Dame Daphne Sheldrick: The Elephant Matriarch

Daphne Jenkins was born on 4 June 1934 in Kenya on a large farm and timber operation outside Gilgil. She spent close to 30 years working alongside her husband. Together, they created a safe haven for Kenya’s largest elephant population. 

 In 1953 Daphne married Bill Woodley, a game warden. The pair divorced, in part because she and David Sheldrick, were attracted to one other. David also happened to be Daphne and Bill's boss. David and Daphne married in 1960, and he became warden of Tsavo East National Park. They lived there, taking in vulnerable orphaned animals to care for before reintroducing them to the wild. 

David passed away from a heart attack in 1977 at the age of 58. Daphne found solace in the Elephants she looked after, writing: “I thought about the Elephants and felt humbled, knowing how stoically they deal with the loss of loved ones on an almost daily basis, how deeply they grieve but how they do so with courage, never forgetting the needs of the living. Their example gave me the strength I needed.”

Daphne was the first to successfully hand raise a milk-dependent newborn Elephant and Rhino. It took her 28 years to discover that Elephant babies like coconut oil. Unfortunately, initial attempts to keep the orphaned babies alive, with other milk sources, resulted in malnourishment and eventual death.

After trying every possible combination, Daphne finally found a baby milk formula from Europe. The formula contained coconut oil and finally worked on the elephants. Due to this discovery, over 230 orphaned elephants in Kenya and around the world are alive.

Daphne Sheldrick was honoured with an MBE in 1989, decorated by Queen Elizabeth II herself. She was elevated to UNEP’s elite Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1992 and awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery by the University of Glasgow in June 2000. 

In December 2001, the Kenya Government presented Daphne with The Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS), followed by a prestigious accolade in 2002 by the BBC of their Lifetime Achievement Award. In the November 2005 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine, Daphne was named one of 35 people globally who have made a difference in animal husbandry and wildlife conservation.

In the 2006 New Year’s Honors List, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Dr Daphne Sheldrick to Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, the first Knighthood to be awarded in Kenya since the country received Independence in 1963.

“Daphne passed away the evening of 12 April 2018, aged 83, after a long battle with breast cancer, a battle she finally lost. She had a brave heart and possessed the strength, compassion and wisdom of both an Elephant matriarch and bull rolled into one. She lived alongside elephants and learned to read their hearts, much as they read ours.”
Angela Sheldrick, Daphne's daughter

“Their (elephants) tremendous capacity for caring is, I think, perhaps the most amazing thing about them. They have all of the best attributes of us humans and not very many of the bad.”
Dame Daphne Sheldrick