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In the early morning the orphans were lined up in a long line to walk out to the forest. Tamiyoi was lagging behind at the back of the line. She was called by the keepers to catch up to the middle but she declined. Mbegu realised she was falling behind and went to the back to try and push her along. She didn’t listen to Mbegu either though and was left standing behind the line. Everybody carried on and she was left standing there looking like she wasn’t in a very good mood. Maybe she was trying to prove to the keepers that she is no longer a small baby and does not want to be in the baby group. Eventually there was quite a gap between her and the others and a small dik dik antelope came along. It made a noise to call to another dik dik which scared Tamiyoi and she shouted for help. No one came to her though so she shouted louder and this time Esampu came running back to her. This was a big relief to Tamiyoi and she ran to meet Esampu. Before Esampu could reach her though the second dik dik crossed the path following its friend and Esampu ran after it, flushing them all out of their hiding places and stamping around. She must have realised they were the cause of Tamiyoi’s shouting and she decided to do something about it. Tamiyoi was excited now to join the rest of her group, having stood on her own for about 10 minutes and not really moving. Jotto came over to her and invited her to a soil dusting game which they enjoyed for a long time and then Sana Sana came over. She rolled on the ground next to where the two were playing and Galla came over as well, but that was towards the end of the game. Galla started trying to climb on Sana Sana’s back which she wasn’t pleased about so she got up and went into the thicket while Tamiyoi and Jotto went over to Mbegu.

Tagwa has remained such a shy girl within the family, to such an extent that sometimes she is bullied by some of the smaller ones like Malima! Kuishi has also taken advantage of her shyness and bullied her today as well. Tagwa doesn’t really defend herself either and looks to the keepers for help whenever she is being picked on. It’s good for little Musiara that he has so many friends and new family members willing to protect and take care of him. Malima and Kuishi were babysitting him today, keeping him in the middle so he could copy everything they were doing like pulling grass and feeding themselves. Esampu then came rushing over and pushed them aside so she could have some time with the baby too. Today was Musiara’s first time at the mud bath during the 3pm milk feed and he enjoyed the mud bath so much. After mud bathing he settled on the red soil and spent most of his time dusting himself and rolling around. When the other youngsters noticed his good time in the soil, Jotto, Tamiyoi, Malima and Luggard all went over to him. Mbegu was watching him from a distance though and came over to block the young ones from disturbing him. She kept him under her belly and with the comfort and reassurance of Mbegu Musiara decided to take a little nap until the end of the session when he was woken up by Mbegu. Ukame has spent her day in the usual company of Karisa, Wanjala, Maramoja and Kelelari and they performed their usual trick of staying away from the rest of the herd.

Esampu is giving herself many nicknames due to her character - she is known as the little cheeky one, the greedy one and as of today the trumpeter as well! Every time she comes across the warthogs in the forest she trumpets and chases them away. Today, however, the warthogs seem to not be paying any attention to her threats as they have become used to her advances! When she trumpets, you would think it’s a big elephant - she is amazing with her trumpets and can be very loud! During the public visit today she arrived in the last group with Jotto, Sana Sana and Malima. Godoma seems to have been prepared and was waiting for her arrival. As a keeper stood waiting for her with a milk bottle, Godoma stood patiently next to the keeper. As soon as Esampu finished her milk Godoma took her tail and put it in her mouth! Esampu is known for pushing the keepers when she is done with her bottle to get more milk, and Godoma anticipated this and decided to hold her tail so that she would not push either her keeper or any of her friends for more milk. It seemed to work and Esampu shouted for help and ran in the opposite direction to the wheelbarrow and the keepers. It was a good lesson for the cheeky little one! Back in the forest it was a hot day and the older ones disappeared into the thicket for food and shade. Tamiyoi and Jotto took on a big job as they stayed behind to look after and guard little Musiara as he decided to take a little nap. They watched over him until he woke up to look for his milk bottle.

Well what a happy morning it was for the orphans today - it seemed it was all about trumpeting! Some unlucky elands got mixed up in the orphan’s fun and in all the excitement things did not look that fun for the elands! As usual Esampu was leading the trumpeting choir and Mbegu and Ndotto were very much with her. As Esampu was charging around she came across two jackals who were feeding on their small kill. It was quite an interesting show that followed as the jackals were not ready to give up their breakfast and Esampu was not ready to give up in scaring them out of the bushes! They kept running away but dropping their food as they went. After a short while, things returned to normal after the poor elands and jackals had disappeared into the forest. The orphans went back to browsing and some continued playing too. Just after 1pm we received a report of a young baby elephant in Mara with a share around her trunk that needed rescuing. The poor thing's trunk had almost been severed in two by this wire snare. She arrived at the nursery just after 5.30pm looking a little stressed but she settled down after a short while and with Ambo in the next door stable.

