sir Evelyn

  Baron (rooster)

  Barrett, Don

  bats

  Beston, Henry

  Bibi (elephant)

  biltong

  Bimbo (impala)

  Biscuit (impala)

  Blixen, Karen

  Bloody Ivory

  Blue Lagoon

  Blundell, Michael

  Bob (impala)

  Bonnie (impala)

  Boozie (sheep)

  Boran

  Borana Lodge

  Born to be Wild

  Bouncer (impala)

  Bravo (impala)

  Briggs, Group Captain ‘Puck’

  Brindlay, Arthur

  Brown, David

  Brown, Leslie

  buffalo weavers

  buffaloes

  Bukanezi (elephant)

  bulbuls

  Bullfrog Safaris

  Bullitt (impala)

  Bunty (impala)

  Burra (elephant)

  bush meat

  bush pigs

  bushbuck

  Bushey (bushbuck)

  Bushy (bushbuck)

  camels

  Care for the Wild International

  Carissa edulis

  Carr-Hartley, Angela (Pip)

  and Baby

  birth and childhood

  at boarding school

  Borana Lodge

  and Bunty

  Daphne’s bone graft

  David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

  David’s death

  domestic skills

  and Father Ram

  feather-flower pictures

  Japan visit

  make-up artistry

  marriage

  and David Read

  and Rufus

  Saa Nane

  and Samson

  and Shmetty

  sons’ births

  tree climbing

  University of Cape Town

  and Wiffle

  Carr-Hartley, Roan

  Carr-Hartley, Robert

  Carr-Hartley, Roy

  Carr-Hartley, Taru

  Carr-Hartley, William

  Catherine (elephant)

  Cedar Park

  Chart, Miss

  Chart, Ellen (Granny Chart)

  and Bryan

  Daphne’s marriage to Bill

  Daphne’s marriage to David

  death

  at Gilgil

  Grand Hotel

  and Grandpa Webb

  at Malindi

  and Mau Mau

  moves to live with Fred

  Chart, Ernest Nye

  Chart, Fred

  Chart, Harry

  Chavrier, Emily

  Chavrier, Jean-François (JF)

  Chavrier, Jill see Woodley, Jill

  Chavrier, Zoe

  chickens

  Childs, Alan ‘Chillicracker’

  Chuma (elephant)

  CITES

  civet cats

  Cleo (warthog)

  Corfield, Tim

  Cowie, Colonel Mervyn

  Craven, Alan

  crocodiles

  Daisy (horse)

  Daisy (waterbuck)

  Dario

  David Sheldrick Memorial Appeal

  David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

  Angela and Robert

  elephant orphanage

  Kaluku Farm

  Red Peril

  rhino orphanage

  Saa Nane

  Top Cub aircraft

  Tsavo National Park

  Davis, Pop

  Dika (elephant)

  dikdiks

  Donald (elephant)

  drought

  Duff-Mackay, Alex

  duikers

  East African Standard

  Eden, Ruth

  Edie (elephant)

  Edinburgh, Duke of

  Edo (elephant)

  elands

  Eleanor (elephant)

  and Gulliver

  and keeper

  and orphaned elephants

  and poachers

  and Pundu

  and tourists

  wild elephant attack

  Elephant Diaries, The

  elephants

  culling

  digital fostering programme

  drought

  hunting

  Kanderi waterhole

  Kathamulla blind

  orphanage

  poaching

  research

  see also specific named animals

  Eliot, Sir Charles

  Emily (elephant)

  Erskine, Francis

  Ever Hopefuls (warthogs)

  Father Ram (impala)

  Fatuma (elephant)

  Ferrara

  fever tree

  Field Force

  Rakoub Camel Section

  recruiting safari

  Firer, Paul ‘Ponky’

  Fitzgerald, Vesey

  Flame Trees of Thika, The

  Flop Ears (elephant)

  Ford Foundation

  Frederick (cook)

  frogs

  Gabbra

  Galana Game Management Scheme

  Galana Ranch

  Galana River

  Gilgil

  Giriama

  Glover, Barbara

  Glover, Phil

 
Goddard, John

  Government Game Department

  anti-poaching units

  hunting

  ivory

  Kenyan independence

  merger

  Great Rift Valley

  Gregory Peck (buffalo weaver)

  Grunter (warthog)

  guinea fowl

  Gulliver (elephant)

  gyrostigma fly

  Hales, Ruth see Woodley, Ruth

  Hansen, Mrs

  Hardnut (buffalo)

  Hayes, Henry

  Hellier (buffalo)

  Helmet (buffalo)

  Higginson, Mr

  Higginson, Mrs

  Higginson, Michael

  Higginson, Philip

  Higglety (mongoose)

  Hola force

  Honk family (peacocks)

  Horatio (buffalo)

  hornbills

  Hucks, Mavis

  Hucks, Philip

  Hunt, Don

  hunting

  Huppety (zebra)

  Huxley, Elspeth

  Huxley, Sir Julian

  Hyperolius sheldricki

  Imenti (elephant)

  Imenti forest

  impalas

  Bimbo

  Bob

  Bonnie

  Bouncer

  Bunty