Shaba barely got to know her mother. A member of the Poetics family, Shaba was 20 months old when her mother was tragically shot, presumably by poachers.
Both Shaba and her older sister were found in terrible distress, running in circles around their mother’s body. Shaba hadn’t yet been weaned so a tough decision was made to airlift her by helicopter to Reteti—Kenya’s only community-run elephant sanctuary. Thankfully her sister re-joined the Poetics family.
As you can imagine, Shaba was traumatized on arrival at Reteti. It took a long time for the team to gain her trust. Just like you would your own baby, they spent day and night talking and singing to her— anything to calm her down and make her feel safe. In the end, thanks to their expert care and devotion, Shaba eventually accepted a bottle and became stronger.
Young elephants need love almost as much as they need food and water. A bond quickly developed between Shaba and the keepers at Reteti. It was then she started to show motherly instincts to new orphan arrivals at the sanctuary—greeting them when they arrived and teaching them how to walk along some of the steep paths in the area. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Shaba quickly became matriarch to the entire orphan herd.
Younger elephants feel safe with Shaba, pictured with former Save the Elephants employee, Rimland Lemojong who now works at Reteti.
Today, Shaba, aged six, has been successfully rehabilitated into the wild at neighboring Sera Rhino Sanctuary alongside nine of her stable-mates. The young orphans, which Save the Elephants fitted with tracking collars, are learning both about survival and integrating with wild elephant society.
Now the anchor of a tiny orphan herd, Shaba is teaching us much about orphaned elephant behavior.
And, because of everything we’ve learned about Shaba and the rewilded orphans, we can help create a brighter future for other orphaned baby elephants like her.
Thank you for safeguarding their future and for being there when we needed you the most.
Because you cared, these little elephants now have a chance to grow to mature males and females and eventually venture out beyond the safety of the Sera Rhino Sanctuary to be truly wild once more -thanks to people like you!
repost from Save The Elephants