February began on an exciting note in the Kibwezi Forest: A large wild herd, including four tiny babies, came to visit the orphans. The Keepers had a hard time calling Kiasa, Maktao, Kiombo, and Enkesha away from the visitors! Once they realised Zongoloni was among them, they recruited her and Lima Lima to round up the young orphans, who were loath to leave the delightful babies behind.
A large wild herd, with four tiny babies, came to visit the orphans. The Keepers had a hard time calling Kiasa, Maktao, Enkesha and Kiombo away from the wild herd. Eventually they realised Zongoloni was also with them, and once they called her back, the others followed. Lima Lima was also helpful in rounding up the other orphans so they could all go home.
The hot weather meant the orphans got directly into the waterhole to cool off — except for Ngasha and Faraja. These older boys know that there are other bigger waterholes on their way to the Chyulu Hills, which they left for immediately.
Zongoloni came home only to make sure that Kiasa also went back to the Stockades for the night. Once all the orphans had settled into their bedrooms, Zongoloni left to join her wild friends.
Ngasha was his usual bothersome self today. He joined the orphans rather late, after having been out with his wild friends all night. He arrived after Lima Lima and Mwashoti had joined the Umani orphans and followed Murera and Sonje towards the Umani Springs for some water. Sonje led the group and insisted they walk to Kenze Hills to browse. She was getting bored of the places the orphans frequent and wanted to get some new fresh greens to keep their diet interesting!
After the long walk over the hills Enkesha looked tired. She rumbled something to her close friend Maktao. They spent a few moments talking, then they carried on as if they had come to some sort of agreement.
Ngasha is not ready to move away from the orphans. If he continues to join the Umani orphans during their daily activities, Faraja, Jasiri and Zongoloni will stay away as they remember how he chased Faraja away.
This means that Sonje and Murera are left to lead the Umani herd. Sonje seems to have a larger number of babies that are bonded to her including Kiombo, Kiasa, Maktao and Enkesha. Quanza has teamed up with Sonje to look after the babies. Lima Lima seems to have been left in charge of Mwashoti, who remains quite attached to Murera.
Quanza and Sonje moved all the younger orphans to the Chyulu area, the Keepers thought this was too far but the older girls insisted. Enkesha was very helpful on the way home. She was good at herding the babies back to the stockades. When they arrived back at the stockades, Murera did a quick room inspection to make sure all the babies were home before she went into her own room. Today little Kiombo was overjoyed to receive an extra milk bottle from Murera, who didn’t seem to want her own.
It is quite unlike Maktao to be forceful, but he saw Kiasa picking up the leftover pellets, and not wanting her to finish them, he charged at her and bumped her quite hard in the belly. Luckily Quanza was standing close by and intervened, standing between them, putting an end to their silly fight. Peace restored, the two young babies went back to sharing the leftover Lucerne.
The Keepers heard a wild herd making noise in the Umani Hills area. Lima Lima, ever vigilant, went to go and check on them, when she came to report back to the others, she was followed by a young female elephant and other wild mothers. Lima Lima reluctantly let the young girl return with its mother to the wild herd.
Sonje welcomed two wild big bulls into the herd. This created a tense situation, as the orphans were all a bit wary of these new bulls. They seemed to be friendly at first but after a while it seemed they wanted Sonje and not the others. All the younger babies made their way to the Keepers and stayed close to them. Sonje, too, decided she did not want to have anything to do with them, after she saw how fearful Kiombo was of them. The bulls followed the orphans back to the milk feed area. The Keepers were a little worried about being charged so they stayed away after the orphans had finished their milk bottles. Ngasha kept getting chased away from the orphan herd by one of the bulls. He was not happy about this as he was used to being the dominant male, but today he was not.
The orphans looked very small next to the big bulls. Maktao went to smell one of the bulls but got scared and ran to Enkesha and Zongoloni for support. Mwashoti was the most fearful of the bulls and stayed far away with Murera where they could be left in peace.
Enkesha did her mini-matriarch duty this morning, inspecting each stockade room. She checked on all the little babies, including Kiasa and Maktao, and followed them slowly out of the stockades. Maktao and Enkesha had a conversation and made a plan for the day. They separated from the rest of the herd and started walking towards the Umani Springs and Kenze Hill, Lima Lima joined them and left Quanza and Murera to bring up the rear. Today showed that Enkesha could lead the small herd and allowed Lima Lima a break from planning the day. Enkesha is loyal and calm; she is slowly becoming a very good mini matriarch.
