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 memoriam to whom the eponymous David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) was created by his widow, Daphne (later Dame Daphne Sheldrick) in Nairobi.

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.

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.

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. 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.

Wildlife trust

The term wildlife trust can be used in one of two senses to describe organisations concerned with wildlife:

Wildlife trusts (other than those that are part of the UK movement The Wildlife Trusts):

David

David (/ˈdeɪvɪd/; Hebrew: דָּוִד, Modern David, Tiberian Dāwîḏ;ISO 259-3 Dawid; Arabic: داوُد‎ Dāwūd; Syriac: ܕܘܝܕ‎ Dawid; Ancient Greek: Δαυίδ; Latin: Davidus, David; Strong's: Daveed) was, according to the Books of Samuel, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel, and according to the New Testament, an ancestor of Jesus. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040 – 970 BCE, his reign over Judah c. 1010–970 BCE.

The Books of Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles are the only Old Testament sources of information on David, although the Tel Dan Stele (dated c. 850–835 BCE) contains the phrase בית דוד (bytdwd), read as "House of David", which many scholars confirm to be a likely plausible match to the existence in the mid-9th century BCE of a Judean royal dynasty called the House of David.

Depicted as a valorous warrior of great renown, and a poet and musician credited for composing much of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms, King David is widely viewed as a righteous and effective king in battle and civil justice. He is described as a man after God's own heart in 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22.

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a Kenyan wildlife conservation charity founded in 1977 in memory of David Sheldrick by his widow Daphne Sheldrick. It assists and advises the Kenya Wildlife Service and manages an orphanage for elephants and rhinos. This trust is reintegrating orphaned elephants back into the Kenyan wildlife, and is a World Elephant Day associate.

The trust recently released a video on its YouTube channel, celebrating their 100,000th fan on Facebook.

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Wildlife

Wildlife traditionally refers to non-domesticated animal species, but has come to include all plants, fungi, and other organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans.

Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems. Deserts, forests, rain forests, plains, grasslands, and other areas including the most developed urban sites, all have distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that much wildlife is affected by human activities.

Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of ways including the legal, social, and moral sense. Some animals, however, have adapted to suburban environments. This includes such animals as domesticated cats, dogs, mice, and gerbils.Some religions have often declared certain animals to be sacred, and in modern times concern for the natural environment has provoked activists to protest the exploitation of wildlife for human benefit or entertainment.