David Sheldrick

Major David Leslie William Sheldrick, MBE (born 23 November 1919, Alexandria, Egypt — died 13 June 1977, Nairobi, Kenya) was a Kenyan farmer and park warden, in memorium to whom the eponymous David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) was created.

Early years

David Sheldrick, an only child, came to Kenya as an infant with his parents. His father, had served with the British Remounts during World War I, resettled near Nyeri and became a coffee farmer at Mweiga.^[1]

World War II

Educated at the Canford School, David Sheldrick returned to Kenya until World War II began in 1939. He served in the King's African Rifles (KAR), seeing active service in Abyssinia and Burma. He was promoted to Major, the youngest officer in the KAR to achieve this rank.^[1]

Tsavo

At the age of 28 in 1948, David Sheldrick became the founder Warden of Tsavo, Kenya's largest National Park. He had to deal with the problem of armed poachers, which he was forced to combat by utilizing staff from the Game Department and National Parks.^[1] He studied every facet of the elephants' lifestyle on the preserve, collecting data on their food sources, and, along with his wife, Daphne, rescuing and hand-rearing vulnerable elephants, rhinos and antelopes.^[1]

Sheldrick helped to develop the Tsavo's infrastructure. There were no roads or buildings when he first arrived. He paved 1,087 kilometres of tourist all-weather roads, 853 miles of administrative roads and 287 kilometres of anti-poaching tracks. He also oversaw the construction of a concrete causeway across the Galana River.^[1]

Legacy

After Sheldrick's untimely death from a heart attack in 1977, aged 57, his widow, Dr. Daphne Sheldrick, established the DSWT in his memory.

Among other activities the trust runs the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, next to the Nairobi National Park.^[2]

External links

• Smithsonian.com
• Interpol Working Group on Wildlife Crime
• Safari Talk.net

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} DSWT website
2. ^ DSWT elephant and rhino orphanage