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Yesterday afternoon Ukame and Wanjala did not want to enter their stockades; even with the whole herd escorting them there, it still didn’t help and it took the keepers about an hour or persuading to get the two into their pens! Ukame and Wanjala are not happy with their move, but with time they will get used to it, as they always do. At 6.30am a rescue team left heading to Kabarnet in Baringo county. This was to collect a baby after we had received a call from Rimoi game reserve last night informing us about the calf. By 10.45am the team were back with the calf which was under a month old. It was still on a drip and looking very weak. It is a girl who we have named Rimoi, and it was reported she had been found fallen down a gully. With the arrival of Rimoi, Ambo was promoted to a stockade in the Nursery and he has proven to be a cool boy – not giving any trouble to the keepers about going into his new room. In fact he looked much happier in there being so close to Malima too, and they started playing with each other immediately.

Solio paid Maxwell a visit last night! She arrived just after 9pm and she found Maxwell asleep. When he heard her he got up and started charging around in different directions. It was hard for the keepers to approach Solio at first as they were not sure if she was alone or not. She decided to spend the night beside Maxwell’s stockade until the morning when the keepers started moving around the elephant started coming out of their pens. She then started calling for lucerne and when she was finished with the meal, she vanished into the forest. This was also good for Max because as soon as she left, he went back to sleep after a long night of unrest and moving around. Ngilai and Malima have spent their day together out in the bush and sharing browse. It is so funny to watch Ngilai as he is one of those babies that seems to love the camera. When a film crew was here today he was always one tracking the camera and pulling funny poses! Ambo hardly leaves Mbegu’s side when they are out in the forest. He is often under her neck whilst feeding or just doing his own thing close by. Sometimes Dupotto will stand in for Mbegu whenever she is away or visiting the very little ones of late. Jotto seems to be recalling the days of the hanging blanket today and he sneaked away from the main herd to go and spend some time with Musiara’s baby team. As Musiara and Chumvi have been in the baby herd the longest, they always think that everything, the Keepers or blanket or anything else around, belongs to them. Musiara is always jealous of who comes near the Keepers or plays with the hanging blanket too. Jotto made the mistake of playing with the blanket, but facing in the opposite direction. Musiara had not seen him approach the blanket but when he noticed his presence he pushed him from behind. As Jotto turned around Musiara tried to charge him, but Jotto knew this was just baby behaviour and walked away to save upsetting the little one.

It was a sleepless night for the two babies Musiara and Chumvi last night due to the long downpour and the sound of the rain on their roofs. They were both screaming and moving around their rooms the whole night. They were the loudest but they were not the only ones who were affected by the rain as Esampu, Tagwa, Lasayen, Kuishi and Wanjala were also bothered. Maxwell on the other hand, couldn’t contain his excitement and was running around in happiness, chasing the warthogs who were feeding on his food. He enjoyed running after them and found it even more fun when they got stuck at his gate, teasing them as if he was going to hit them with his horn. He wound up his exiting morning with a lengthy mud bath. He fell asleep on the edge of his mud bath and was woken up by the heat of the sun later on. As we wait for the rains to come, the orphans still have to walk further into the forest to find good browse. For this reason Luggard has joined the baby group again, for the time being, so he does not have to walk as far on his bad leg. He also happens to like his keepers, just like little Musiara. Today Musiara has been trying to charge at poor Luggard whenever he seeks some attention from the keepers and he didn’t allow any of the other babies to play with the hanging blanket – it seems he is a very jealous baby for the time being! Ambo seems to love his new room so much and loves running into it in the afternoon when it is time for bed. When he came home this afternoon he was in a very playful mood, wanting to play with Malima all the time. Malima was only interested in stealing Ambo’s food however, from the other side of the pen. Ambo then decided to guard his meal by staying by his food and whenever Malima starched her trunk to through to his side to steal some branches, he charged at the wood divider to fend her off!

From today the little babies will always be visited by their older friends for at least 2 or 3 hours a day – which the younger babies are delighted with, and the opportunity to suckle on the older elephant’s ears. Normally the older ones visit the babies after public visiting and whilst some are not bothered by the younger ones at all, for others, like Esampu, Maramoja, Godoma, Malkia, Sana Sana, Malima and Mbegu, it is a precious moment and puts a big smile on their elephant faces. They live to visit the little ones and spend some time with them. Dupotto was there too but only for a short time as she was not too friendly with one of the babies, so she went to join Kelelari, Galla, Wanjala and Ukame who had less interest in the babies. They had moved deep into the forest to browse. All in all if there were any elephants who had the most fun with the little babies then it was Mbegu and Malima, as they refused to leave the babies even when all the others had started to walk away, and stayed with them right up until the 3pm milk feeding time. Even then Mbegu wasn’t a walk in the park for the keepers and gave the keepers a rough time trying to escort the babies back towards the stockade area. After the private visit though Mbegu managed to sneak away from the herd in the company of Tamiyoi, Jotto and Malkia to visit the babies again, and the keepers had to come and walk her back to the forest.

