Join the elephant foster care system

The Mogor River caught one baby elephant and swept him nearly half a mile downstream. Before that, rangers found a four-month-old who had lost her mother in a panic stampede.

Both youngsters soon joined the family of orphaned elephant calves and their dedicated troupe of keepers at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

Since 1978, this remarkable organization has nurtured infant elephants and black rhinos who find themselves motherless in Tsavo National Park, Kenya's largest park and ground zero for its poaching and snaring wars.

Notable as the first group to keep newborn African elephant orphans alive, this conservation powerhouse has saved more than 65 (and counting) endangered waifs.

Online, browse the photo gallery, read the animals' profiles, and try not to fall head over heels with what this place is doing.

Then, consider fostering an orphaned baby elephant for Christmas. You can gift this as a gift or do it as a family project.

The Wildlife trust does the fostering process by email to save costs, and this actually makes it a great last-minute gift since there's no shipping involved. Your gift recipient will learn about the fostered elephant's progress each month, and the animal is ensured the intensive care it needs.

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