Ngasha and Lima Lima came back very late after spending the night out with wild elephants. They arrived to find the orphans had already left for the day. Ngasha took a minute to rest then moved to join the herd. He looked very sleepy, as did Lima Lima, as both were quite tired from the night adventures. Kiasa came to greet Ngasha but left quickly to join Enkesha as Ngasha was too tired to respond. Murera, who is the overall boss of the Umani orphans, was not happy with Ngasha. She is quite used to troublemakers like Ngasha and ignored him all day.
Most of the herd respects Murera; they are happy with her as the matriarch. Alamaya is a strong but gentle and happy boy, he teamed up with Mwashoti and they both joined Murera and Sonje at the top of the Chyulu Hills where some wild elephants were enjoying the shade on a hot afternoon.
Mwashoti has begun spending more time with the big bulls. Alamaya has shown Mwashoti what life was like away from the orphan herd and out with wild friends. Alamaya has mentored him well and showed him how to survive in the wilderness. Mwashoti has learned how to find his way to the stockades and where to find water. This morning, Mwashoti and Alamaya arrived with Lima Lima who had Ngasha close by.
As soon as Ngasha joined the herd, he started chasing Quanza, who was diligently looking after Kiombo. This made Kiombo very worried and unhappy. The rest of the orphan herd felt the same so Murera and Sonje left and moved the orphans away from Ngasha.
Sonje and Enkesha led the herd to the nearby waterhole. At the waterhole the orphans were all joyful as they cooled off in the water, as it was too hot! Kiombo quickly joined the mud-bath and soon there was a big swimming competition between the orphans. When Maktao saw Kiasa was already busy swimming he chose to play with one of his other great friends, Enkesha, getting a piggyback ride.
Ngasha has gotten too big for his boots since joining the wild herd, he doesn’t like listening to the Keepers and he has started charging them. Today he was destroying all the vegetation around the stockade fence line. He would not listen to the Keepers when they told him to stop. Lima Lima, Alamaya and Mwashoti came to convince him to stop, and they led him away to the bushes and towards Umani Hills where Zongoloni was waiting. Kiasa was watching them through the fence. She missed her friend Zongoloni but Quanza stopped her going and settled her into her bedroom to sleep.
Overnight there were loud noises from the bushes. Murera responded in a very low tone, communicating with the wild bulls who had come to the stockades. Sonje was also happy to see the bulls, reaching her trunk over her head to see if she could reach the bulls over the fence. After a while the bull left to join other wild elephants who were at the springs drinking.
The Umani orphans are split into a number of groups. Those that have gone wild are grouped into two and the orphans that are still with the Keepers are split into two as well. Sonje and Quanza have taken over looking after and leading the junior babies, including Enkesha, Maktao, Kiombo, and Kiasa. This leaves Murera leading the more senior babies, like Mwashoti.
At the waterhole, Ngasha was already swimming, so Kiombo refused to get in and stayed at the side under the protection of Sonje. They both decided to wait until Ngasha had left as he was too rough to play with. Once he had left Sonje and Kiombo went swimming and were joined by more of the junior orphans who also felt Ngasha was too rough. Even Murera stayed away from Ngasha.
At midday today, we heard lots of trumpeting, Murera immediately responded by trumpeting back! Murera must have known it was Mwashoti, Lima Lima and Alamaya, as they soon appeared joining the herd from the Chyulu side. There was lots of greeting and trunk hugs, Mwashoti answered Murera’s questions of where he had been and what he had been doing, so a lot of rumbling between these two friends.
Around 4pm in the afternoon a huge wild bull appeared from the bushes and went straight to where Lima Lima was feeding. They rumbled at each other, and Lima Lima continued calmly feeding with her friends. The Keepers noted that there was a huge size difference between them, and Lima Lima was too small to be his girlfriend.
Lima Lima and Quanza walked with this new friend along Kibwezi forests until it was time for the orphans to go back to the Stockades for the night. The bull tricked the Keepers into thinking they had left, but the bull and Lima Lima arrived back to the stockade just after the Keepers had locked the orphans into their rooms, leaving Lima Lima out with the bull for the night.
The nightclubbers who had spent the night out with wild friends met up Murera and Sonje outside the stockade gates very early this morning. Zongoloni and Lima Lima were already waiting outside with some older bulls, waiting to meet the babies. When Kiasa saw Zongoloni she was very happy and ran over to her, trumpeting. They have remained best friends and Kiasa really misses Zongoloni when she goes off for a couple of days.
