Shimba was born in August 2006 in the Shimba Hills to a mother who had lost half of her trunk to a poacher’s snare. A planned translocation of elephants from Shimba National Reserve to Tsavo East National Park by the Kenya Wildlife Service then took place and unwisely Shimba and his compromised mother were amongst them. Whereas his mother could get by in the forests of the Shimba Hills, she could not cope with the harsh conditions of arid Tsavo which proved too much for her. She died soon afterwards just north of Lugards Falls near the road from the Voi Headquarters to Ithumba. It was thanks to a road gang working on the road who came across the dead mother, that Shimba was rescued in time. He was clambering all over his dead mother, attempting to suckle her lifeless breasts, a tiny calf of just 6 weeks old.