01 January 2015

It was a wonderful to see Ndoria experiencing her second day out of her stable with the others in the field. She seem to have tightened her relationship with Bada and was reluctant to change her favorite friend for the others who were trying to win her affections by all means possible. Ishaq-B tried so hard to adopt the little one but Kihari and Panda showed little interest in having her as part of their herd. Panda’s group, which comprises Mudanda, Ishaq-B, Kihari, Naipoki, Bada and now Ndoria, went on a tour of the browsing grounds to orientation little Ndoria before joining the seniors in Lesanju’s herd. The afternoon was hot and the little ones returned to the stockades for their afternoon milk, water and a mud bath. Mbirikani lay in the water rolling around and showing off to Ndoria who was suitably impressed and provided an appreciative audience. Bada seemed to be missing her adopted mother Wasessa and was often heard rumbling as if asking where she was. The same thing was also witnessed with Wasessa, several miles away she kept rumbling when thoughts of Bada crossed her mind. The rest of the day passed browsing peacefully. The keepers tempted Ndoria back into her stable with a milk bottle that she followed like there was nothing sweeter in the world.

02 January 2015

Kivuko and Layoni had a huge tussle as soon after they arrived at the main browsing grounds. Their fight greatly disturbed Taveta who kept his distance instead of intervening to stop them. The score was taking a long time to settle. Layoni grabbed a bush with his mouth to use to try tickle Kivuko into submission, but Kivuko held firm and Layoni finally laid down in submission so they could both concentrate on browsing. The orphans in Lesanju’s herd went to rest under a tree after their usual noon mud bath before resuming browsing. Later in the evening, Tassia stretched his trunk high up to break a dry branch from a tree. On seeing Tassia struggling Layoni went to give him a helping hand but they failed to agree who was the best which led to a wrestling match that ended when they returned to the stockades. Lesanju tried to keep her group away from Emily’s herd, who were on the northern side of the park, by rushing them back to the stockades, arriving 5 minutes earlier than usual the usual 5pm.

03 January 2015

The ex-orphans visited the stockade early in the morning with big bull Laikipia who loves the copra cake arriving there well before the others in the Emily herd. He missed the two groups of dependent orphans in Lesanju and Panda’s group who had just left the stockade for browsing. All other members of the Emily herd came in five minutes later finding Laikipia who had already been blessed with a chunk of the copra cake and the dairy cubes in his efforts of reaching the stockade earlier than his colleagues. Emily duties have been greatly reduced by Thoma and Mweya who were embracing Emma like their own born baby, reducing Emily to milk feeding the young one only. They were all well supplied with the supplements and hung around the stockade for half an hour before moving to the browsing grounds once again with the eager nannies pandering to Emma’s every desire. There was a show off in bathing with Kihari taking some press ups in the water targeting Bada and Ndoria for company. Bada was confident enough to join her but Ndoria kept vigil out of the water, still not convinced she was confident enough to join in. The orphans later resumed back to their browsing coming back into the stockade safety in the evening without linking up with any seniors from Emily’s herd.

04 January 2015

The junior orphans emptied their morning milk bottles and settled into some supplement feeding with their colleagues within Lesanju herd. They then left the stockade in their usual separate groups for a start of the browsing day. After three hours of serious browsing business, Bada, Ishaq-B, Panda and Mudanda sneaked away from their fellow orphans and giving the keepers the slip went around the Msinga hill arriving into the middle water hole to join their adopted mother Wasessa and the others who they seem to have missed very much for the last three days while being apart to help Ndoria acclimatize. It was then a big party when the four arrived and were received with big respect and appreciation. Both Bada and Mudanda seem to have rejoiced in meeting Wasessa and Wasessa happiness on her face was clearly evident. Taveta and Lempaute today ran the show in mud bathing games to welcome the four in their herd. They then spent the better half of the day, with their seniors and not regretting to have gotten a milk bottle much later than the Mbirikani herd that had already arrived into the stockade ten minutes earlier.