Jasiri and Faraja joined, too, but they were careful to check that Ngasha was close by, as he was still not happy to see them with the herd and would likely chase them. Lima Lima and Alamaya walked past Ngasha and he didn’t react, Faraja followed cautiously, expecting Ngasha to push him away as he had done in the past. There had been a disagreement in the past and the boys had had a falling out. These two, who were once great friends, are now fighting and Nagasha still holds a grudge. Faraja, the peaceful boy he is, left the herd so that Ngasha could retain his claim over the Umani herd.
This morning the Umani Hills were covered with a thick fog, making it very difficult for the Keepers to see where they were going. The elephants walked out using their sense of smell to decide where to go and to sniff out any danger. The Keepers walked close to Lima Lima, trusting her to choose a safe path for them. However, unluckily, they walked into some sleeping buffalos. Lima Lima, the Keepers, and the buffalo all got a fright and ran, but Lima Lima quickly stopped and turned to face the buffalo forcing them to scatter and protecting the Keepers from them. Enkesha and Maktao were very pleased with this and began trumpeting and cheering Lima Lima on.
On this special day, Valentine’s Day, Lima Lima came to the Stockades with her new boyfriend. However, her friend was not too sure about the Keepers and kept a cautious eye on them. He definitely wasn’t expecting to be led to humans. After rumbling at Lima Lima and checking that these humans were safe, he decided to stay with her and the rest of the Umani orphans.
Ngasha tried to say hello to this new bull, but he aggressively turned Nagasha away. This made Ngasha a little fearful and stayed away from the new wild bull. Sonje and Quanza also tried to say hello, but Lima Lima got jealous and stopped them from greeting her new boyfriend. In the late afternoon, the bull left for the Chyulu region. Lima Lima stayed behind with her friends. She and the wild bull parted ways, probably planning to meet again another time.
Mwashoti and Alamaya both wanted the same loose branches and when Mwashoti refused to share, a fight broke out. Murera, Mwashoti’s close friend, went to separate them and help Mwashoti. She knew that Alamaya has bigger, stronger tusks, while Mwashoti has a weaker front leg, so Alamaya would have easily won the fight.
The orphans had a wonderful start to their morning! They were all happy and having a lot of fun. Maktao and Kiasa had a friendly interaction, hugging for a long time until Kiombo felt jealous of Kiasa and Maktao, as Kiombo also wanted Kiasa’s hugs. Quanza and Sonje went to comfort Kiombo and Sonje placed her trunk over his shoulder. This made him very happy and he let out loud contented rumbles. Kiombo then abandoned his plans with Kiasa and followed Sonje and Quanza to the Umani Springs.
While feeding on the Umani Hills, they heard other elephants trumpeting. Moments later Lima Lima, Murera and Sonje raised their trunks above their heads, signalling to the Keepers that the wild elephants were getting close. A big bull appeared walking straight towards Lima Lima. Lima Lima noticed that Sonje was worried about the bull and was trying to move away, so Lima Lima decided to lead the bull to the waterhole and away from the orphans. Lima Lima and the bull rumbled at each other and then the wild bull went wallowing in the waterhole. Lima Lima watched him in admiration. The wild bull followed Lima Lima back to the feeding grounds again. The Keepers think it is the same bull that was with her on Valentine's Day.
Zongoloni, who is the matriarch, Ziwa, Faraja, and Jasiri arrived back at the stockades to join the Umani herd today after some days away on an adventure. Alamaya had started with this group, but when he realised they were going on a long trip, he wasn’t happy and turned back to join the orphan herd. Lima Lima welcomed them all back with trunk hugs and big rumbles. Kiasa was so happy to see Zongoloni, so she ran over to her and could not stop hugging her. Mwashoti also went to greet Zongoloni and Ngasha started a pushing match with Ziwa.
A herd of wild females walked through the orphan herd but did not join them when they saw the Keepers. Lima Lima was very quick to join them, as she loves tiny babies and usually finds ways to help when the mothers get busy.
Alamaya and Ngasha have started coming home very late, while the others are in their rooms already. Last night, they came back very late and walked very slowly, like giants who fear nothing!
