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All the orphans welcomed in the New Year in a jovial mood, very much engaged in various pushing games. Little Jotto, Tamiyoi and Malima happily romped around the stockade compound trying to charge, trumpet and ‘bushbash’ like all the older ones were doing in the bushes abutting the stockades. Luggard, Murit and Malkia were busy locking trunks with each other in some great wrestling games. It was funny and encouraging at the same time to see poor Luggard with his broken bag leg trying to play and climb on Malkia as all others do, despite only really being on three legs. He couldn’t balance very well but he was happy to chase after her instead, and Malkia was willing to give him a fair pushing game as well.

During the orphans’ mud bath at 11am, it was very hot and the babies quickly drank from their milk bottles and ran into the mud bath to cool down. When Luggard, Malima, Tamiyoi, Ambo and Jotto arrived at the mud bath area, it was all they could do to finish their milk as fast as possible before going to suck up mud and spray it behind their ears to cool down. Luggard especially, who loves his mud baths, happily wallowed in the thick mud accompanied by Tamiyoi, Malima and Jotto, though their happy games took a turn when Esampu, Murit, Godoma and Ngilai arrived at the mud bath too. They rolled and bumped and slid against each other, which was a bit too rough for the smaller ones, so they got out to enjoy soil dusting with the help of their keepers instead. Ngilai ran out of the mud bath and started trying to play with the younger ones and bumping into them as well, but the keepers warned him away. Instead of going back into the mud bath though naughty Ngilai decided to run along the rope cordon where the visitors were standing and enjoyed bumping into them, getting them all nice and muddy before running back into the mud bath; a clever move to avoid being told off by the keepers – although they enjoyed it and applauded Ngilai’s naughty behaviour!

Out in the bush this morning all the orphans were busy browsing and not really playing, though minutes after 7am Lasayen, Rapa, Ndotto, Sana Sana, Malkia and Dupotto started chasing around and chasing after the female warthogs and their young ones that had joined their little group out in the forest for protection. When the others started to tire, Rapa, Ndotto and Lasayen didn’t give up the chase and continued to try and flush the pigs out of the bushes but when they accidentally ran into Malkia and Sana Sana they got a fright and they went running back to join the rest of the group. Upon seeing that, Lasayen, Rapa and Ndotto folded their game and went running back to the herd as well, trumpeting and stamping their feet which caused the rest of the herd to do the same! Mbegu, Ukame, Maramoja and Dupotto all joined in bashing bushes down and trumpeting as they ran about the forest. Little ones like Tamiyoi, Malima, Jotto and Luggard were chose to stand beside the keepers and not get involved in all the noisy activity. Once they had all had enough of their game all the orphans settled down again and went peacefully back to browsing.

When the orphans came out of their stockades this morning they were all very busy greeting each other. Best friends like Ndotto and Lasayen were pushing each other and little Tamiyoi, Jotto and Malima walked straight over to Maxwell’s stockade opposite their stables and enjoyed feeding on his left over lucerne there. As the three little ones struggled against each other to get the best stuff, tiny Tamiyoi turned very jealous and didn’t want either Jotto or Malima to share the tasty lucerne too. She tried approaching Malima with her ears spread wide to scare her away and then did the same to Jotto, but Jotto did not take heed and busied himself by picking up the lucerne. She then tried pushing him and then even head butting him, pushing him into the metal bars of Maxwell’s gate. This made Jotto yell loudly and run off to join Malima who had already left before when Tamiyoi started to get angry. Then both he and Malima ran to join the rest of the herd who were by now browsing in the bushes nearby. Tamiyoi did not want to be left on her own though and she ran after them, though for the rest of the day Jotto did not want Tamiyoi to be next to him!

Mbegu has been used to leading the young group out into the bush in the morning and down for public visiting and feeding time, but today she officially became the leader of the whole herd when she had to take responsibility of leading the older group down to visiting time. Although she has been used to being close to the young ones, at the public visit today she didn’t show any sign of missing them too much and was happy, continuing with the feeding time as normal. Godoma is now the oldest girl in the first group of young orphans. She is the leader and caretaker of all the little babies like Tamiyoi, Jotto, Malima, Esampu and Ambo. Having learnt all the lessons of caring and protecting youngsters from Mbegu she is beginning to show she has what it takes to lead this little group. Today at public visiting when Esampu tried to bully Malima from her milk bottle and Malima shouted in protest, Godoma ran over to them to see what the problem was, proving that she is a good caretaker. Perhaps she will even be a matriarch herself one day!

Murit who is such a gentle little fellow was busy teaching little Jotto, Ambo and Luggard pushing lessons out in the forest early this morning. He had a busy time playing with the little boys taking on Jotto and Ambo together, with Luggard sometimes participating from the sidelines. Later Murit settled to fight with his best friend Luggard, but their fun game took a turn when naughty boy Rapa tried to join in and he is much too boisterous so they were not interested in playing with him. This annoyed Rapa and he started bashing small bushes down in protest! Out during the public visit the orphans were only quite active; only Malima and Tamiyoi had a busy time rolling on the loose soil as they enjoyed soil dusting and posing along the rope cordon, allowing the visitors to take lots of nice photos of them.