When the orphans arrived out in the forest Mundusi, Ndiwa and Mteto were in a very restless mood and were spotted several times trying to sneak back to the stockades. All three of these babies are becoming quite greedy characters these days for their milk, and this is why they try to sneak away from the others and back to the stockades, to see if they might be able to find any more milk. It is funny that Mundusi is always the leader of the three and yet he is the newest arrival! During public visiting today Jotto, Malima, Esampu and Ambo were enjoying cooling themselves down in the mud pool. Jotto and Malima were busy playing a pushing game and rolling and bumping against each other, though their happy game was soon challenged by the naughty Esampu. She frequently interrupted them by bumping into them, before running out of the mud bath and up to the rope cordon where the public where standing, splashing mud against them; although the visitors did not seem to mind! Esampu is one of the babies who is always prominent during the public visiting time due to her naughty behaviour!

Soon after the orphans had settled to browse in the forest this morning, we watched on as Godoma, Malkia, Esampu, Malima and Tamiyoi frightened the entire orphan herd by running out of the bushes, trumpeting as they went, and running towards where the baby group was relaxing. The babies were yelling amongst themselves too, and fighting over who got right of the hanging blanket. Godoma’s group led the whole herd over, and when they arrived they enjoyed touching and embracing the little babies, though Kelelari, Karisa and Pare all shied away from being touched by the babies. One of the babies started following Kelelari, which saw him run away from the herd as he didn’t want to play with them. The little one cried out when she couldn’t reach him, but Tamiyoi, Godoma and Malkia rushed over to comfort her and she enjoyed being patted all over with their trunks.

The day started off cloudy which soon turned to light rainfall which saw some orphans like Murit, Malima, Ambo, Tagwa, Malkia and Mundusi to stay inside their stockades, unhappy and unwilling to get wet! Murit, Mundusi, Malima and Ambo yelled in frustration as they saw the other orphans happily walking out and enjoying the rain. Even when the keepers came to talk to them, they moved back further into the depths of their stockades, not wanting to come out in the rain, and they stayed put until it had stopped! Since Luggard has been spending so much time with the babies recently, he has started acting like one too! It’s always interesting to watch him walk out in the morning with the older orphans, but as soon as he reaches the end of Maxwell’s stockade and realises the babies are not yet out of their stables, he keeps yelling and turning back, walking to stand and wait for them outside their pens. Today he walked out of his stockade but refused to walk any further when he saw Musiara and Chumvi still inside their rooms. Out in the forest when he is taken over to where the big orphans are browsing, he runs back to stay with the little ones; it probably helps that he always gets his milk like them and gets provided with some yummy greens too! He doesn’t even have to search for them for long like when browsing with the older orphans. Obviosuly he does not have to walk as far as them either, and tire himself out with his bad leg. He really likes the company of the little ones!

As usual the older orphans walked out of their stables before the little ones in the early morning. But today the ones that love the babies the most like Mbegu, Godoma, Malkia, Tamiyoi, Esampu and Malima waited around in the stockades, trying to buy time and wait for the babies to come out as well. Due to the poor weather this morning the babies were being kept in their pens a bit longer this morning, so the older group waited around without success. The others in the rest of the herd had continued to walk out to the forest, so Mbegu had no other option than to leave and ran out charging and trumpeting, protesting that the babies had not come out with them that morning. On their way out they came across a group of warthogs that were also waiting around and browsing, waiting for the baby group to come out as well as they usually browse close to them during the day. Mbegu and Godoma chased the warthogs but they challenged them by disappearing into the bushes, leaving the two girls to carry on their charge into the forest to meet the rest of the group.

Nowadays it is not just Tamiyoi but also Murit, Pare, Kelelari, Mbegu and Dupotto who can be seen running out of their stockades in the morning and into the pens of their friends like Jotto, Esampu, Malima, Kuishi, Mteto and Mundusi to see if they have any left over lucerne pellets! Thus it has been quite hard for the keepers to control them as when some of the orphans are trying to come out of their pens, others are trying to go in, or running from one stockade to the next, and it can be rather chaotic. Recently it has taken some time to get them all out to the forest! Sometimes when Mbegu, Dupotto, Kelelari and Murit fail to find any leftovers, they start protesting by knocking or shaking the stockade gates! When the keepers cautioned them today they left the stockade area yelling as they ran out to the forest.

This morning little Tamiyoi, Malkia, Jotto, Esampu and Malima frightened the rest of the group when they went rumbling and trumpeting all the way back to the stockade area. This forced the other orphans to do the same, and they went running from the forest trumpeting and complaining (about what, they did not know) following Tamiyoi’s group back to the stockades. It seems that all the first group wanted to do was a) find any leftover lucerne pellets belonging to their friends in their pens, b) Tamiyoi and Malkia wanted to meet with the little babies and escort them out to the forest; they were so happy to join them! Kiko has been a good boy today; after fighting so much to go out into the forest, he was given a chance to go and join the elephants in the forest. Ndiwa and Rapa kept chasing him away but he would only disappear for awhile before returning back to the herd. The two elephants eventually gave up on chasing him as he only kept coming back. Kiko behaved so well that even when the first group of elephants when down for the public visit, he did not fight or dodge the keepers like he normally does, he just stayed there browsing. It was not until 4pm that he decided to make his way back to the stockades; sometimes he does not go straight back to his pen but first to the car parking area to give the keepers there some trouble before walking to his pen, but today he was a very different boy and went straight to his pen to enjoy his meal placed there without bothering anyone!