05 January 2015

It was a good morning with Emily and her herd of ex orphans arriving early at the stockdes in the morning. Today the ex orphans arrived with their wild boy friend slightly older than Laikipia. The orphans were still in the stockade by the time of their arrival and when they were let out immediately went to greet them all. Big bull Laikipia tried very much to own as many ladies as he could, and was seen attempting to mate Thoma to block the wild bull from getting any ladies. Lesanju and Panda’s herds moved away in fear of Laikipia’s manly moves. The ex-orphans seem to have little interest in the little dependent orphans like Ndoria, Mudanda and Bada but only concentrate their energies following tiny Emma. After an hour of feeding on the supplements and relaxing in the stockade, the ex-orphans moved off to the browsing grounds with Seraa and sister Eve keeping a close guard on Emma today.

06 January 2015

Today was another dramatic day with Wasessa slowly pushing both Mudanda and Panda to move with her in their favorite browsing grounds and hoping that she can put an end to the separation that has been deemed necessary so that Ndoria does not too early on get too much exposure to wild herds for risk of being spirited away? The keepers technically resisted that move by calling the two to join Ndoria for that much needed company. This they duly did as they understood their obligations. Soon after they left the stockade Emily herd came in a rush into the stockade and assembled around the stockade water trough for a drink. Today they had a new wild boy friend that was their age mate and was difficult to notice his presence among the ex-orphans. The other big bull that was with them yesterday was absent today. They had a wonderful feeding moment in the stockade with Emma exploring the various stockade sites, walking freely in and around the compound, with Mweya, Thoma and Eve following closely behind. Ella Edie’s first born calf now four years old was seen following Emma closely as well.

07 January 2015

The day was good with the orphans coming out playing games at the stockade compound after feeding on milk and the copra cake. Tassia went to mimic mount onto Rombo causing Ndoria to run away from them to her own separate place. Panda’s herd soon passed by collecting her and moving with her to the browsing grounds. The Lesanju herd usually enjoys their noon mud bath in the middle water hole with the Panda’s retreating back to the stockade at noon. This was the case today. Soon after the dependent orphans had left, Emily herd came in with a big wild bull. They seem to be many beautiful ladies in the ex-orphans herd that are attracting different boy friends daily. The wild bull was massively big and was seen to be following Thoma closely, although the actual mating was not sited as the bull ran off on seeing the monitoring vehicle approaching them in the wild, we suspect this is Thoma’s favourite boyfriend.

08 January 2015

The day started well with Bada and Mudanda both squeezing themselves against Wasessa who was feeding on the copra cake, after finishing up their milk bottle. There was later some games of hide and seek before each herd moving to their own different browsing directions. They later came to the stockade to drink water and milk at noon, but never took a bath as it was fairly cold at that time. Mudanda sort for some rock scratching games but left the game prematurely lack of spectators. On the other side Lesanju herd were busy browsing and did not take a mudbath either due to the cold weather conditions. They later enjoyed feeding on the grewia branches in the evening placed in the safety of their night stockades.

09 January 2015

It was another beautiful morning with the orphans sticking to their daily routine and moving out of the stockade at their own pace catching up with browsing in the early hours of the morning Then came Emily’s herd in the company of a handsome teenage wild boy that was chasing after Thoma for mating. Laikipia felt very jealous of him, and went holding Lolokwe back, mimic mounting him. Lolokwe got surprised of Laikipia decision to work on him given that there were several beautiful ladies in the ex-orphan herd would be more suitable. Lolokwe ran away from Laikipia who was still determined to follow him for a few miles. The other members in Emily’s ex orphan herd followed the two boys with their wild boy friend on board hence leaving the stockade compound. The ex-orphans never encountered the dependant orphans for the rest of the browsing day.

