My Wild Affair (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - The Elephant Who Found a Mom - full transcript

Narrator:
She was just a few days old.

We knew that this was
going to be trouble.

Orphaned and starving, it would
take a miracle to save her.

Woman: From here on,
my mom was very preoccupied.

Narrator: From moments
of exhilarating triumph

To the depths of despair.

She was nearly dead.

Narrator: Aisha would change
Daphne sheldrick's life forever.

There were many years when
I refused to talk about Aisha.

I loved her like my child.

Narrator:
An animal born to be wild.



The rarest of bonds
with a human,

a friendship across the divide,

a story of unbreakable devotion.

Announcer:
"My wild affair"
was made possible

in part by contributions
to your pbs station

from viewers like you.

Narrator: This is the David
sheldrick wildlife trust,

an elephant orphanage
in the Nairobi national park

in Kenya.

It was founded
by Daphne sheldrick in 1977.

Today Daphne
and her daughter Angela

look after dozens of orphans
at a time

with the help of a team
of specialist keepers.

Against overwhelming odds,



They have hand-reared
over 100 elephant calves

and returned them to the wild.

The success of
this groundbreaking operation

Is owed to the lessons learned
from a brave little elephant

called Aisha,

who was entrusted to Daphne
in 1974,

in her early days caring for
orphans in her own backyard.

Daphne sheldrick:
When Aisha arrived
in the back of a big truck

from marsabit,

so she'd had
a very grueling journey.

This tiny little elephant
arrived,

my heart sank.

It always did
when a new orphan came in

because I knew that
they were better off

living wild
with their wild mother.

It was a very exciting day.

This land cruiser
pulled up the hill

and into the car park.

For me as a young girl,
another playmate...

Fantastic.

Mom, on the other hand,
was thinking,

"oh, my god, a headache."

Daphne: I wasn't exactly
delighted to see her.

I knew that this was
going to be trouble.

We could see that Aisha
was a very young elephant.

She was minute.

And the ears were
delicate and pink

like a little petal.

Angela sheldrick:
Aisha was definitely tiny,

probably the smallest elephant
I've ever seen.

Hairy, fuzzy, fresh, cute.

You just wanted to pick her up

And squeeze and cuddle
and all of the rest.

Daphne: She had no fear,
of course.

She was too young.

For the first 3 weeks of life,
they're not altogether.

They sort of just climbing
all over the place

just like a newborn infant.

They don't really know
what's going on.

Narrator: Tim corfield,
Daphne's cousin,

also remembers how in 1974

Aisha was rescued
from a disused well

hundreds of miles away
from the sheldricks' house.

The very fact
that this tiny elephant

less than a week old ever made
it all the way to Daphne's

was a miracle in itself.

Man: To bring
a little baby elephant

all the way from marsabit
up in northern Kenya

would have taken at least
2-3 days.

Aisha came in very, very week
and in poor condition.

But what I'm really moved by
is the fact that

the samburu tribesmen
took the time and the trouble

to get this young,
vulnerable animal

to tsavo national park.

Narrator: Tsavo is in the south
of Kenya,

and where the sheldricks live
was 500 miles away
from marsabit,

where Aisha was found
by samburu tribesmen.

Marsabit has one of the densest
populations of elephants

in the country.

David daballen is a research
scientist based in the region.

He has studied
elephants in the wild

and understands why the life
of one little elephant

meant so much to the locals
who found her.

Man: Samburu people believe
that the elephant and people

once upon a time are one.

They treat elephants
with so much respect

Because their clans
within the samburu tribe

that regard elephant
as their brothers and sisters,

and therefore, they have
huge respect for elephants.

They look at the elephant
as a symbol of a man.

Tim corfield: These people
took time to find a vehicle

and to get this young,
vulnerable animal

into the care of somebody
that they'd heard about.

And Daphne had
a very wide reputation

for being somebody
who could bring young
orphaned animals round

and get them to thrive.

Narrator: Aisha came to join
the menagerie

of other orphaned wild animals

who had been hand-raised by
Daphne and her husband, David,

in their house in tsavo,

where David was warden of
the surrounding national park.

At that time,
their eldest daughter, Jill,
was at boarding school,

while youngest daughter,
11-year-old Angela,

lived here in animal paradise.

It was commonplace for me
to wake up in the morning

With a lawn full
of a motley group,

ranging from little mongeese
to wart hogs

to ostriches to antelopes
of many descriptions.

Daphne: We did have a reputation
for orphaned animals.

We had a beautiful home,

and there was no fence
that segregated our garden
from the bush.

We wanted it that way.

In the garden we provided water.

We fed the birds,

and we encouraged wild animals
to come into the garden.

I really remember
the other animals on the lawn

looking on horrified
at this new arrival

that they were
going to have to deal with.

