December brought an exciting new chapter for our Nursery big girls.
The month started with the first day of translocation training for Kerrio, Latika, and Kamili, the three oldest elephants in the herd. These girls had especially difficult starts and will benefit from the gentler environment of the Kibwezi Forest. Starting on the first of the month, we gave them all their daytime milk feeds in — or near! — the training truck. Predictably, all three refused to even set foot on the ramp during the first session. They gulped their milk, whirled about, and headed back to the forest.
Nyambeni is one of the older girls in the herd, but she has liked being first since she was a small baby. Even when she was only one year old, she was often first to pad round the corner and down to the stockades in the afternoon. So it still goes — she hustles to the front so she can lead the herd out to the forest.
Mzinga is both a competent nanny and a playful toddler. Both can be true! On their way back to the forest one morning, the whole herd stopped for a drink. Most drank sensibly — but not Mzinga. She waved her trunk from side to side in the water and then splashed arcs of water across the pool.
Taroha is our Nursery herd's current 'gentle uncle.' In contrast to the rascal Pardamat, he is a nurturing bull who is trusted by all members of the herd. While he has tusks, he never uses them aggressively and enjoys taking care of the babies. One afternoon, Daba and Alia were standing close to Taroha, who stood as a bodyguard and regularly trunk-touched them.
On the other hand, Pardamat does not have tusks but loves to assert his dominance. Luckily, he has a willing sparring partner in Olomunyak. Out in the forest one morning, the boys were pushing each other back and forth while the others browsed around them. Olomunyak is younger and shorter than Pardamat but already has two tiny tusks. Nonetheless, the bulls are well matched. Browsing again with Daba and Alia, wise, even-keeled Taroha kept an eye on the contest from a distance but was not tempted to join the game.
Arthi is a laidback chap who is okay with not being the centre of attention. The older girls care for him and are always watchful but do not fuss over the young bull — Kipekee claims most of their attention. This doesn't bother Arthi at all. He is happy to do his own thing and really enjoys spending time with the Keepers.
However, Arthi can get competitive! He loves being the leader, wherever the herd is going. One morning, when Talek overtook him as he jogged down to the mud bath for his milk, Arthi protested with loud trumpets.
The battle of the middens is ongoing! As we charted last month, male black rhinos are very territorial — thus, the arrival of Tytan has led to some very interesting dynamics with resident male Maxwell. Once the youngster arrived, Max decided to move his midden (dung heap) to the fence, right by the path Tytan takes into the forest. Tytan, who is proving to be quite an upstart, responded by designating his own midden just on the other side of the fence.
As Tytan marched along one side of Maxwell's fenceline one morning, Max was running around in circles. The little rhino stopped exactly at the corner of the enclosure to defecate on his midden. In response, Max ran faster and shook his head and defecated on his midden on the other side of the fence — just one metre from Tytan's pile. While all this marking of territory was going on, Notty the zebra stood by, waiting patiently. Zebras are not such a territorial species, and we can only imagine what she thinks of this whole palaver!
Tytan may be an instigator, but our orphaned elephants still dote upon Maxwell. One morning as the orphans were heading out to the field, Taroha, Nyambeni, and Mzinga stopped off at Maxwell's gate to say hello. Cheeky Mzinga popped her trunk through the gaps to pull at the old rhino's ears while the other two knocked on the gate with their heads. Max stood very still, enjoying having his ears stroked by Mzinga. Max may be blind, but he still enjoys attention from the orphans.
Later in the month, Max had some unexpected visitors. In the early morning, Maxwell was hanging out at his gate, waiting to hear who came by. To everyone's surprise — as neither baby has ever shown any interest in interacting with Max — the visitors that day were Kipekee and Daba! Somehow, Max sensed that Kipekee and Daba were the very little ones of the herd. He typically pushes back hard when interacting with the older orphans, but he was gentle with the two small babies. They remained at his gate until Muridjo arrived and whisked them away to the forest.