10 January 2015

It was a fantastic and nice day for Bada and Mudanda who were looking comfortable and now not missing Wasessa’s company so much. They were today seen detaching themselves from the seniors in Lesanju herd to follow Naipoki and Kihari who took the lead towards the southern sides of the stockade, that had become the best browsing grounds on this Ndoria orientation exercise. The seniors as well recollected themselves moving towards their favorite northern side of the stockade to fill their stomachs. They then visited the middle water hole to drink water as well as to enjoy a cooling effect from the soupy mud. It was time for all of them to show case their expertise in bathing expertise leaving there completely exhausted. Half an hour after their exit from the water pool came in ex orphans Icholta alone looking for them. Her timing was just off as she only slightly missed them, but plunged into the mud enjoying the mud bath alone. Her mission was not accomplished, and she left there searching for the dependent babies. She was not very successful in locating them and hence went towards the Mombasa water pipe line side where her other colleagues were believed to be browsing.

11 January 2015

It was a sunny and a warm day in the morning today. Panda sneaked her way hiding amongst the seniors in Lesanju herd leaving the leadership of the juniors under Kihari and Naipoki. The juniors had a wonderful browsing moment with Ndoria starting socializing with all others and feeling more relaxed than the previous few days of her orientation. They came back to the stockade at noon for milk, water all taking a bath at the stockade water pool. The seniors went on with their normal browsing routine, visiting the middle water hole at noon. After a calm moment of drinking clean water from the barrels, there was then a tough bathing competition. Rombo sat onto his buttocks on the water hole embankment rubbing his ass vigorously. Ndii, Kenia Lempaute and Sinya teamed up to challenge him on the same “BIG” buttock scratching game. Kivuko saw all that was happening and countered them in moving towards Rombo’s side to compete with them. The two were left to declare their clean win in the match when the older ladies got exhausted and voluntarily walked out of water. Rombo and Layoni later went to admire Mzima’s games when he went sitting onto the walls like a village chief conducting an important development baraza. Tassia and Dabassa were seen in a close consultation on their future on this recent emerging tough bathing competition. They sorted to take just a little bathe, to avoid that big shame of defeat in that bathing competition. The rest of the browsing day went on close to that water pool, with Sinya enjoying leading them all back to the stockade in the evening.

12 January 2015

It was a wonderful day with the orphans moving out of the stockade to obey their daily routine. They went all the way to the northern side of the stockades settling in for browsing. Later on the day Emily’s herd came by very briefly to the Voi stockades. Laikipia today was still trailing Thoma around. Laikipia felt like the king of the jungle, owning all ladies the ladies with no other bull present today. The herd then took off to the browsing grounds for the day.

13 January 2015

A wonderful day it was with the orphans playing a hide and seek game in the stockade compound before heading to the respective browsing grounds for the day. Panda propelled all others high up on the hill today with Ndoria wondering where indeed they were heading to. She later accepted that this was the best browsing place, as it had some tall and big trees to shelter them from the sun and at the same time browsing under those same trees. She saw huge rocks that she enjoyed moving around them while browsing. The juniors later came to the stockade for a noon milk bottle and to quench their thirst, before returning to the foot of the hill for the remaining better half of the day. Their senior colleagues had gone on the northern side of the Msinga hill and came back in the evening when all of the small ones were already in their stockades enjoying another moment of grewia branches feeding.

14 January 2015

The seniors in Lesanju herd went browsing onto the far northern sides of the stockade this morning. Later on the day, Emily’s herd was sited in company of another wild bull. Laikipia technically avoided colliding with the superior wild bull that could bring him down or injure him by moving parallel to him as they followed Thoma for mating. Mweya and Seraa were busy sandwiching little Emma when she started getting worried about the huge mating activity that was taking place at that time. The big wild bull bravely drove Thoma away from the Emily herd and chased her on the far northern side of the stockade. Laikipia followed them but hiding behind the wild bull in several occasions. Efforts to find Thoma and her wild boy friend for documentation were futile as they were not sited for the rest of the day.