Due to the arrival of the poor baby with the snare wound yesterday it was quite a long night for Ambo and Esampu in the next door stables. The young girl woke in the night and was sad about the loss of her family and was shouting which made Esampu concerned and start shouting as well, and then Ambo too, trying to comfort her. Ambo and Esampu tried climbing on the wooden bars that separated their rooms. When Esampu came out in the morning she was very excited and went straight to the door of the new arrival. The door was still locked though so she didn't get to meet the new baby. Eventually she decided to go and meet the others out in the forest. By 9am the vets arrived to try and perform surgery on the little ones trunk. The whole operation took about 3 hours. With Malima's influence, Jotto, Tamiyoi, Godoma and Ngilai enjoyed the mud pool at the public visit today and it was nice to see Ngilai in the mud as well for a change!

This morning Maxwell was watched happily scampering about his stockade after warthogs that had sneaked into his area to eat his leftover lucerne pellets in one of his troughs. The noise the warthogs made trying to get to his delicious pellets drew Maxwell’s attention and although he cannot see his impeccable hearing drew him towards where the warthogs were feasting on his food. Maxwell playfully approached them and they ran off, but challenged him by trying to return to the trough to get the pellets. Max continued to chase them around until they gave up and ran out through the spaces in his gate, leaving him to enjoy his delicious lucerne pellets all to himself. It was very hot today which meant the first group of orphans downed their milk bottles quickly and ran into the mud pool to enjoy a mud bath. Luggard, Malima, Esampu and Godoma who love mud bathing were the first ones to get in and roll around. Malima and Esampu spun around in the mud as they playfully splashed mud against each other, a game which attracted Sana Sana, Kuishi and Ngilai as well. Ngilai started taking the game a bit too far and tried to chase Malima to climb on her, but his intentions were put on hold by the keepers who started splashing him with mud using a spade, seeing him walk out of the mud bath and settle to soil dust instead.

Most of the orphans were busy browsing out in the forest this morning, but it was very funny to watch Kelelari play a pushing game with little Ndotto. Ndotto was very happy and confident in himself to challenge huge Kelelari though he was hardly a good match for the big boy. Kelelari was fair with him though and their game attracted Lasayen who joined Ndotto and they both tried to take on Kelelari together, but when Kelelari showed both boys his bug tusks Lasayen became afraid and gave up playing, leave his friend Ndotto behind to take on the big boy alone. Kelelari soon gave up play pushing with Ndotto though, and went to find Lasayen to carry on the game with him! Kelelari, who some time back was a rough bully pushing everyone and not wanting to socialize, is now a lovely and welcoming elephant. Nowadays he is so gentle with his human family, as well as his younger peers. At 2pm little Musiara and another new rescued elephant from the Masai Mara with a snared trunk had a happy moment of joining the other orphans out in the forest. They were immediately surrounded by Dupotto, Mbegu, Godoma, Malkia, Kuishi, Esampu, Malima and even little Tamiyoi. The young naughty boys tried to climb on the new arrival but Mbegu, Godoma and the keepers kept them away. Godoma and Mbegu kept the new baby and Musiara completely sandwiched between them, offering them great care and protection.

As the orphans were all dispersing after their 9am milk bottles Godoma, Malkia, Esampu, Tagwa, Kuishi, Ngilai, Murit and Sana Sana were walking away and encountered a troop of baboons that were busy jumping from one tree to another and picking up fruit from the ground as well. Upon seeing them Godoma, Ngilai and Malkia charged after them with Godoma and Ngilai running after a baby baboon that cried out for help as they trumpeted and charged after it! The crying drew the attention of the entire troop of baboons who came running chattering loudly towards Godoma and Ngilai! Upon seeing the angry baboons come towards them they made a quick retreat running and yelling towards Sana Sana, Tagwa, Kuishi and Murit who were standing far away from the chattering baboons. They all joined together and all ran off to join the rest of the herd who were sensibly busy browsing.

