THE IVORY ORPHANS
1 x 45'
A touching story of how motherless elephant
calves are cared for and reintroduced into the wild. The programme focuses on the characters of the elephants Ajok, Ndume and Tya and their relationship with their keepers.
The story takes us to Nairobi National Park
where Daphne Sheldrick has established a sanctuary for orphaned elephants. During the film we see how the bond between the keepers and the Ivory Orphans develop. The keepers sleep with the animals to calm the
nightmares that they experience as a result of the trauma of loosing their parents.
We see how the orphans personalities develop over the months in the compound Ndume
becomes the boisterous guardian of the group - Ajok is always looking for trouble and Tya who is a sick little elephant, develops a close and tactile relationship with her keepers.
Unfortunately during the course of the film, Tya dies in a moving sequence, in the arms of her keepers.
For the older calves, life gets better and we observe the preparations for the transfer to Tsavo
where they will begin a process of final rehabilitation back into the wild. In Tsavo, we meet Barbara McKnight, an American Biologist, who is making a comparative study of wild calves
and those that have been orphaned. The final section of the programme sees the Ivory orphans introduced to Eleanor, an awesome thirty-three year old Matriarch who was rescued by Daphne
many years ago and appeared in the feature film ‘Born Free’. She becomes the group's surrogate mother helping their final rehabilitation into the wild.
Original soundtrack composed by Peter Frow.
Producer: Joe Phillips in conjunction with Animal Planet (US). Made in association with Atlantic Film
Partners.
Availability: Worldwide ex.US, all media.