Today Murit was leading his group down to the mud bath area for their milk feed when he encountered a troop of baboons near the area chasing each other and messing around. He changed direction and tried to chase them out of the way but it didn’t really work as they were not that bothered by him! Godoma backed Murit up with her ears spread wide, and they managed to make their way through the baboons to run down trumpeting to their bottle feed. When the second group of babies comprised of Tamiyoi, Malima and Kuishi came running down to the open area, they got a bit confused of where to go with the baboons in the way, and Tamiyoi and Malima started yelling for help. Their yelling drew the immediate reaction of the new mini matriarch Godoma, who responded by running back out to the babies where she confidently charged through the baboons, sending them running off in all directions, so the youngsters could make their way down for their milk. Lovely caring Godoma happily walked Tamiyoi, Malima and Kuishi down to the mud bath area, still on guard with her ears spread wide.

The orphans were busy all walking out of the stockades and into the forest to begin their normal browsing activities. As they were walking they came across a herd of impala who were also busy browsing there. Upon seeing them Dupotto, Maramoja, Ndotto, Pare, Lasayen, Rapa, Mbegu, Karisa and Ukame quickly turned into the thicket and started charging and trumpeting prompting the other orphans to scamper into the bushes as well, sending the unimposing impala sprinting away in all directions. One of the impalas was unlucky however as it found itself trapped amongst the charging and stamping orphans. It had a moment of confusion within the group but we watched in amazement as it just jumped high clean over Ndotto’s back in a panic to reach the rest of its herd, an action that send Ndotto yell out in fright and the herd went running to the keepers for reassurance, only Mbegu, Dupotto, Godoma and Maramoja remained active as they charged about bush-bashing for several minutes before calm prevailed and they all went back to browsing peacefully and making their way further into the forest. Tamiyoi, Jotto, Malima, Murit and Kuishi all kept themselves very close to the keepers for the rest of the morning though!

Little Musiara woke up looking slightly dull this morning and not as strong as the previous day. He was slightly off his milk as well but his blood was not showing anything too out of the ordinary. We put him on a drip which boosted his energy levels and kept him inside to recover. During public visit today it was really hot which prompted the orphans to compete who could get into the mud bath first to beat the soaring temperatures. Some of the orphans weren’t interested in going into the mud though, like Ngilai. He doesn’t like the mud that much and will always try and find a way of avoiding it. Instead he was charging about after warthogs in the bushes who were also just trying to get to the mud hole. At one point, he got closer to the mud bath to join Jotto, Tamiyoi, Malima and Murit who were busy having a mud and soil bath aided by the keepers, but when he saw the keepers approaching him with the spade he kept running away from them to avoid being covered in mud. He walked far away from the mud bath and watched where the keepers went with the spade to avoid being covered in mud. Kuishi is another baby who always shies away from the mud bath and she just hangs around the edge of the pool, not sure whether to get into it or not. She normally just likes to scratch against those who have just come out of the mud and that’s normally how she likes to mud bathe!

Esampu’s greedy character is well known amongst her little friends. Today during the public visit when Malima was having her milk in the open space, she saw Esampu running towards her with her ears raised but before she could reach her, Malima started shouting and sheltered herself behind the keeper. Godoma responded immediately and started charging towards Malima to help, but just a wagging finger from the keepers pointed at Esampu saw her change her intension, and instead she just went to the water troughs to have a drink and Godoma just watched her from nearby to make sure she didn’t do anything else naughty. Day after day Karisa, Ukame and Malima are moulding their relationship – becoming firm friends and going everywhere together, even though Malima is so much younger. If the keepers cannot find one of them in the main herd, soon they will realise none of the three are there and they will always be found browsing separately together. Today after the 3pm private visit it was noticed that Ukame was missing from the herd. As the search for her began, it was Karisa who came out of the thicket first, followed by Wanjala leading Ukame. When Karisa saw the keepers he walked towards them, but when Ukame and Wanjala saw the keepers they ran away at first. Then they decided to follow behind Karisa who was walking with the keepers to re-join the rest of the herd in the forest.

