Bringing up baby... elephants

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   BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: Our MAKING A DIFFERENCE report tonight involves some big little ones. Because

   they're still little ones, they need all the familiar things: 3 AM feedings, warm blankets, learning right from wrong. But when it's time to let these little ones go, things get a lot less familiar. One woman has been through the routine more than 100 times and, as you're about to see, she's making an important difference. To tell her story, NBC 's Maria Menounos traveled to Nairobi , Kenya .

   MARIA MENOUNOS reporting: It's 6 AM , and three-week-old Wasin is just waking up. Nearby, 18 other sleepy orphans are in need of a stretch, a push, and even a morning cuddle. Their keepers guide them every step of the way. For over 30 years, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has been rescuing baby elephants like these, and they're teaching them what their moms would have taught them had they not been victims of poaching, like Olare . Before he was rescued, young Olare wept by his dying mother's side for hours. Those kinds of traumatic memories are one of the many reasons keepers stay with the elephants 24 hours a day , even sleep with them at night, and feed them every three hours.

   Mr. EDWIN LUSICHI (Head Keeper): They all have different characters. Some are very cheeky, very playful, very naughty, very calm, very shy.

   MENOUNOS: And it was Dame Daphne Sheldrick who figured out their needs. She spent the last 50 years living with and learning from orphaned African elephants as the species is increasingly threatened by human conflict and ivory poaching.

   Mr. LUSICHI: All that we know has come from her. She's developed the milk, how to give them the care that they need.

   MENOUNOS: Daphne is the widow of Kenya 's famed conservationist David Sheldrick . They raised all kinds of orphans, along with their own children. But this has become her life's work. There wasn't this big research team, it was you.

   Dame DAPHNE SHELDRICK: No, none of the zoos could help us. You know, they never, ever had been able to raise an infant elephant themselves.

   MENOUNOS: Now a world renowned expert, she has successfully raised 130 elephants into adulthood. But it's not been without heartbreak. She says one of the first orphans she raised from infancy died from grief when Daphne took a brief trip.

   Dame DAPHNE: It was -- you learn the hard way.

   MENOUNOS: Ever since, the keepers rotate each night so no baby grows too attached. It's always been a family affair, with the help of daughters Jill and Angela .

   Ms. ANGELA SHELDRICK (Daughter): I think for Daphne , you know, when you see the elephants grown, a huge herd there, and she can stand back and say "but for I," it's a good feeling.

   Dame DAPHNE: You have to love them, because an elephant can read your heart.

   MENOUNOS: Turns out the biggest lesson learned is that elephants are as human as the rest of us . Maria Menounos , NBC News, Nairobi, Kenya .

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