The Queen played surrogate mother to a group of orphaned baby elephants on Wednesday, feeding them formula milk at a sanctuary in Kenya.
Camilla, who was later joined by the King, was in her element at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi National Park as she took charge of the milk bottle.
“They are so lovely. This is fantastic,” she said after feeding a succession of young elephants who have lost their mothers.
She joked: “Is that the naughty corner?” as she pointed at a spot where some of the larger, more restless ones were placed.
The group, among 27 orphans being cared for at the sanctuary, came racing down from the undergrowth when they spotted it was feeding time.
Camilla bottle-fed an elephant calf called Mzinga, one of the centre’s youngest at a year and a half old, first.
“There we are. All finished now,” she said, as the little elephant guzzled her milk down in a matter of seconds.
Head keeper Edwin Lusichi said they had been orphaned for a number of reasons, sometimes as a result of poaching or humans coming into conflict with wildlife, but also in some cases simply because their mothers died of natural causes or became separated from them.
Camilla also fed two other young elephants, Talek, a 15-month-old female, and Mokogodo.
“She is one year old and she is the youngest,” said Mr Lusichi.
“Her favourite was this one, Taroho. He is a little young, 15 months,” the keeper said.