Right from the outset
she was feisty.

I mean, clearly she had
a mind of her own,

and there was nothing delicate
about Aisha when she arrived.

Narrator: Aisha was
a lucky little elephant.

If anyone could save her,
it was Daphne.

Alongside the orphans
on the lawn,

Daphne also raised
larger animals,

including orphaned
zebras, rhinos, and
adolescent elephants.

But having come through
her grueling journey,

Aisha's real battle for survival
was only just beginning.

Neither Daphne nor anyone else
had ever raised an elephant

as young as Aisha before,

and in the wild, she would have
been totally dependent

on her mother's milk.

Without it, there was
little chance she could survive.

Daphne: That first night
I knew she had to have milk,

so we gave her a weak solution
of cow's milk.

That's all we had access to.

I had some of that
in powdered form

For the buffalo orphans
that we had.

So we mixed up some cow's milk.

She was very thirsty.

So she downed it.
She drank her milk.

Corfield: There was not
a wide knowledge,

even in the zoo fraternity,
in the actual raising of
elephants, young elephants,

where the big challenge
has always been the right
formula for the milk

and also getting colostrum
into a young animal

That hasn't nursed its mother
from birth.

Angela: Nobody had raised
an elephant

as tiny as that little
milk-dependent infant before.

Narrator:
With little more to go on

Than the experience of
bringing up her own children,

Daphne hoped
her maternal instincts
would pull Aisha through.

Daphne: I had to be with her
most of the night

'Cause, you know,
she needed the company.

Otherwise she'd cry and bellow
all night.

She was very exhausted
so she slept with her
little head on my lap

and got through
that first night.

Angela: My mom recognized
she had an enormous challenge
on her hands,

and from here on,
she was very preoccupied.

I mean, everything
was about Aisha.

Narrator: Despite
round-the-clock attention,

Aisha was a sick little calf.

The problem was that
the cow's milk formula

Daphne resorted to

wasn't suitable
for a baby elephant.

And Aisha suffered from
severe bouts of diarrhea,

leaving her desperately weak
and dehydrated.

[Elephant trumpets]

She hit a very rapid decline
on arrival.

It was touch and go.

There was a lot of deliberating
and conversations
and discussions

And worry.

Daphne: I knew that this
was going to be trouble.

One just has to be
strong enough to do it,

and David, my late husband,
said, "listen, it's hopeless,
you know?

"I don't think it's possible to
raise these infant elephants.

Why don't we just get on with it
and put her down?"

And I said, "well, you know,
we have to try. We have to try."

Narrator: The sheldricks
were at the forefront

Of a new way of thinking
about animal welfare.

And Aisha was fortunate to have
landed at their doorstep

In an era when wildlife was
beginning to be cherished

rather than targeted.

Since the British first
colonized Kenya in the 1890s,

exotic animals had been seen
as fair game

for sport and recreation.

Newsreel narrator: Now it
wouldn't do to go on safari

in city slicker clothes.

Dressing the part of the white
hunter is all part of the game.

Narrator: But by 1963,

when Kenya gained political
independence from britain,

attitudes to wildlife
were changing.

Hunting was banned in the
major national parks like tsavo

and a more gentle form
of tourism was encouraged.

Newsreel narrator: A camera is
about the only special equipment
anybody needs,

and there's a big choice of them
at the local shops.

It's well worth
buying a good one.

Who'd want to miss pictures
like these?

Narrator: Tsavo was one
of Kenya's most popular
destinations for safari,

where the sheldricks'
enlightened attitude
to animal welfare

attracted visitors
from around the world.

TV show narrator: This is
the landscape of Africa.

This is daktari.

Take this trip once, and you'll
return week after week.

Narrator: Global interest
in wildlife also exploded
onto the small screen

with the '60's U.S. TV serial
"daktari."

TV show narrator: Africa.

This is the land of daktari.

Narrator: Daktari was about
a vet in the bush

who rescued orphaned animals,
like Judy the chimpanzee

and Clarence the cross-eyed lion

and raise them in his home.

Sue casson was a wildlife artist
and an avid fan of "daktari."

When she heard about
the sheldricks,

she flew from england to Kenya
to meet them.

When I first met the sheldricks
at the airstrip

with pondo, a zebra,
and stroppy, a rhino,

and I was just bowled over.

I mean, I had loved
the film series "daktari,"

and here it was in real life.

When Daphne said they were
looking for an orphan sitter,

I jumped at the chance.

Narrator: Sue's duties included
feeding, mucking out,

and attending to
the waifs and strays

that set up home
on the sheldrick's lawn.

Sue casson: The lawn orphans
were the buck and all the babies

that were still on the bottle.

