Baby elephant following mommy Li Bingbing around

It seems like the norm of Hollywood to visit Africa in order to adopt babies or to have babies. Li Bingbing, confirmed to join the cast of Transformers 4, seems to have picked this up. She is now the proud mother of two children of Africa – two African baby elephants that is.

Li Binging took a trip to Kenya as an UNEP Goodwill Ambassador. She visited the Samburu National Reserve and a baby elephant orphanage in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where she adopted two baby elephants “Ajabu” and “Barsilnga”.


Most of the elephant calves at the orphanage lost their parents to poachers, or have been victims of poachers themselves. Having witnessed and survived these traumatic events, these young elephants are extremely sensitive and fragile. For example, Ajabu was found by tourists lying on the prairies alone, the three week old calf was dying from starvation and had probably lost his mother to poachers. After hearing the baby elephants’ stories of misfortune Li Bingbing decided to adopt Ajabu and another calf name Barsilnga.

Elephants, unlike other mammals, require breast milk to survive prior to the age of three or will die within 48 hours. The staff at the orphanage had to create a special formula to feed these young elephant calves. Li Bingbing decided to feed her babies herself, and to the surprise to the staff the reclusive Ajabu warmed up to Bingbing quickly and started following her around. According the staff members, due to his traumatic experience, Ajabu usually shy away from strangers, preferring the company of his primary caregivers.

How can anyone hurt these babies?

Source: Sina [1,2]