Nairobi’s Cutest Animals

Its official – elephant and giraffe infants are the most adorable of them all, and guess why?  They arrive in the world perfect miniature replicas of their parents.  Lion cubs are sweet, of course, but are by no means lion looking.  Even baby rhinos have to grow horns and grow into their ‘rhino-ness’.  And (perhaps fortunately) wildebeest calves look nothing like their adult selves.

From the minute the new born giraffe calf crashes six foot down onto the savannah, shaking her little head in confusion as she attempts to collect up and compose her legs, scattered all around her, into some semblance of order, she is a ‘mini-me’ giraffe.  Completely precious, her tufty mane, glorious patches and meltingly gorgeous eyes are ready to burst their seams and grow in leaps and bounds into a full size version.

Likewise the little ellie.  Fortunately, she doesn’t have the long drop to freedom; but in the same way women mutter that giving birth is like squeezing a watermelon through their bits, Mrs Jumbo shoots a VW Beetle out of her delicate end.  Small wonder the matriarch and assorted aunties surround the newly delivered cow – to protect the father.  And you thought it was sisterhood sympathy!

For me, Kenya is the wildlife capital of Africa.  The Kenyans have a way of incorporating ‘safari’ into everyday life, gently introducing and immersing the visitor in the wild in such a delightful non-zoo-like way it’s an absolute treat. 

Right next to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, one of the busiest in Africa, lies Kenya’s oldest reserve- Nairobi National Park. 7km’s from the city centre and covering 117km2 of savannah and riverine woodland, it’s quite remarkable how much game is visible to the excited passengers as the long haul flight comes in to land.  Truly, one’s safari begins before touching down.

The option of tourist attraction Dame Daphne Sheldrick’s Elephant Orphanage could appear, to us jaded South African’s, to be a saccharine, Disney Animal Kingdom.  Likewise the AFEW Giraffe Centre at Langata.  But we’d be so wrong to assume this.

The elephant orphanage is at Nairobi National Park’s Mbagathi gate, and the giraffe centre a few kilometres away at Langata, both within 15 minutes of downtown Nairobi.  Well, OK, assuming there’s no traffic, since Nairobi is one enormous carpark from dawn til dusk.  This city could do with a bunch more roads and freeways to ease the LA style congestion.

But on my visit to both facilities today I lost my heart to 21 orphaned elephants aged from 2 months to 3 years, and that was before their keeper told us the stories of poached mothers, mothers who died in childbirth, mothers attacked and killed by villagers and their starving, wounded infants left to die.

These pint sized tuskers played like puppies, the slightly older ones ‘sizing’ each other up and practising a little pushing around, the littlies joyfully romping in red dust the keepers shovelled over them, dropping to their knees and rolling over.

None of them have yet realised the potential for fun those giant ears offer, they just wrapped the offending items closely over the tops of their heads and kept them there.  However, they are well primed for the huge teated bottles of baby formula their keeper pours down their throats and it’s amazing to watch their personalities emerge.  Our first sighting of these adorable infants was their enthusiastic and comical charge down the hill towards the arena, going straight to their own keeper and grabbing the teat.  No ‘hello, nice to see you’ from these greedy pintsized suckers!

One little monster guzzled his lot very fast, then shoved his way between the other babes and their bottles, squealing indignantly when the keepers pushed him away.  He didn’t take no for an answer, trying his luck 20 times before racing over to grab a tasty branch from a smaller sibling.  A slightly older girl insisted on feeding herself, proudly holding her own bottle and draining it dry before receiving the next one.  So gender development differences are not confined to humans, then...

Go online to www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org to have a look for yourself.  USD50 a month gets you adoption papers of your very own baby, and monthly keeper's reports on how she / he is doing.  You can even, by appointment, visit your baby at 17h00 and put her to bed.  I’m not sure about teeth brushing, though.  They warned us not to put our hands into the sweet pink mouths - these babies have chompers and like all teething toddlers like to use them!

On the way out I sneaked into one of the stables to check out their sleeping facilities - each orphan has his/her own keeper who sleeps in the stable with their charge.  Their beds are safely high up on the wall, in case junior gets a bit playful in the middle of the night.

With a silly beam on my face and a very sloppy heart, it was off down the road to AFEW Giraffe Centre.  Like a Quality Street choice, giraffes are my favourite favourites of all the big mammals.  Gracious, elegant and aloof, the giraffe’s incongruous shape is classic Africa.

AFEW Giraffe Centre consists, besides a gift and tea shop, of a circular wooden building which is raised on stilts, enabling eye contact with several Rothschild’s giraffe while you feed them.  A breeding programme centre, they keep the giraffes in their care for three years before releasing them into the wild.  Visitors are given two handfuls of pony nuts which you pinch between 2 fingers and place individually on a verrry long, very black and extraordinarily agile tongue.

Fickle beast – they know who has the nuts, which hand they are kept in and as the last nut drops out of your hand onto their tongue, they're already turning away to find another food supply.  They have the velvet-iest noses and cheeks, eyes deep enough to drown in and eyelashes that shame Maybelline.  But affectionate - no.  They’re just there for the grub, and a warthog family on the ground several feet below are on their knees snarfing up the remnants.  Still, I can proudly say a giraffe drooled on my hand even if she did disdain a hug.

Interesting fact – us bush babies know that giraffe have black tongues, but do you know why?  Built in sun screen SPF!  Yup, their tongues spend so much time in the sun above the canopy that nature painted them black rather than pink to prevent sunburn!

Another day in Africa, another privileged peep into the workings of nature and the amazing work done by groups of dedicated people.

And yet another sign off with a huge grin on my face and watery eyes.  Nkosi si’kelele.