Jabulani the elephant’s story kickstarted the HERD elephant orphanage and all the happy endings for ellies that followed. Rescued at around four months old decades ago, today he is a gentle giant celebrating his 28th birthday.
Undisclosed Location (13 March 2025) — The story of the Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development (HERD) orphanage largely began with a little elephant without a family named Jabulani.
In the late 90s, Jabulani was found in need of help. He was around four months old, abandoned by his herd, injured and had gotten stuck in the mud of a silt dam—no place for a baby bull.
Jabulani was taken in by Adine Roode’s mom. If you know about HERD, you know that Adine is the mother of many elephant orphans. But it was her mother who rescued the OG (original) orphan Jabulani, inspiring what would become a movement of hope for many more elephants to come and Adine’s life’s work.
After a lot of rehabilitation and many milk bottles, Jabulani had become big and strong enough to move on to greener pastures. For an elephant, this means becoming part of a herd again and no longer relying on human carers.
Despite being introduced to some wild elephants, they didn’t exactly gel with Jabulani. But when elephants faced culling in Zimbabwe, a huge opportunity came about to save their lives and introduce the young bull to a new herd.
The elephants and their carers came over to South Africa, and Jabulani found his forever family at long last as Tokwe, the matriarch elephant, accepted him into the fold.
This was a happily ever-after gained despite the odds he faced in those early moments of his life (elephant babies cannot survive on their own) and a happily ever-after that more elephants deserved.
And so, HERD began.
As the HERD team shares:
“A giant among giants. A soft heart who welcomes others, accepts others. Jabulani does not judge, he lives and lets live. He is a reminder of the path of kindness, from his start as a four month old orphan taken in by Adine’s mother, and raised on milk bottles until he could be weaned, to finding a new mother and family with Tokwe and the herd…
“Jabulani was the first orphan, the beginning of a new life for other orphans like him. He remains our founder of the herd, a son, a big brother, a father and a friend to human and elephant.”
As those who know and love him celebrate the grand elephant’s 28th birthday this month, they also celebrate all he inspired.
In fact, there is a whole herd named after him in honour of the happiness that comes with second chances.
You can support the Jabulani Herd, here, and find out more about virtually adopting Jabulani here.
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