Tytan remains best friends with Notty the zebra. Tytan and Notty were rescued around the same time, have become good friends, and do not make a step without each other in the forest. Notty often stands over Tytan and touches him affectionately. One morning, Tytan and Notty came across some warthogs and their five babies playing a pushing game. When Tytan decided to follow them, the warthogs ran away from the rhino and the zebra, and the two gave chase. An excited Tytan ran about in circles until we calmed him down.
By mid-month, Kamili and Latika were happily taking their milk in the moving truck, but Kerrio stalwartly refused to step aboard. But finally, we had a breakthrough — thanks to Wamata and Kipekee! As we escorted Kerrio, Kamili, and Latika back from the forest to the truck for their 9 AM milk feed one morning, we saw two small elephants jogging to catch up with us. Wamata and Kipekee had run away from the herd to follow the big girls. Rather than shepherd them back, we gave them the chance to watch the training process. To our great surprise, Kerrio walked straight onto the ramp for her milk feed for the very first time. Somehow, the presence of Wamata and Kipekee had changed her attitude.
Times may change, but Kipekee still reigns supreme. It was another Kipekee swimming day one afternoon — with all the kerfuffle that entails. She drank her milk and headed straight for the wallow with nannies Kamili, Mzinga, Kerrio, and Latika in tow. The baby lay on her belly and wriggled around with the four older girls standing around and over her in the mud. It amazes us that no one ever stands on her! None of the older orphans were allowed into the wallow until the little princess had climbed out for a soil dusting.
The 15th of December was a momentous day for our Nursery family — a graduation day! It was time to bid farewell to Kerrio, Kamili, and Latika. In the very early morning, we were all up preparing as the three big girls sensed that something strange was happening. Kamili knew this as soon as she saw many Keepers moving around in the middle of the night. She began pacing in her stockade, rumbling and trumpeting. Kerrio responded with more low rumbles as Latika walked around her room too.
We loaded Latika into the truck first and then Kamili. Both elephants needed a great deal of persuading. To our surprise, Kerrio put up the least resistance. She was hesitant but walked in by herself. With Talek, Taroha, Nyambeni, and Mzinga trumpeting in the background, we loaded the milk and lucerne for the journey, closed the doors, and said goodbye to Kerrio, Kamili, and Latika. They travelled with two Nursery Keepers and arrived safely at our Umani Springs Reintegration Unit at dawn to embark upon the next stage of their lives.
During the day, Wamata, Mzinga, Nyambeni, and Kipekee seemed the most affected by the absence of the big girls. They were a bit unsettled and stuck close to each other in the woods. Muridjo, meanwhile, was eager to show that she was the new mini matriarch. First thing in the morning, she went round to each and every stable and stockade, as if to reassure everyone that she was now in charge.
As we expected, Muridjo is the new mini matriarch with Nyambeni and Mzinga as her deputies. Muridjo has always been a playful elephant but has become very caring in the past year.
It is remarkable to watch how the girls self-manage the herd. One day, Arthi — usually a laidback boy but not when he loses a race — shoved Kipekee after drinking his milk and she fell over. Muridjo ran to the rescue. Knowing that he had behaved badly, Arthi evicted himself from the wallow and gave himself a timeout in the bushes, while Muridjo trunk-touched Kipekee and checked that she was not hurt. Muridjo, Mzinga, and Nyambeni did not allow the little boy close to the wallow for the rest of the session — but made him stay in the naughty corner!
As usual, Talek remains unflappable and undramatic. One afternoon, she was being a particularly tolerant big sister. When naughty Kipekee pushed her from behind apropos of nothing, she hardly reacted. There was no trumpeting or pushing back. Instead, Talek took a few steps to the right and went back to browsing. We told off Kipekee — in contrast to her nannies, who did nothing! In their eyes, Kipekee is irreproachable!
The month ended with a snippet of custody battles. One morning in the forest, deputy mini matriarch Mzinga was trying to shepherd away Arthi and Daba, wanting to look after them by herself rather than share nanny duties with Muridjo. Ever-vigilant Muridjo was not allowing this. Our new mini matriarch intercepted Mzinga and made the three elephants remain with the herd.