Daphne Sheldrick was an elderly woman with a neat, gentle appearance and a halo of white hair. At first glance she looked like any other older lady — one you might picture pruning roses in the garden or sipping tea in an armchair. But appearances, as they say, can be deceiving: behind her ordinary, cheerful exterior there was in reality one of the pioneers of African wildlife conservation, a woman with an unstoppable passion for elephants and one of the greatest environmentalists in history.

This woman, whose name still means little to most people, died in Kenya at the age of 83. Yet over the course of her life, Daphne Sheldrick helped save more than 250 pachyderms, many of whom had lost their mothers to poachers or drought. To feed them, she developed a particularly nutritious milk formula to replace that of their mothers.

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"Daphne lived alongside elephants and learned to read their hearts… she understood their fragility, their intelligence, their capacity to love," reads the website of her charitable organisation. She published several books and featured in many television programmes and films, including the 2011 documentary Born to be wild. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth appointed her a dame.

Daphne Sheldrick con dei volontari del David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust — Artificially feeding young elephant calves is difficult because in the wild the composition of a mother's milk changes according to the calf's size and needs. Daphne Sheldrick developed and patented a formula milk suitable for young pachyderms

An orphanage for elephants

Born and raised in Kenya, Daphne spent the first half of her life working alongside her British husband David, who founded Kenya's largest national park, Tsavo East. In 1977, in her husband's memory, she founded the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a wildlife rescue centre specialising in the care of orphaned elephant calves. The centre, located within Tsavo National Park, has been active for forty years and rescues dozens of elephant calves every year, as well as rhinoceroses and other species that inhabit the Kenyan savannah. The animals are treated and cared for until they can be reintroduced into the wild. The centre also runs awareness programmes on the value of wildlife for local communities, campaigns against the ivory trade and against the abuse of animals in captivity, and manages anti-poaching teams.

A life devoted to animals

Daphne Sheldrick nurtured her love for animals, and for elephants in particular, from childhood; born in Kenya, she grew up surrounded by animals both wild and domestic. This passion was deepened through more than twenty-five years of work alongside her naturalist husband David. One of the most critical factors in the survival of orphaned elephant calves is nutrition, as artificially feeding them is an extremely complex undertaking. Sheldrick was the first person to perfect and patent a formula milk suitable for elephant and rhinoceros calves. Producing this particular milk required more than thirty years of study on wild elephant cows.

Operatori del rifugio mentre somministrano lo speciale "nettare". Di Daphne Sheldryck è stata l'invenzione, dopo circa 30 anni di lavoro, di un alimento in grado di sostituire il latte materno per i piccoli pachidermi. — Sanctuary keepers administering the special "nectar". It was Daphne Sheldrick who invented, after around 30 years of work, this substitute for mother's milk for young pachyderms.

Daphne Sheldrick, the elephant whisperer

The Kenyan conservationist succeeded in building a unique relationship with "her" elephants, thanks to her deep knowledge of animal psychology and a sincere and profound empathy. To appreciate just how strong this bond was, one need only look at images of the woman meeting the elephants she had raised and released — now fully grown, they would return to visit her and greet her like an old friend. It is no surprise that the pachyderms remembered her: elephants possess a prodigious memory and a sophisticated, still mysterious brain.

Due elefanti africani — The illegal ivory trade represents the gravest threat to elephants and could be the cause of the species' disappearance; the current population is estimated at just 415,000 individuals © Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

A story fit for the screen

Daphne Sheldrick's story inspired a film, entitled My wild life, directed by Walter Salles and starring Nicole Kidman. The film tells the life story and the mission to defend African biodiversity of the Kenyan environmentalist. In 2006, the BBC broadcast a documentary series that enjoyed extraordinary success, called Elephant Diaries, which showed Sheldrick's work with elephants.

Daphne Sheldrick, the story of a woman's love for elephants