During public visiting today it was all drama between greedy Esampu and Ambo who was being naughty today. Today it was Ambo who ran up to Esampu and tried to bully her off her bottle. A rough pushing game then ensued with neither one ready to surrender! Both carried on pushing each other until they ended up on the wrong side of the rope cordon so the public had to disperse and give them space to settle their differences. As Esampu tried to turn back to her keeper with her milk bottle, Ambo would follow her and push her so she would have to turn and defend herself again. They pushed each other as Esampu tried to make her way to the keepers, upon which they started pushing the keeper holding the milk bottle, each demanding to be fed although Ambo had already has his share. Their naughty behaviour prompted the keeper to drop an empty milk bottle to distract Ambo so Esampu could have her share whilst Ambo was distracted trying to pick up the empty bottle; what a dramatic morning!

The orphaned herd looked very calm as they walked out to the forest today, with no show-offs in any of the groups. Kelelari, Ukame and Karisa took the lead of the orphan herd taking big strides to head out deeper into the forest, which is the norm for them these days. Mbegu and Godoma with the younger members like Malkia, Malima, Tagwa and Esampu showed less interest in walking out of the stockades in a hurry and spent more time walking out and about the stockade area, feeding on some of Maxwell’s food that had spilled onto the other side of his gate, but it seemed their hidden mission was trying to wait for Enkesha and Musiara to escort them out to the forest! Mbegu, Godoma and the other little girls love to be with the little ones. Soon after the first group of orphans had drunk their milk bottles during the public visit this morning, Murit saw Luggard having differences with Ngilai at the water trough, and went over to see what was happening. Murit came up to one side of Ngilai which gave Luggard the confidence to tackle him from the other side, and Ngilai left to find another water trough, afraid at the size of Murit’s tusks! Murit is challenging some of the other young bully boys these days and challenging those like Ngilai; he is pretty strong nowadays!

The tiny new little boy spent a peaceful first night in the nursery under the care and protection of his human family, happily enjoying suckling on their fingers and standing so close to his keeper, already showing a close bond to them. Out the bush the new baby was warmly welcomed by the other orphans especially the females; matriarch Mbegu accompanied by Dupotto, Godoma, Maramoja, Sana Sana, Malkia, Esampu, Malima and Tagwa and even tiny Tamiyoi were all busy struggling with each other for the chance to get close to him and touch, smell and embrace him. The little one reached to try and suckle on Mbegu’s ears but all the other girls wanted his attention too, especially Godoma who was trying to push the baby away from Mbegu. Godoma even lay down on the ground together with Malkia, Malima and Tamiyoi trying to entice the baby to come and play with them, but he seemed firmly attached to Mbegu already.

Soon after the orphans had settled out in the forest, with most of them enjoying their browsing activity, a few individuals like Malkia, Sana Sana, Kuishi, Malima and Esampu were seen playfully rolling on the ground in happiness at the start to a new day. Malima then Kuishi were then seen busy enjoying clambering on Sana Sana who happily let them as she lay on the ground. The two young girls enjoyed bumping and sliding on her, which caught the attention of Ndotto, Lasayen and Ngilai who wanted to join in since these three young boys are always fond of bumping and sliding on those lying on the ground, regardless of their age or size! However when the three boys joined in the girls decided to end their game, knowing that they wouldn’t get a peaceful moment from then on as the boys always like to play rough. When the girls left the boys were left with no other option than to continue to game on their own, as Ndotto enjoyed climbing on Lasayen and Ngilai tried to push him off to have his turn as well. Their game ended quickly though when they got a fright from two male warthogs that started fighting in the bushes next to them, but then Ndotto and Lasayen turned around and charged after the warthogs as Ngilai stayed behind and stamped and bashed around in the bushes in defiance of their game being interrupted!

Early in the morning out in the bush Malkia, Ngilai, Kuishi, Esampu and Sana Sana were spotted charging and chasing around after some warthogs and their little ones. Their fun time came to an end however when Malkia and Kuishi cornered one of the warthog babies that tried to make its way out through the legs of Kuishi fiercely squeaking which in turn made Kuishi yell out in fright and run towards the keepers for protection! Her shouting saw Malkia, Sana Sana, Esampu, and Ngilai follow suit and start shouting and trumpeting running towards the keepers as well. Once they reached the keepers they all stood in dead silence though Ngilai and Sana Sana broke the peace and started bashing bushes and stamping around trying to flush out the warthogs – though they could not find them as they had already run off into the forest from all the commotion! As this carried out Kuishi stayed close to the keepers who she loves to stay close to and look for a finger to suckle on. She is quite an old elephant for that but she still loves to do it! She is a gentle, nice girl though sometimes during bottle feeding times this characteristic can fade as she loves her milk bottles, and can become a bit pushy!