Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story

Daphne Sheldrick, whose family arrived in Africa from Scotland in the 1820s, was the first person to successfully hand-rear newborn elephants. Her pioneering work developing proper husbandry practices and milk formulas saved countless elephants, rhinos, and other baby animals from death. This memoir recounts Sheldrick's relationships with orphaned animals, including an antelope named Bushy, a dwarf mongoose called Rickey-Tickey-Tavey, a buffalo weaver bird named Gregory Peck, a zebra named Huppety, and the elephant Eleanor, with whom she shared over forty years of friendship. The book also tells the story of Sheldrick's marriage to David Sheldrick, a Tsavo Park warden. Their relationship and David's deep understanding of nature inspired much of her work. Following his early death, Sheldrick founded the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Orphans' Nursery in Nairobi National Park, where she continues to live and work. The memoir covers their campaign against poaching and for wildlife conservation in Kenya, as well as their approach to raising orphaned animals for eventual return to the wild.