Sesame Street and the Great Elephant Adventure, a crossover between PBS’s Nature and Sesame Workshop filmed at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, premieres Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 8/7c on PBS and PBS KIDS. Elmo, Abby Cadabby and Nina travel to Nairobi so Elmo can meet the orphaned elephant he adopted online.
It is the first time the Sesame Street characters have left the neighborhood for an African safari, and the destination is not a set. The three went to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Nairobi Nursery, where orphaned elephant calves are hand-raised by keepers until they are old enough to begin the long move back toward wild herds, and met Elmo’s adopted calf along with the rest of the nursery herd.
What is on screen
The Trust called the shoot a once-in-a-lifetime trip in its own announcement on Wednesday, and reported that the welcome went both ways: the elephants, it wrote, were “absolutely enchanted by their new Muppet friends.” The Trust thanked Nature, Sesame Workshop and PBS for the production and said it hoped the hour would “spark curiosity in young viewers and inspire families to explore the natural world together.”
The special is a Sesame Workshop and The WNET Group production, directed and produced by Benjamin Lehmann. Sal Perez and Kay Wilson Stallings are executive producers for Sesame Workshop and Fred Kaufman is executive producer for Nature, with Bill Murphy as series producer and Janet Hess as series editor. Major support came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
How to watch
The premiere runs Wednesday, October 14 from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS and PBS KIDS, and local listings vary. The PBS pressroom listing carries the broadcast details. It streams at pbs.org/nature, on YouTube, at pbskids.org, and in the PBS KIDS Video app and the PBS app. The Trust says viewers outside the United States can watch on YouTube from 12:00 a.m. GMT on Thursday, October 15.
Why the nursery exists
The Nairobi Nursery is the first stage of the Trust’s Orphans’ Project. Calves that arrive there have lost their families, and the ones that survive are moved in stages to reintegration units in Tsavo, where they rejoin wild herds over a period of years rather than months. The adoption Elmo made, the Trust’s fostering scheme, is the program’s main public funding channel and the reason there is a nursery for a television crew to visit.
It is also a reminder of how these calves arrive. We covered one of them, a calf named Sibu, earlier this month.
Which zoos are behind this
None that we can document, and the gap is worth stating rather than papering over. We looked for an accredited zoo or aquarium with money, staff or animals attached to this broadcast or to the nursery and did not find one. The special’s credited support is public broadcasting money and private philanthropy, led by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with additional support from several named families and charitable foundations. None of them is a zoological institution, and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust names no accredited zoo or aquarium among its supporters.
That absence is not an oversight on anyone’s part. The Trust publishes a position opposing the capture of infant elephants for captive display, which places it at a deliberate distance from part of the zoo world. The difference of view is real and tonight’s hour does not settle it. What it does mean is that an American broadcast introducing a generation of children to elephants was assembled without the sector that does most of the elephant care in this country, which is a fact about both sides.
Quick answers
- What is Sesame Street and the Great Elephant Adventure?
It is an hour-long crossover special between PBS’s Nature and Sesame Workshop in which Elmo, Abby Cadabby and Nina travel to Kenya and visit the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Nairobi Nursery, where Elmo meets the orphaned elephant he adopted online. It is the first time the Sesame Street characters have gone on an African safari.
- When and where does it air?
Wednesday, October 14, 2026, from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS and PBS KIDS. Local listings vary. It also streams at pbs.org/nature, on YouTube, at pbskids.org, and in the PBS KIDS Video app and the PBS app.
- Can viewers outside the United States watch it?
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust says it will be available on YouTube from 12:00 a.m. GMT on Thursday, October 15.
- Who made it?
It is a Sesame Workshop and The WNET Group production, directed and produced by Benjamin Lehmann. Sal Perez and Kay Wilson Stallings are executive producers for Sesame Workshop and Fred Kaufman is executive producer for Nature, with Bill Murphy as series producer and Janet Hess as series editor.
- What is the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Nairobi Nursery?
It is the first stage of the Trust’s Orphans’ Project. Orphaned elephant calves are hand-raised there by keepers, then moved in stages to reintegration units in Tsavo, where they rejoin wild herds over a period of years rather than months.
- Which zoos or aquariums funded this?
None that we can document. The credited support for the special is public broadcasting money and private philanthropy, led by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and none of the named additional funders is a zoological institution. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust names no accredited zoo or aquarium among its supporters either, and it publishes a position opposing the capture of infant elephants for captive display.