They stayed on the lawn.

They lived in a pen
at the side of the house

At night in their little stables
so were protected at night.

They all had wonderful names,
these orphans.

We had Mitch the mongoose
and Jimmy the kudu

and little tin tin.

Narrator: While the sheldricks
were happy to name

All of their orphans
as they arrived out of the bush,

Aisha presented a huge dilemma.

Daphne: In the beginning,
we hadn't really named her

because we thought that
she probably wouldn't live,

But when I was taking her for
a little walk down the hill,

some German tourists came up
and little Aisha's ears went up
like this,

and they started saying,
"schmetterling, schmetterling,
shemetterling."

Butterfly. She looks like
a butterfly 'cause her ears
are out like this.

And so that's how
she got the name schmetty.

Later we thought we'd give her
a better name.

She came from marsabit,
and there was a very famous
elephant in marsabit,

big, big tusker.

Could have been his daughter.

So we gave her the name Aisha,
which I believe means Princess.

This is tea time on the lawn.

Angela:
Tea time was very special.

It was get together,

and dad would usually come back
from work at that time.

Daphne: You can see the other
garden orphans here as well.

My mother had a very,
very beautiful garden,

so tea time was spent out there
with all our pets

and of course Aisha.

Daphne: And there she is
pressed right up against me.

When I sat on the lawn,
she'd be almost in my lap.

Casson: Aisha mixed
with the others,

but she didn't play
with the others.

She just was amongst
the other animals,

And but didn't necessarily
romp around with them.

She wasn't in a romping state
really.

Narrator: As the days
passed into weeks,

Daphne devoted
more and more time to Aisha.

Her health was still
a matter of concern,

And the hunt for
an elephant milk substitute
remained as elusive as ever.

In the meantime,
the only formulas available

were based on cow's milk,

and although Aisha drank them,

she was not putting on
any weight.

Daphne: And I could see
that she was failing.

Little elephants
should have plump cheeks,

and when you start seeing
this band underneath the eye,

you know that that elephant's
losing condition,

and she was losing condition
rapidly.

Casson: I think the sadness was
that little Aisha had no company

of another little elephant,

and she was too young to go
and join the bigger elephants.

So it was a slightly
strange affair for Aisha.

Narrator: Little Aisha's
quiet disposition

was in stark contrast to
some of the larger orphans

who ran riot
in the sheldricks' garden.

Casson: Punda, the zebra,
oh, he was a naughty zebra.

He really asked for trouble.

He would go up and try and nip
the back leg

of one of the bigger orphans.

His great joy in life was
really rotting up the elephants.

And they'd try and take a swipe
with their trunk

and try and knock him off
their back leg.

Oh, he was a wicked one.

[Trumpets]

The interaction between
the species was quite amazing,

how they just got on
with each other.

All the animals
just lived on the lawn
as one big happy family.

I mean, it was just
a garden of Eden.

Angela: I was very aware
that these were wild animals.

My parents always
had a philosophy

is you don't raise anything
unless you offer it
a wild life again.

And so that was always
the understanding,

they were only on loan.

There would always come a time
where the wild called.

Narrator: Here at the
sheldricks' elephant orphanage
in Nairobi,

this enlightened thinking
is as relevant today as ever.

The plan is that all these
orphans will one day return
to the wild as well

when they're old enough.

The fact that they enjoy
a happy and fulfilled infancy

While they are here

is the direct result
of lessons learned

from little Aisha's struggle
for life 40 years earlier.

This is a very early picture
of Aisha

when she first came in.

Nicknamed schmetty, butterfly.

You can see here
she's a little bit thin.

You can see this bone
under the cheek here.

Angela: This was not
a healthy calf.

She was looking skeletal
and weak

and she was getting... given
an awful lot of antibiotics,

which she absolutely
hated taking.

So that was a real effort
to get those down her throat.

I used to dose her
with sulphadimidine,

and which is quite a big pill,

and to get this down
was quite a mission.

David used to have to hold her,

and I would push the pill
as far back into her throat

as I possibly could
just by the side of the tongue

and then quickly
put the nipple in

so that some milk went with it
and hopefully it went down,

But she hated that.

Narrator: Daphne had resorted
to antibiotics

in an attempt to control
the diarrhea

brought about by weaning Aisha

On a mixture
based on cow's milk.

Although the initial signs
were encouraging,

Aisha's system soon began to
reject the constant medication,

and she became weaker
and weaker.

The need to find a formula
that simulated elephant's milk

was now becoming critical.

There was definitely anxiety
around the house

with regard to Aisha's
deteriorating condition.

It was a very, very
worrying time of course.

It was so obvious that something
was very, very wrong,

And we needed to
make change fast
if we were going to save her.

