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The orphans had a lovely start to their day out in the forest. They were mostly all engaged with their friends in some kind of game. Godoma and Pare were enjoying a lovely pushing game which Pare was initially surprised about as Godoma is quite a tough girl who doesn’t play with just anyone. They enjoyed a long game though and had fun running after each other in the bushes. Luggard is happy when he plays with the brave, gentle boy Murit who understands about his broken knee which is in the process of healing. They too were playing and rolling in the dust together. Ngilai is normally quite rough but today he was playing with Jotto and was quite cool. The youngsters know that he can be quite rough and are not always willing to engage him in any games. Some who weren’t in the mood for playing were more interested in browsing like Ukame, Dupotto, Kelelari and Ambo. For one reason or another, Luggard seems to not like Kuishi very much. Whenever he meets her he seems to push her. Today for no reason at all he pushed the gentle girl whilst she was standing with Tamiyoi and Jotto. Later she was quietly dusting beside Sana Sana during public visiting and again from nowhere Luggard came running over to head butt her. The naughty giraffe Kiko had a rough time with the elephants today. Over the past few days he had been going out with the orphans into the forest because there have been no lions around. The baby Musiara was standing comfortably between Malkia, Tamiyoi and Jotto. A few metres away Mbegu and Ndotto were browsing and Kiko began walking over to the little ones. Musiara ran away and Kiko began to follow him trying to smell him but this scared the baby and he began to scream which drew the attention of Mbegu, Ndotto and Godoma. They came running charging and trumpeting towards Kiko. The baby was handed over to Malkia by Mbegu and Kiko went sent away into the thicket and was not allowed close to the little one again.

We have seen this trait in other similar circumstances before – that when an orphan is rescued at a slightly older age it will decide to become independent sooner than those who arrive at a younger age. This is something we have started seeing in Kelelari, Ukame, Karisa, Maramoja and Wanjala who were all rescued at a slightly older age. Since Kelelari has joined the herd as well we have seen that Maramoja and Wanjala, who previously would not wonder too far from the herd, have changed as well. It’s not just a question of looking for greener pasture, but actually wondering away from the herd and being independent, which has been difficult for the keepers! They need to always keep a close eye on them to save them from getting lost from the others. Today as the first group of eleven elephants was coming down for the public visit it was noticed that these five elephants had disappeared, only to find that they had crossed a stream in the forest. Within this small group of runaways Karisa is slightly different as he will always respond to the keepers when they are searching for them. He will always come out of hiding when the keepers are calling their names but the others will not walk with the keepers until they have been flushed out of the bushes! They still managed to make it for the visiting time and their milk bottles which was good. Later around 2pm Kelelari and Maramoja went missing again only to be found a few hundred meters away. After the public visit today we had a fresh pile of red soil delivered to the mud bathing area. When the babies arrived there for their 3pm milk feed none of them were left out of the fun fresh soil creates! All of the 25 orphans started rolling around in the soil and then went into the mud bath, even those that don’t really like mud bathing of late like Ukame, Kuishi and Ndotto too. All went into the mud bath and enjoyed splashing in the muddy water!

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.

Last night around 8.30pm, Solio visited the stockade with her wild male friend. It has been some time since her last visit home! When she arrived, she was unable to access her old sleeping room due to the poles put up to keep Kiko in the compound to protect him from lions. She stood by the fence calling for Lucerne as her friend watched from a distance. With the presence of her wild male friend, Maxwell was very upset and unsettled and he kept charging up and down and knocking on his gate to meet his wild foe. Solio went in on to interact with Maxwell and ended up staying the whole night in the compound area. Her friend waited for her in the bushes that surround the stockades, but when he saw the elephants coming out with their keepers in the morning, he ran away into the forest, leaving Solio behind. Solio was very happy to see the keepers and started calling for her Lucerne again. She was given some Lucerne outside Max's stockade and stayed until 9.30am when she left Max to go back into the forest. Sometimes Lasayen cannot be very kind to some of the others but it is not often, and you have to catch him in the act. Sometimes he is not very nice towards Ukame, despite the fact she is older and bigger than him. She is new though and it has taken her awhile to settle in, which elephants like Lasayen can take advantage of. At 3pm when the elephants were going down to the mud bath area in small groups for their milk bottles, Ukame was in a group of Lasayen, Kuishi, Pare and Ngilai. When they entered the bushes on their way down to the path to the mud bath area, and out of sight of the keepers in the forest, Lasayen blocked the path for Ukame to walk down any further. The keepers at mud bath radioed to the others that the two had not come down for their milk. Ndotto, who is known for disciplining others for their bad behavior, was released from the group to go and check on what had happened to the others along the path. As soon as Lasayen saw Ndotto coming ahead of the keepers, he allowed Ukame to go, and that was the end of his naughty behavior for now.

Sometimes we link that Malima leads and others follow. Today when all the others out of the eleven in the first group at public visiting were dipping their trunks into the water to see if the mud bath was too cold, Malima shoved Sana Sana and Jotto to the side and without wasting any time, launched herself into the water. Whilst those two were still thinking about whether to have a bath, the keepers sprayed Sana Sana and Jotto with some mud using a shovel. By then Malima was already wallowing in the pool like a hippo, fully immersing herself. Godoma was on the sidelines still weighing up what to do as well. She ended up just rolling around in the muddy soil on the edge of the pool. Tamiyoi came over and joined her rolling in this mud as well. Kuishi was such a clever girl today and really tried to give the keepers the slip. She is in the first group known as ‘Godoma’s group’ as she is the mini matriarch, who come down to the mud bath feeding first. Mbegu is the leader of the second group. Today after their bottles and playing the first group was walking back to the forest to make way for the second group, but Kuishi knew where the second group was waiting in the forest. Instead of following her herd she sneaked off to join them. The keepers saw her coming though and tried to drive her back to Godoma’s group but she just hid in the bushes and waited for the keepers to leave. When they had left she just followed the second group from a distance, to avoid being seen by the keepers. When they had reached the open area on the rocks she ran after them shouting to join the older group. By this stage there was nothing that could be done except to accept her into the herd. She arrived at the mud bath area again and went straight to the wheelbarrow demanding for more milk – this time it was orphan Malkia that stopped her and drove her away from the wheelbarrow – she then abandoned trying to get more milk and decided to have a mud bath with Mbegu along the edge of the pool instead.

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.

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!