This morning when Lima Lima saw them, she did not join them but walked out with Mwashoti towards the Chyulus. A waterbuck lying in the shade startled Mwashoti. Mwashoti and the bushbuck ran in different directions causing a lot of panic. Lima Lima ran back to the stockades. As she is usually the one who signals danger, the others thought she had bad news and also started running away. Lima Lima calmed everyone down and explained what had happened with the bushbuck. Still, Enkesha and Kiombo stayed next to Murera and Sonje for protection.
Today was a very hot day. The orphans spent most of their time in the shade flapping their ears to cool off. Alamaya and Ngasha joined the orphan herd after wallowing in the dark soil at the mud-bath, they were much cooler now and they were much happier too. When Sonje and Murera saw Ngasha, they moved away, as they dislike his rough playing with the younger orphans. Mwashoti and Quanza had a quick conversation then started off towards the mud-bath, and the rest of the orphans followed behind. When they arrived, Sonje walked into the pool and the whole herd followed. They had a very joyful time swimming and cooling off. Lima Lima noticed some crane birds next to the water hole. She didn’t like this, flapping her ears and trumpeting at them, warning them to move away.
Zongoloni led Kiasa to some thicker bush where there was better browsing, leaving Kiombo with Sonje and Quanza. However, Zongoloni was trying to be clever and take Kiasa away from the herd. Luckily, Maktao had a talk with her, and Kiasa returned to browse with Enkesha and Murera.
When it was time to return to the stockades, Sonje raised her trunk towards the open fields, where there were wild females. Lima Lima was very happy to see the tiny babies, so she went to the wild herd to see if she could help looking after the babies. However, one of the mothers stopped her, scared she would try and steal the babies.
At the stockade, the babies all looked very tired from the long day, then it started raining with lots of loud thunder, which scared the orphans. Murera and Quanza even tried to push down the walls of their stockade, until the Keepers went to reassure them and calm them down.
This morning started off very busy. Murera was eating Lucerne pellets then got jealous and did not want to share them with Maktao or Kiasa, she hid the pellets in the corner protecting them. Enkesha had smelt the Lucerne and came looking for some food, but Murera rushed to block Enkesha from getting any.
Later the orphans arrived at the water hole for their midday bottles. None of the orphans wanted to swim, instead Sonje led them to the clean water trough, where they had a drink then moved off into the bushes. It was still cool from last night's rain so the elephants didn’t need to cool off. Ngasha and Alamaya tried to join Murera and Quanza, but this forced Murera and Quanza to move away. They don’t like being around Ngasha, as he is too rough with the babies, including our little Maktao.
One of the aggressive bulls that used to come to the stockades with Lima Lima visited today. However, Lima Lima was not interested in engaging with him; instead she stayed with Mwashoti and Alamaya. Seeing how aloof Lima Lima was, the wild bull didn’t stay long and left towards the Chyulu Hills. Lima Lima is very good at finding new friends, so she was not worried that he had left. After the bull had left, Mwashoti and Alamaya were trying to find out why Lima Lima ignored him, but she did not want to share her reasons — although she seemed happier to tell the bigger girls Murera and Quanza. Zongoloni and Kiasa made their way to the hills, and Maktao and Enkesha followed them. However, Maktao stopped Enkesha from going with Zongoloni, as she always leads them very far away from the rest of the herd.
Our little Enkesha remains devoted to being an exemplary mini matriarch. She has been really looking after the little babies, namely Kiombo, Kiasa, and Maktao, especially since Lima Lima left to join the nightclubbers. The babies seem happy browsing with Enkesha, as she is very calm and never pushes any of them. The whole of the Umani orphan herd is now safe under the leadership of Sonje and Quanza. All the orphans love them and listen to them, they happily follow whatever plan the two girls decide on. However, Murera and Mwashoti still remain each other’s favourite.
Up near Kenze Hills, some wild elephants were making a lot of noise. Ngasha and Alamaya went to go and check out what was going on. Before they got there a huge bull stopped them and chased them back. Ngasha, who is supposed to be the big dominant male came running back like a baby.
A wild bull reported to the stockades this morning with Alamaya. Lima Lima took him round the fence line, moving him away from the other girls, like Sonje and Zongoloni. She was eliminating her competition even though the other girls didn’t seem to be interested in the new bull. The bull left and kept walking past the Umani Hills and continued his way towards the Chyulu Hills. Kiombo, Sonje, Murera, Jasiri and Ziwa were minding their own business browsing at the foot of the hills.