15 January 2015

The day went on well with the small ones in the Panda herd resorting to follow the older colleagues after finishing an afternoon milk bottle. Under the stewardship of Naipoki and Kihari, they indeed arrived into the middle water hole at 2.20pm, this being the first point of their search for the Lesanju herd. Ndoria was first introduced to this big water hole by her host Bada and Kihari. The two went down with Ndoria to enjoy a bath. Panda was busy teaching Ndoria a few tips about the wall games (The waterhole has steep slippery sides that provide much fun) as she could do both scratching and bathing at the same time. They later moved out of the water browsing on the foot of the western side of the Msinga hill. At 3.30pm, Lesanju herd caught up with them there, and Wasessa was thrilled to meet her adopted babies Bada and Mudanda. She did not seem to have too much interest in little Ndoria as she concentrated on the other two. The two herds enjoyed browsing together for the rest of the day, with Ishaq B leading them back to the stockade safety in the evening.

16 January 2015

It was another day once again with Emily’s herd being the first callers of the stockade this morning, They found all the juniors still there. After all the feeding activity of the milk and the supplements, Lesanju took the lead taking away her herd out of the stockade compound and out of the orbit of Emily and company, with Panda and her herd remaining peeping between the big legs of the ex-orphans to watch little Emma suckling. Little Emma remains a huge attraction. Soon the ex-orphans left towards the direction that the Lesanju had taken but did not link up with them. No one was even interested with the small ones in Panda herd, as they were not willing to remain behind with them. They already had their little rose flower Emma that they needed to fully concentrate on. The rest of the browsing day was perfectly in order closing the day in the stockade safety in the evening.

17 January 2015

It was a nice start of the day, with the juniors emptying their morning bottle of milk joining their senior colleagues in dairy cubes and copra cake feeding. Then there were only a few games at the stockades before the two herds parted ways moving to their usual browsing grounds. The juniors came in for the milk bottle in the stockade at noon, while the seniors visited the middle water hole. There great activities here at the water hole, with Lempaute shining in the wall games scratching her stomach. Then came in Lesanju, taking the same position but this time around doing it differently. She punched the ground with her little sharp tusks loosing huge chunks of the red soil. Then followed Tassia who took the same position after Lesanju. Kenia, Ndii and Dabassa steered the muddy water, hammering it with their fore legs with the water spilling onto their playing colleagues. This brought a temporary disturbance with their colleagues leaving the water prematurely. The rest of the browsing day went on close to there ending in the stockade safety that evening.

18 January 2015

Emily’s herd predictably visited the stockade early in the morning when the juniors were taking their milk bottle and the seniors in Lesanju herd were busy feeding on the supplements. Emily’s herd went straight assembling around the stockade water trough gulping the water as they were very thirsty. Lesanju got a nice opportunity to sneak away her herd from the ex-orphans as Panda and Mbirikani did the same. The two herds saw no point of waiting as they have been denied access to greet Emma who is highly guarded by her maids in the ex-orphan herd. The ex-orphans settled briefly in the stockade for the supplement feeding and then followed Lesanju’s exit direction. The ex-orphans were then sited by the trust’s helicopter which browsing onto the northern side of the Mzinga Hill. Robert with Trust Patron Kristin Davis and US Friends Chief Executive were able to enjoy the interaction with Emily’s herd and to visit with baby Emma before spending time with the dependent orphans. Krisitn Davis was instrumental in helping purchase the Trust’s helicopter which has proved invaluable supporting our ground operations.

19 January 2015

It was a good beginning of the day with Bada and Mudanda who went sharing a pile of the copra cake, with Wasessa nearly colliding on vetted interest and fighting on the obvious jealous reason of embracing Wasessa. Ndoria stood surprised on the two orphan’s action but went pressing herself onto her friend Bada ignoring Wasessa superiority. Both herds later went their different browsing routes with Emily’s herd sighted browsing on their favorite northern side of the mountain. This area has nice browse, coupled with sweet creepers and tall grass. It has also big trees to shelter little Emma from the scorching Tsavo sun. The wild boys that had been chasing Thoma around were not with them today, and maybe they had already accomplished their mating mission that brought them together. The two herds never linked up for the rest of the browsing day, although they were close to one another. All the orphans including the seniors in Lesanju herd were given the routine de-worming medicine today when they returned back to the stockade this evening.

