Hermien Roelvert-van Gils
Diary of an Elephant Orphan follows the journey of a baby elephant orphan and her passionate team, on their mission to integrate her back into an elephant herd.
Little orphan elephant Khanyisa miraculously survives severe dehydration and malnourishment, after being trapped in a deadly poacher's snare. After being rescued and nursed back to health, a much larger challenge awaits her: she needs a family of her own.
The experienced team knows that a wild elephant herd will, most likely, not accept her. The next best option is to try with a semi-wild family - one made up of orphaned elephants themselves that had been rescued from Zimbabwe 25 years ago.
Will this herd of 15 elephants accept little Khanyisa? Will these large, 3 tonne animals allow the human carers to feed the baby her milk amongst them in the bush out in Big 5 territory?
The team hasn't attempted anything like this with such a young elephant before, but they know that it’s best for her in the long run. If they manage to pull it off, this might change the face of elephant rehabilitation in South Africa.
FILM DETAILS
Title: Diary of an Elephant Orphan
Genres: Wildlife
Languages: English
Year of production: 2025
Country of production: South Africa
Director: Hermien Roelvert
Hermien is a TV producer and filmmaker spesialising in stories about the natural world and its inhabitants. For the past 15 years Hernien has produced, film and directed environmental and wildlife content for broadcast. She was an episode producer for the team that made the 4K blue-chip series Africa Rivers Wild for Animal Planet and France 5. On an ongoing basis, she creates wildlife and envoronmental content for the longest running environmental show in South Africa for SABC.
Producer: Hermien Roelvert, SkyDrum Films