Kiasa felt she hadn’t spent enough time with Zongoloni today, but it is hard for Zongoloni as she is the one that takes the other boys, Jasiri, Faraja, and Ziwa out into the wild. However, Ziwa is spending more and more time away from the orphan herd, and it won’t be long before he is fully wild. Faraja, Jasiri and Alamaya do go out with Zongoloni, but they always come back to the stockade as they miss their orphan family.
Zongoloni, Ngasha and Lima Lima teamed up and tried to convince the orphans to follow them to the Chyulu Hills. However, they knew they would need Sonje to agree, as she is the matriarch for most of the orphans. Sonje agreed and the orphans visited the Chyulu Hills. When it was time to go home, many of the little babies didn’t know the way. Zongoloni and Lima Lima had walked away and left Ngasha with the orphans however he was unable to show the babies the way back. Enkesha soon realised there was confusion amongst the babies, as they didn’t know the way home, so she took over. With the help of Murera all the orphans arrived back to the stockades safe, but it was very late by the time they got back. Maktao, Enkesha and the other younger ones were so tired they went straight to bed and lay down.
The orphans had another busy start to their day. Just as they were getting out of their stockades, a wild herd came by the gate. The wild herd had many tiny babies who Quanza and Sonje were very interested in greeting. Kiombo also joined them to see the babies, but things changed when he touched one. It screamed and its mother came to block the Umani orphans from the wild baby. Murera got scared of the big females and left the herd. The Keepers took the other orphans and moved away from the stockades. Enkesha took the lead, which Maktao was very happy about, as he liked to see his best friend leading. Soon after, Quanza and Sonje re-joined the herd and took over leadership again.
There was a herd of wild bulls at the top of the Umani Hills. The Keepers knew that Lima Lima would want to go and be with them, and after closer inspection, they found that she was already with the wild bulls. She walked down the hill with her new wild friends and introduced them to the Keepers and the orphan herd.
Alamaya, Ngasha and Jasiri escaped when they saw the big bulls joining the herd. These big bulls really put the young boys in their place, reminding them that they are not giants, but still babies in comparison. This is especially true for Ngasha.
Quanza and Sonje called the orphans to the open grassland to forage away from the big bulls, leaving Lima Lima with her entourage of boyfriends.
Jasiri, Faraja, and Zongoloni went back to the Chyulu Hills where they linked up with a bigger herd of wild elephants, which has accepted this group. Sonje and Quanza rumbled, calling Kiombo, Maktao and Enkesha back. Kiasa realised that Zongoloni was nowhere to be seen and rushed back to where Lima Lima was browsing down the hill.
Mwashoti was chasing butterflies down the hill. He even tried to kick one, but instead fell over. When Alamaya saw this, he sat on top of Mwashoti, mocking him for falling over. A short while later two crane birds came out of the bushes to the waterhole. Ngasha chased them, but they flew into a big tree, out of reach of the orphan.
Kiasa and Maktao found themselves in a tricky situation during their pushing match. There was a baby baboon that was separated from its mother and, in an effort to reunite with her, it ran next to the orphans and touched Maktao’s foot. This made Maktao extremely upset. He went to Enkesha and she put her trunk over his head to comfort him and tell him not to worry. They then headed towards the Chyulu area, where they joined up with Zongoloni and Faraja.
Later, Sonje and Murera joined them, with the other orphans. Mwashoti came up with a plan to bully the little babies, but Sonje stopped him before he got a chance. This left Kiasa and Kiombo to carry on with their peaceful browsing. Lima Lima came rushing back to inform them of more wild bulls in the area, but before she could warn the Keepers, the bulls calmly joined the orphan herd.
Today, Lima Lima brought a young wild bull into the orphan herd. He decided to stay with the herd — Sonje, in particular. Murera was not happy to have the bull in the herd; she rumbled her discontent to Sonje, but Sonje was enjoying the attention. She went over to the bull, and he laid his trunk on her head. Sonje insisted on allowing the bull to stay, so the unhappy Murera decided to walk away and leave Sonje to make her own decisions. Quanza tried to convince Sonje that this was not a good idea, and she finally had to listen to the ‘majority vote’ and let the bull leave without her. The wild bull left the water hole unhappy with the decisions the females had made.
Ngasha, Alamaya, Faraja and Jasiri joined the herd. Ngasha and Faraja were having pushing matches, but only Ngasha wanted to keep play-fighting. The peace-loving Faraja saw this coming and moved away towards the Chyulu Hills with Jasiri and Zongoloni, leaving Ngasha with no one to fight. Alamaya and Mwashoti stayed with Lima Lima.