20 January 2015

The two herds in both Lesanju and Panda's groups left the stockade early in the morning onto the different browsing direction after all the milk, supplements and playing activity in the stockade compound. Lempaute and Sinya were playful today with Kenia and Ndii keeping a watchful eye on all the activity. Emily’s herd then arrived into the stockade paradise at noon, as well to enjoy gulping clean water from the stockade water trough and feeding onto the copra cake that they were now dreaming of these days. Sweet Sally had a soft spot for little Emma and was embracing and posing as if she was her real mother. Sweet Sally is pregnant so maybe she is only practicing! Emma went to test her teats for milk in suckling, but got nothing. Sweet Sally felt very happy closing her eyes and leaving little Emma to explore her. Emma later went to Emily to suckle on noticing that Sweet Sally teats had no milk at all. They then hung around the stockade for an hour before marching off for browsing onto the plains below the stockade. Many worms were noticed in the orphans stool throughout the day today after the de-worming exercise yesterday. All were looking well however with all browsing normally.

21 January 2015

It was a fantastic day today with the two herds of the orphans moving on the same direction after the juniors followed the seniors on the northern side of the stockade. The juniors did not link up with the seniors in Lesanju herd until noon when they went to enjoy their milk bottle in the middle water hole. They then went plunging into the water taking a bath with the new one Ndoria. Ishaq-B and Mudanda taught Ndoria some wall scratching games, soon before the arrival of the Lesanju herd. On arrival, Wasessa went to greet her precious Bada, who was bumper to bumper with Ndoria. At first, Wasessa was at a cross roads about who she was to take between the two, but later resorted to stick with her loved one Bada, slightly pushing off Ndoria to give them some socializing space. Lempaute immediately grabbed the new little Ndoria and had some wonderful mud bathing games with her, while Lesanju took on Mudanda who was looking lonely. Dabassa was also seen on the picture rolling on the embankment of this water hole on the sole target to impress the small ones who he had missed for sometime now. The two herds then united once again with Ndoria being settled and ok to move with them to even further browsing grounds. Ndoria is getting more confidence by the day now. Kihari tried to sneak away the small ones from the seniors after the noon mud bath, to have them all to herself, but was followed by them all so never managed to successfully accomplish this.

22 January 2015

It was a nice day with Kihari leading the juniors in milk taking early in the morning. Soon an unexpected visitor Laikipia appeared alone and went to quench his thirst in the stockade water trough. Little Bada was delighted to see Laikipia and was frozen just staring at him in awe of his size and magnificance, before moving to join colleagues in copra cake feeding. They later left Laikipia at the stockade salvaging all the copra cake on the ground as they left for the browsing grounds with all the juniors and seniors moving together for the day. Wasessa was very happy to be hosting her long missed baby Bada and that the groups were not split today. The sun grew warmer, and the orphans were forced to go into the middle water hole earlier than the usual 11am time. Kivuko entertained the other orphans by sliding from one corner of the water hole to the other. Ndoria was very excited to see those techniques and later Kenia led them out of the water for the start of the last browsing session of the day. Lempaute was seen on many occasions building her ties with Ndoria. She is taking this baby under her wing.

