a note from melissa sciacca, executive director, sheldrick wildlife trust usa: Sheldrick Wildlife Trust USA proudly provides annual, grant-based support to Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. These grants help fund the Trust’s conservation work, including its pioneering Mobile Veterinary Units, which provide life-saving medical support to all manner of wildlife across Kenya. In Angela Sheldrick’s letter below, I invite you to learn more about the current status in the field and how you can provide much-needed support through this giving campaign. As ever, we thank you for your continued commitment to Kenya’s wildlife and wild spaces.
s a v i n g w i l d l i v e s a c r o s s k e n ya – a let ter from angel a sheldrick – Dear Friend of Sheldrick Wildlife Trust USA, The quilted blankets worn by our smallest elephants have become synonymous with our Orphans’ Project. Stitched with love and secured with care, they are a symbol of both the inherent fragility of these wild animals and of the ways in which we support and protect them. But really, these blankets symbolise our entire body of conservation work. Multiple pieces, individual yet inextricably linked, that together will serve generations of elephants and other creatures. Every single one of our conservation initiatives is vital to our overall success. It is futile to raise today’s orphans if we are not also able to secure the habitats they will one day call home. From the Orphans’ Project to teams on the ground and in the sky, our patchwork of field projects operate in concert to cover Kenya’s great wildernesses. However, some periods put the importance of certain conservation projects into stark relief. As you may know, the past two years have been blighted by a drought of devastating proportions. Entire ecosystems across Kenya withered, waiting in vain for the rain that never arrived. This led to a rise in orphan rescues, an increase in illegal activities and human-wildlife conflict, and a staggering number of field emergencies. Our presence in the field was needed more than ever. In fact, untold wild lives depended on it. Every day, emergencies mounted — and without fail, our SWT/KWS Mobile Veterinary Units, working in tandem with our anti-poaching rangers and pilots, answered the call. Our first Mobile Veterinary Unit was established in 2003. Over the past two decades, this project has grown into a cornerstone of our conservation work, offering life-saving medical support to any animal in need. Operated in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service, our six SWT/KWS Mobile Veterinary Units and aerial Sky Vet initiative provide a lifeline to ill and injured wildlife across Kenya, collectively covering the country’s key ecosystems: Tsavo, home to the country’s largest population of elephants; the Mara, famous for its great migration; Meru, a sanctuary for Kenya’s white and black rhinos; Amboseli, renowned for its tuskers; Mount Kenya, dominated by Africa’s second highest peak; and the Rift Valley, a diverse habitat with an equally diverse array of wildlife. Last year, our Veterinary Units achieved — and promptly passed — the milestone of 10,000 animals attended to since the program’s inception. This number represents scores of second chances for all manner of creatures, from the elusive pangolin to larger-than-life elephants. Given how drastically human actions have tipped the scales against our natural world, these teams offer some balance. Their actions have saved snared leopards and speared lions, rhinos hurt in territorial skirmishes and elephants caught in the crosshairs of human-wildlife conflict. They have brought back creatures ravaged by the drought and rescued the orphans left behind.