Ex-orphan Chaimu brings newborn Comet back to Ithumba stockades at dawn

At dawn, ex-orphan elephant Chaimu returned to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Ithumba stockades with her newborn daughter. She is the 95th known calf born to an ex-orphan.

This is not Chaimu’s first homecoming with a baby. Chapa came first. On the evening of September 24 she arrived at Ithumba and stayed behind while her herd moved on, then gave birth to the bull steps from the keepers who raised her.

“Ex-orphan Chaimu returned home to give birth in our midst, sharing her new joy with the people who raised her. We have named her baby — a perfect little bull — Chapa. As you can see, he is utterly adored,” the Trust wrote. “Chaimu didn’t grow up alongside her own mother, yet she is proving to be a confident and competent first-time mum.”

Her herd came back with a fantastic fanfare of trumpets to welcome him. Chaimu and Chapa have kept visiting the keepers since.

Kristin Davis found Chaimu abandoned and weak near Kenya’s Chyulu Hills in 2009. The calf built up her strength at the Trust’s Nairobi nursery, moved to the Ithumba Reintegration Centre in Tsavo East National Park, and joined a wild herd. After that first birth, Davis told PEOPLE: “I was so thrilled when I learned that Chaimu had a baby! The Sheldrick Trust is so successful in raising orphaned elephants and releasing them back into the wild that over 60 new wild elephants have been born to ex-orphans! The fact that Chaimu decided to deliver her first baby in front of the reintegration unit in Tsavo is also so exciting.”

“This means she knew it would be a safe place to give birth, and she wanted to show her human family of keepers her new baby,” Davis said. “The sweetness of the relationships between the ex-orphans and their human keepers is something I always love to see play out.”

Chaimu is one of two Trust orphans modeled as sculptures for The Great Elephant Migration, on display in New York City’s Meatpacking District through Oct. 20, then Miami Beach in December. Of the dawn return with Comet, the Trust said it was delighted she chose to share this special moment with the Keepers who helped raise her.