23 January 2015

It was a nice start of the day, with all the orphans enjoying their early morning sun shine as they fed onto their supplements foods in the stockade. Then came in some amazing socializing games. Naipoki was fetching some huge chunks of soil throwing it onto her back, while Kihari was raising her trunk skyward in a lying down position giving a side eye onto Ndoria and Bada who were close-by her. Then came the exodus to the browsing grounds where all settled in a single file with Lempaute sticking with Ndoria and Wasessa with Bada for the better half of the day. Then there was big action in the water hole with mud bathing games as well as a show down when Panda decided to own both Ndoria and Bada at the same time. She held both of them on their back, with her trunk and the head, with Wasessa coming in rapidly to recapture his baby Bada from her wall games and to whisk her away with her. Taveta took huge water strikes with his trunk, with a considerable amount of it spilling out of the water pool. This was to the advantage of the lonely Mudanda who went to take her bath outside of the main mudbath away from the boistrous playing and running activities of the others. Although lonely in missing her loved one Wasessa, she enjoyed it out there making her day great fun, and she was not short of attention from the others. Rombo remained in the water and stretched his trunk to welcome Kenia and Layoni for a return match in the water but his offer was never granted at all. It was a big surprise as Sinya was enjoying it in the water too today, a sight we seldom see. Ndoria doesn’t know that Sinya only takes a mud bath in special occasion like today. Ndoria is indeed a celebrity. The orphans then browsed close to that water hole for the rest of the day before Mbirikani led them back to the stockade that evening.

24 January 2015

It was a quiet and a cool morning as the orphans went out of the stockade in a nearly perfect straight line after taking their normal share of foods and milk in the stockade. Layoni and Rombo had a stop over on the foot of the Msinga hill, scratching their bellies systematically. Ndoria and Bada volunteered their little time enjoying watching the bigger orphans. They all later went off in browsing introducing Ndoria to far fields on the far northern area of Msinga hill. They turned slowly arriving in the middle water hole later that afternoon. The milk dependant orphans rushed to empty their milk bottles as their senior colleagues marched into the water pool for a much needed wallow. The bath was fantastic, Layoni went sitting onto the lying down Wasessa’s stomach, impairing her ability to wake up or move. Layoni later released her and it was to her great surprise that her loved one Bada has been temporarily been taken by Lesanju. She came up and out of water fast following behind and eventually taking her baby from Lesanju who let go without any hassle. They then moved slowly away from this water hole arriving in the stockade safety later that evening.

25 January 2015

It was a good beginning of the day, with the milk dependant orphans enjoying their morning milk bottle, soon before the arrival of the Emily herd to the stockade. There was a big herd of impala that have been very friendly and have found a safe sleeping paradise here in the stockade compound away from the predators in the wild. The mother of these offerings was believed to have been raised by Daphne Sheldrick many years back Bunty, and the stockade was there home as well back then. These are her descendents. Surprisingly the orphans have been very peaceful with them, not chasing them away from the stockade as it has been their tradition with other visiting wild animals. The impala’s have been left in peace with no charging games. The ex-orphans settled around the stockade water trough to quench their thirst, as a first priority of their visit today in the stockade. Emma was seen pressing her self against Edie’s big legs with Edie’s calf Ella watching and hopefully comfortable with that. Emma went forward suckling Edie teats and hopefully today was blessed with some milk as she stayed suckling for a little longer time. Lesanju moved her group away from the seniors as soon after finishing feeding onto the supplement foods. Later at a wonderful noon mud bath, Taveta was the day maker when he went down into the water for rolling games and was surrounded by all the others who enjoyed his games before participating in the bathing themselves. Today Wasessa refused to take a bath when she learnt that Lempaute was on a mission to snatch her baby Bada at that time. The rest of the browsing went on close to that water hole for the better half of the remaining day with Ndii taking the new Ndoria for a browsing company throughout the rest of the day. They separated when Ndoria went back to the stockade with the babies in the evening.

26 January 2015

Emily herd visited the stockade a few minutes after the stockade dependant orphans had left for the field to browse. They went assembling around the stockade water trough for a drink, before lining up behind the electric fence raising their trunks for a request of copra cake from the keepers attending the stockade. Their request was obviously granted but Lolokwe and Moran were denied access to it by the ex-orphans ladies present. They went staying together as if discussion their fate with these ladies. They later left the stockade towards the direction where the small ones had gone but didn’t meet with them on this particular day. The orphans in Lesanju and Panda herds visited the middle water hole at noon, with milk dependant orphans emptying their milk bottle before moving down into the water pool. The older ones in Lesanju herd joined them a few minutes later and had a wonderful mud bathing games there. Lesanju, Lempaute and Rombo were involved showing off, taking a little longer in water and joining their colleagues much later in browsing. The rest of the day went on very well with Naipoki enjoying leading them back to the stockade safety that evening.

