Jasiri The Elephant

In the February 2014 Hideaway Report, Andrew Harper wrote about the alarming decline of wildlife in Africa. Since 1996, the lion population has decreased by more than 96 percent and the elephant and rhino populations are being equally decimated. One of the conservation programs Mr. Harper recommended in the issue is The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an elephant and rhino rehabilitation program in Kenya.

The trust has successfully hand-raised more than 150 infant elephants and effectively reintegrated orphans into the wild as part of its long-term conservation efforts. Through the program, our Andrew Harper Travel Office is fostering an orphaned elephant, Jasiri, whose name means "brave" in Kiswahili.

Jasiri is a male adolescent elephant currently living at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant nursery in Nairobi National Park. Poachers shot his mother, Jemima, in December 2011, leaving the 15-month-old Jasiri alone in the Amboseli National Park. Jasiri was found nearly three months later, having wandered more than 12 miles from where his mother had been killed.

Elephant calves cannot survive in the wild alone, as they depend on their mother’s milk for the first two years of life. It was miraculous that the young calf lived for so long by himself.

Jasiri is the first albino calf documented in Amboseli in the 40 years that the foundation has worked there and is now doing well, thanks to the generous donations of people all over the world who help to fund the center.

If you would like to find out more about African conservation efforts and the organizations that Mr. Harper commends, read Last Word: This Time It's Serious from the February 2014 Hideaway Report.

To learn more about the Orphan's Project and fostering an orphaned elephant, visit The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and watch this video about the foundation's cause.

Click Here to Foster an Orphaned Elephant

More Photos of Jasiri