Choose your region

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.

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!

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.

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!

During public visiting today it was so funny to watch Tamiyoi leading the first group down for their milk and running as fast as she could, determined that no other baby would overtake her to get to the milk first! When little Malima and Jotto tried to overtake her, it was hilarious to watch her speeding up so that they wouldn’t be able to. The visitors were delighted to see three such young ones make a strong and confident entrance to the visiting area! These days despite that fact that Tamiyoi is so tiny, she is strong in character and older than most of the others, she is the first to lead the young group to the mud bath area for their milk feeding. She is a sweet little thing, very gentle and always welcoming to new babies.