Dear Friend!
Sunshine has graduated!
Albino elephant orphan and snare survivor, Khanyisa has moved from the orphanage to the homestead and officially integrated fully into her new family, the Jabulani herd. Named after the very first orphan the herd accepted in 2002, Jabulani, the herd is a very unique group of elephants, with orphans and those born to them making up a family of their own. While the original elephants were rescued as orphans from Zimbabwe in 2002, they came to form a viable herd in our care, with Tokwe as Matriarch and Sebakwe as dominant bull. The herd accepted orphans, Kumbura in 2009 and Timisa in 2016. They have now fully accepted Khanyisa, who started integrating into the herd in 2020, after she had spent time rehabilitating from her snare wounds at the orphanage.
This is a great new step for Khanyisa - joining the herd full time, and one that we have worked toward since day one. It is your support and generosity for this special calf that have enabled this successful transition!
If you have been following our videos on social media, you will have seen the days as they unfolded...
It has been a smooth transition but also difficult in some ways, as we let go of the calf who has shared our orphanage since January 2020. Now we welcome a bolder, braver, bigger elephant and the journey ahead of her. Adine shares her view of Khanyisa’s first morning in the homestead in this blog > to give you an update on this final step in Sunshine's integration!
Since then, Khanyisa has been adapting beautifully, spending a lot of time beside Tokwe, with allomothers, Kumbura and Limpopo looking out for the calf regularly. We will update you more in videos to come!
To add to our big celebrations... the rain has started to fall! We are thrilled to have little green shoots returning to the bush, to provide for the elephants and all the animals in the reserve, and to have the promise of full dams once more.
Thank you and all the best to you!
The HERD Team
