Choose your region

Mutara and her herd spent the night just outside the stockades last night, and joined the dependent orphans in the morning. As usual the big girls went for Dololo, but this morning they nearly disappeared with him. The Keepers were being very vigilant however and they spotted Dololo being whisked away by Suguta and Sities and their quick intervention saved Dololo from being taken away for the day. Dololo was enjoying the company of the big girls though and as the Keepers were persuading him to come back and join his friends, he seemed unhappy and uninterested. The Keepers informed him that he was still too small to be able to make his own decisions and to leave with the ex-orphans, so he stayed with the dependent babies. 

The orphans passed Kilaguni today and they briefly stopped to say hi to him and ask him why he was walking on his on and yet he is still under fifteen. Kilaguni just ignored them however and moved on. Namalok, who left two weeks ago with the ex-orphans, paid a visit to his dependent friends today and browsed with them for the entire morning, before parting ways at mud bath time. The dependent orphans were joined by the ex-orphans, who these days have made a habit of showing up at mud bath time. The afternoon was quiet as the dependent orphans settled to browse west of Ithumba while the ex-orphans headed east. 

It was a quiet morning as the orphans strolled nonchalantly out from the stockades. Turkwel was waiting outside and as soon as the orphans were out, she picked up Dololo and they left for browsing together. Turkwel wanted to spend some quality time with Dololo before the other girls in her herd, Mutara’s herd, showed up for the morning and would want to share time with Dololo too. 

The orphans settled to browse in Kone area where they were briefly joined by the ex-orphans who were seemingly just passing by. They met again at mud bath time before parting ways again. Mteto almost left with the ex-orphans as she tried as much as she could to spend some time with Wendi’s baby Wema. The orphans headed west of Ithumba Hill while the ex-orphans headed south. The afternoon was quiet as the orphans mostly concentrated on browsing without any major distractions. 

It was a quiet morning as the orphans left the stockades this morning without any disturbance from their seniors. As they walked out into the bush to browse however, they were joined by Mutara’s herd. Suguta, Turkwel and Sities settled to feed with Dololo as they ushered him to be close to them. Dololo was happy because he’s the only one that gets this special treatment and attention from these older girls. The other young bulls perhaps keep wandering what's so special about Dololo that makes the girls favour him! We are not sure why he is so special too, but these older females certainly dote on him, and perhaps can sense some kind of timid nature or vulnerability in him that they want to nurture? 

Shortly later, the rest of the ex-orphans in the company of some wild bulls passed close by. Esampu, who is slowly but surely falling in love with the wild born babies, moved to join Wema and Mkuu and slowly followed them up to the mud bath where she rejoined her friends for her milk bottles. The temperature was moderate and the orphans only quickly waded through the water without playing, and immediately returned back to browsing. 

The afternoon was quiet as the orphans browsed calmly in the company of Mutara’s herd for the rest of the day. 

Mutara and her group joined the orphans at the Lucerne feeding area. After enjoying the fresh Lucerne, Turkwel took Dololo with her. Roi moved close to Turkwel and Dololo and perhaps was complaining about the behaviour of the girls in Mutara’s herd. Sometimes Mutara, Turkwel and her friends decide to go for many days at a time without showing up, and then they don't seem to be concerned about who takes care of Dololo, but when they come back they shower Dololo with love and don’t let anyone else get close to him. Roi seemed to calm down though and helped Turkwel to walk Dololo to the browsing field. 

Pare engaged Sapalan in a pushing game but it was disrupted by Lemoyian who wanted to show his supremacy. The two boys accepted and went their separate ways. 

At mud bath time the orphans were joined by the ex-orphans and wild bulls again. Roi decided to join Ukame in taking care of Lapa. Ever since Ukame left and joined the wild, she has been one of the loyal nannies taking care of Lapa and now Roi appears to have an interest in joining the queue of the nannies. 

Because of the cooler climes none of the orphans wanted to step into the mud bathing water. Shortly later, the orphans parted ways with the ex-orphans. Roi was torn between staying with Lapa and following her friends but at last she decided to go with the ex-orphans. 

Later in the afternoon, the ex-orphans passed by the stockade compound with Roi. Here Roi decided to leave the ex-orphans and as they left to walk off into the bush, Roi remained behind at the stockade compound waiting for her friends to return home for the evening. 

