HERD - A Dedicated Elephant Orphanage

HERD logo

HERD – Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development – is based in Hoedspruit in South Africa and was founded by Adine Roode; she’s heavily involved in the running of the orphanage together with the team of elephant carers she’s assembled.

Adine and little orphan Khanyisa (HERD)

It’s one of my favourite YouTube channels that I’m subscribed to.

I first came across them a couple of years ago when a video randomly popped up on my homepage to do with a little albino orphan elephant who’d been horribly injured by a snare.

Little baby Khanyisa captured my heart immediately with her engaging personality and will to survive.

In this video, she’s 6 months old, still in the nursery, before she was introduced to the herd, and you can hear Adine talking to her.

Until recently, Khanyisa, now 4 years old, has been the youngest.

In November 2023, the team at HERD got a call about another orphan, a little bull calf, whom they named Phabeni, estimated to be about 4 months old at the time of his rescue.

While Khanyisa is fully integrated with the rest of the herd, and lives with them on the homestead, Phabeni is still in the nursery but is gradually being introduced to members of the herd.

This video is of his early days at HERD and shows him with Adine.

Little Phabeni’s introduction to the herd has gone so well, he’s now walking out with them each day into the bush!

It’s amazing how the herd welcomes each orphan and makes them a part of their family, underlining just how intuitive elephants are.

This very recent video shows, in a nutshell, what HERD is about.

If you love elephants and haven’t come across this channel before, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

For me, spending time with this elephant family, all great personalities, and going for virtual walks with them, is a great way to relax and step away from the cares of the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE 29 JULY 2024 - Sadly, about 4 weeks ago, sweet little Phabeni passed away.

Adine wrote a blog post detailing what happened leading up to the loss of this brave little boy.

And there are another two blog posts on the Herd’s response to losing their little baby, and a personal letter from Adine.