27 January 2015

It was a nice morning with all the orphans happily carrying on with their daily routine of milk feeding before engaging in their usual socializing games in the stockade compound. Soon Tassia led the way out towards the browsing grounds and they all respected his decision not minding his status in the orphan hierarchy of leadership. They all settled browsing with Ndoria getting nearly no chance to interact with her friend Bada as he had been taken by Wasessa early on. Ndoria secured a nice browsing moment with Lesanju and gave her all the necessary trust and interaction. The juniors then started first towards the middle water hole to take their milk bottle and obey their thirst, before being accompanied by their older colleagues for mud bathing. Ndoria had wonderful mud bath game and was the centre of attraction from all of the others. Dabassa had a soft spot for Ndoria games and spent the time guarding her from being disturbed by the other playful orphans. Lempaute technically pushed Wasessa on her hind quarters out of the water to create some space for Bada, but Wasessa made sure she moved out with her adopted baby.

28 January 2015

Emily’s herd visited the stockade a few minutes after the small ones had left the stockade for the bush. They were very thirsty and went drinking in the stockade water trough before settling down to supplement food feeding. Little Emma was seen embracing her sister Eve this morning giving her the love affection and a soft touch. They stood Emily on the left hand side, Emma in the middle and Eve on the right hand making a perfect family match. Emma seems to have started realizing her older sister Eve who has been always available for her. Emma went rubbing herself and playing with her mothers big leg, with tight security provided from her sister Eve.

29 January 2015

It was a good beginning of the day with Wasessa came running straight to outside Bada stable receiving and taking them after their milk feed for supplement feeding. The orphans later settled on the western foots of the Msinga hill enjoying their browsing for the better half of the day. Lucky enough, there was still a lot of green browse to forage onto before the dry season begins to grip again. Emily’s herd was then sited three hours after the orphans arrived into the browsing grounds but did not choose to join each other. Morani was seen seducing Mweya. Moran took the advantage of male dominance as Laikipia was missing from the herd today. Seraa went to play with a tree trunk pretending she had not seen the big ceremony that was being engaged between Mweya and Morani today.

30 January 2015

The morning was calm with clouds paving way to bright sun later on the day. The milk dependant orphans marched in the front of their older colleagues enjoying their afternoon milk bottle before moving for a bath in the middle water hole. Soon after all of them had plunged into the water, came in the un-expected visitor big bull Lolokwe who came alone to join them in the bath without other members of the Emily herd. Lolokwe went holding Kihari back as if attempting to ride onto her, making Mudanda, Ndoria and Bada to be very uncomfortable running out of water. Mbirikani and Panda had their wonderful games on the embankment of that water hole all trying to impress their visitor Lolokwe. Finally Mzima went to engage Lolokwe onto a wrestling match, before Lolokwe leaving the juniors heading towards the Voi river. All was then well for the rest of the browsing day with Naipoki leading them to the stockade safety that evening.

31 January 2015

The day was good with the orphans in both Panda and Lesanju herd having a highly charged interaction for the first time meeting in the middle water hole at noon. Kihari was very lucky today to have access to Emma and she was able to give her a trunk touch greeting as the ex-orphans and her sister Eve have been very protective of her recently preventing much interaction from the juniors. Emma plunged into the soupy muddy water and enjoyed a lot of running around here and there. She was later led out of the water by Ndara and Thoma as Emily stood aside proudly watching Emma games. Lolokwe took Edie’s calf Ella for a scratching game on a fallen tree trunk close to the middle water pool. Icholta went as well to enjoy the scratch after the two had left there. The juniors then joined Emily’s herd in browsing towards the Voi river for three hours, before coming back without the ex-orphans for a second bathing moment in the same water hole. They then headed slowly browsing along the way arriving in the stockade that evening.