The sky was clear in the morning when the dependent orphans were let out of their night stockades. Only three girls joined the orphans in the morning - Mutara, Suguta and Sities. After feeding on Lucerne, the three girls took the orphans out to browse. Suguta decided to have Dololo and Musiara by her side. Dololo wasn't comfortable with Musiara being close to her as well for he thought that Suguta might drop him in favour of Musiara. Suguta saw the rivalry between the two boys and intervened by coming in between and giving them equal attention.  

Ambo and Jotto reunited and fed together as they shared stories. These two were old friends in the Nursery, but perhaps Jotto was making it up to Ambo for spending more time with the big boys. Ambo is much smaller in stature so he is a little mollycoddled like Musiara, Dololo and Sattao. The two boys parted ways later, with Ambo walking to enjoy the company of Kamok who is one of his big sisters. 

At mud bath time, the sun was really hot and the orphans really enjoyed wallowing in the mud bath. Only one bull paid a visit to the mud bath and left when he had enough. 

In the afternoon the orphans took a break from feeding to relax under some trees and resumed browsing later when the temperature dropped to a more favourable level. 

After leaving the stockades the orphans settled for Lucerne. As they were finishing Mutara and her herd arrived and helped them clean up whatever was left.

On their way out to browse Lemoyian attacked Tusuja. Olsekki was following closely behind and decided to help Tusuja, and they both ganged up against Lemoyian. It became a contest between ex-orphans versus the still-dependent orphans. Lemoyian was wise and decided to retreat since he couldn't beat the two boys together, but Lemoyian waited for Tusuja and Olsekki to go their separate ways so as to jump on each one individually. The plan worked and first he started with Tusuja, whom he challenged and ended up riding on as a show of dominance. Later, Lemoyian tackled Olsekki and managed to win despite being smaller in size compared to Olsekki.

Pare had a brief talk with Karisa as Dololo enjoyed the company of Suguta. Musiara was lucky as he received attention from one of the big girls, Turkwel.

At mud bath time it was quite hot so most of the orphans chose to have a mud bath. In the afternoon they settled to browse along the slopes of Ithumba Hill. The temperature was still high and at one point the orphans decided to take a break from browsing to relax under some trees as they waited for it to get a bit cooler. 

It was wet in the morning following unexpected rain of 50mm that was received over night. The morning was cool as the orphans left their stockades. Only three older girls joined the orphans in the morning, Suguta, Sities and Mutara. After feeding on Lucerne the orphans headed west of the stockades. 

After browsing for some time the orphans decided to have fun by rolling on the wet soil. Later, after having enough fun, they resumed browsing.

At the mud bath the orphans only had their milk and some water before returning back to the browsing field since it was cool enough and they didn’t feel like wallowing. On the way back to the bush Musiara decided to test the roadside mud bath water temperature by stepping in the water. Musiara found that the water was still quite chilly so he decided to have fun rolling on the ground instead. 

Suguta took advantage of the quiet day to sneak off with Dololo. The Keepers realized Dololo was missing a short while later and a search was mounted to track down Suguta since she was the last to be seen with Dololo. Finally she was located with Dololo and they were both taken back to rejoin the rest of the herd!

The sky was clear in the morning as the orphans strolled nonchalantly out from the stockades. Some of the orphans decided to scratch against the wall in the stockade compound as Ambo walked straight out to browse. When he realized that his friends weren’t following, Ambo started rumbling as he requested his friends to follow him. Luckily, his big sisters Naseku, Kamok and Siangiki were the first ones to respond by running towards him. 

Pare engaged Mteto in a light pushing game while Dololo tackled Karisa. Maramoja decided to keep close to her favourite baby boy, Musiara. Later the orphans headed to Kone dam where they drank some water before proceeding slowly to the mud bath. 

Ex-orphan Zurura passed by but didn’t bother to say hi to the orphans and slowly disappeared the same way he came from. At least, we thought he didn’t say hello – they didn’t physically greet but elephants have many different ways of communicating. 

It was very got again today at the mud bath and the orphans all enjoyed wallowing in the waterhole. The afternoon was quiet as the orphans opted to take a break from feeding to relax under a tree waiting for it to cool down.