Daphne: Then David said, "well,
maybe it's a fat problem."

We knew even before Aisha came
that elephant milk

was very high in fat, and so we
added butter, we added cream.

By this time Aisha
was very, very sick.

Angela: There was
definitely the fear

that Aisha would be dead
in the morning.

I don't think any of dared
to sort of look to the future
too much.

It was a day by day thing.

Narrator: Time was
running out fast,

and despite
all of Daphne's efforts,
nothing seemed to work.

Then at the 11th hour,
she had a flash of inspiration.

Daphne: Somewhere along the line
somebody had said

or I'd read somewhere that
coconut was the nearest thing

to the fat in elephant's milk.

People had given me
all sorts of tins of milk,

and in this tin, the fat content
was all vegetable,

and there was coconut.

So I thought, well, let's
try this as a last resort.

Immediately she started
picking up a little bit.

Angela: The next day,

the stools looked good,

And that one week
went into two weeks,

and then after a month,
the condition was clearly
getting better.

Daphne: I was over the moon.

I really thought
I'd cracked this problem.

And this little elephant
had put on weight.

Narrator: Daphne's persistence
had paid off.

And as Aisha's health improved,

Her character began to develop
as well.

Angela: The whole mood changed

in that Aisha was
a lot more robust

And able to do
an awful lot more with us.

Daphne:
She was very mischievous,

just like a human child.

You know, into everything.

Angela:
She seemed to have energy,

and there was a lot of playing
and frolicking,

and the most exciting thing
about raising an infant elephant

is when they start to play.

Then you know you're winning.

Narrator: Week by week, Aisha
grew bolder and more confident.

By the time
she was 3 months old,

Her natural spirit
was flourishing,

Which didn't please everyone.

Daphne: She ruled
all the other antelope orphans.

She loved chasing them.

I mean, little elephants
love chasing anything

that will obligingly run away.

She'd sort of charge them
with her little ears out

and her trumpet,
and of course they took off.

She loved that.

That gave her a feeling
of satisfaction and power.

Angela: She looked so good.

I mean, she had fat cheeks,
and she looked the picture
of health.

Daphne: She was considered
the boss of the garden orphans,

and of course they were quite
pleased when she was locked up
in the chicken run.

Narrator: Aisha's best friend
was Wellington the ostrich,

who she had befriended as
a chick when she first arrived.

Casson:
Aisha latched onto Wellington

because she had no other
little elephants to play with.

And Wellington followed
Aisha everywhere.

She was a happy little elephant.

Here we are on the walk again.

Here we've got
not only the ostriches

but some warthogs have joined
the garden of orphans.

They're coming along, too.

Angela: The evening walks became
a little bit of a ritual

As Aisha got stronger.

With Aisha would be, of course,
the little ostriches.

These tiny little companions
that she was able to sort of
toss around,

and they would love their walks.

And it was always a very, very
playful time for all of them.

Narrator: Despite Aisha
fitting in seamlessly
into domestic life,

there was sometimes no denying
that there was an elephant
in the garden.

Angela: Aisha was rambunctious
and knocking things over,

But if she's walking towards
the bowl of oats, for instance,

she would spray them
all out of the bowl,

and there would be oats
lying all over the lawn,

and she would stand on it
with her back leg,

and everything would go flying.

You'd have all the antelope
looking on in disbelief,

and she could make a hell
of a mess and a lot of noise.

She'd get the kind
of pots and pans

and toss them around
in the back yard there

and clang, clang, clang.

You always knew
when Aisha was on her own.

When an elephant's happy,
it's playful,

particularly a baby elephant,

just like a small human child.

Aisha loved playing with Angela.

Aisha would chase the bicycle
and do little mock charges
with her ears out

because she loved to trumpet.

[Trumpeting]

The first time she did that,
it gave her quite a fright.

She wasn't expecting that noise.

But after that
she used to work herself up

into a huge state of excitement.

It was then the trumpet
would happen.

You could see that she was happy
by the expression
on her little face.

Because elephants
do sort of smile a little bit,

you know,
if you watch their mouth.

Woman: I sometimes think
that elephants feel emotions

More intensely
than human beings.

I've always called them
drama queens,

and that's because...

Imagine humans who haven't
seen each other for a week.

You'd say, "hey."
That's about it, right?

Elephants, oh, my god.

They will come running.

They'll be communicating
for a couple of kilometers

back and forth
with these powerful sounds,

and then they start running,

and they run and they run,
and they come together,

they clank their tusks together,
they spin around,

they urinate, they defecate,
they scream, they shout,

they secrete from
the temporal glands.

Stuff squirts out of their ears,

And this can go on
for 5 minutes.

Just because they haven't
been together for a week.

Narrator: Elephants are
extremely social creatures,