Mbegu is being such a responsible matriarch and she seems to understand her group so well. Early in the morning as all the orphans were walking out deep into the forest, some of the very young ones were crowded under one of the tall trees. They were busy feeding on the leaves that had fallen to the ground there – Ambo, Jotto, Esampu, Ngilai and Godoma were all there but Ngilai and Esampu were shoving the others to try and get most of the leave for themselves. Godoma and Ambo kept pushing back and when Mbegu saw the group having their differences she stepped in to resolve the problem. She stepped in and pulled down a branch of the tree for the babies so that everyone had something to enjoy, and everyone was happy. Dupotto followed suit and soon almost the whole herd were there enjoying the leaves. Missing from the scene again were Ukame, Karisa and Wanjala again but this time the little girl Malima too. They were browsing separately together to the side and had found their own nice branches to chew on. At around 2pm, big boy Kelelari finally got to leave his stockade and join the others out in the forest. We decided after 2 months he was finally ready and trusted the keepers enough too. His walk out to the forest was very slow and it took him a long time to join the others who had come back to pick up him. He was so much older when he came to the nursery and thus that bit more traumatized after losing his family. Everyone who approached him regardless of their age or size was charged at and pushed away. Mbegu tried to reach out to him too whilst he drank water from a water trough, but she was pushed away too. When he finally reached the forest he was still pushing the others away, even Rapa who is known for not being very friendly to young ones was not spared and he stayed away from Kelelari for the rest of the day. It was the courageous short little boy Ndotto who tried to stop this behaviour. Ndotto walked straight up to him as Kelelari tried to warn him away with his long tusks and big body, but Ndotto just pushed him away. Kelelari tried to charge at him and Ndotto just charged back and pushed him into the bushes! Ndotto’s wrestling practise with Kauro and the other big boys before they left must have successfully taught him some good lessons and from then on, Kelelari started behaving! He even stayed with the herd for the private visit in the afternoon and behaved without causing any problems – he really enjoyed the mud bath! At 4.30pm before the others come back to their stockades at 5pm, he was escorted back with Mbegu, Ndotto, Dupotto and Karisa and he had no problem going back into his pen. What a fun and successful first day out for this big boy we are so thankful we managed to save, and thank goodness for Ndotto too!

Today Murit has been such a joker within the herd, since he came out of his stockade this morning. He might even be over taking Ndotto as the play-maker within the orphan family. His pen is next to Ngilai’s and that was his first stop this morning – he kept running up to it and pulling on it because Ngilai was still inside. Malima then came running over too and together they struggled to open it to let Ngilai out to join them. Finally Ngilai was let out by one of the keepers and the games began straight away. Murit went on to try and help others who were still inside, but Godoma was more interested in playing with Murit than being let out. By the time they all arrived in the forest all the orphans settled to browse except Murit who did not want to abandon his games. Ukame keeps playing tricks on the keepers at milk feeding time for her to get to the milk point ahead of everyone else. She manages to get around the bushes without being seen and reaches the milk feeding point by the mud bath before everyone else!

Esampu still doesn’t really get on with the other babies and continues to be told off by some of the older ones for her naughty behaviour. Whilst having her share of milk at the 11am feeding session, she saw Jotto passing by and without warning she decided to push him into the mud pool, before going back to drink her milk bottle. As a way of disciplining her she was denied the rest of her share and sent away by the keepers. She fought against them pretending she had done nothing wrong, but in the end she opted to run away for a drink at the water trough instead. Ambo and Sana Sana were drinking water from the same trough and she went ahead to push the younger Ambo out of the way for some space to drink. Sana Sana wasn’t happy about that and defended Ambo by putting the cheeky Esampu in her place. Sana Sana forced her into the mud bath to play and she stayed there right until the end of visiting time. Malima, Godoma and Murit on the other hand had a wonderful time during the visit. Malima is one fan of the mud bath and loves to play in it when she is in her best mood. It was because of her that Godoma and Murit also got into the pool as well and there they played a pushing and mounting game. Malima looked almost as if she was swimming in the water! Completely submerged and moving from one end to the other; the three has lots of fun before walking to dry themselves in the dust. On their way out they were met by some warthogs who were also coming to cool themselves but they were not spared by the playful trio. Godoma took them on driving them back into the bushes and chasing them in different directions, before joining the others who were already on their way back to the forest.

The two girls who don’t really play too many games with the others are Malkia and Sana Sana. Sana Sana keeps herself busy browsing most of the time whilst the orphans are out but today was different. Today the herd looked quite dull and these two girls took it upon themselves to entertain everyone. They had some fun playing a pushing game at length and making the others in the herd perk up a bit. Generally it was quite a cool day today compared to the other very hot days we have been having, and on such days you will find it quite hard to find many of the orphans in the mud bath. Today none of them decided to enter the mud during any of the sessions when they visited the area. Malima and Esampu who love the mud just kept dipping their trunks into it to feel the temperature and both of them decided not to enter. Esampu seems to have extended her dislike for the warthogs. The warthogs have a long history with the orphans as they know that if they follow them and feed close to them they will have protection from any lions around as well. But since Musiara has started visiting the main herd Esampu has been very protective and have not let them anywhere close to the baby. Today she has made it her mission to drive them back into the thicket where they should be and she got friend to help her on this mission in the form of Pare. Since morning these two have been driving the warthogs into the bushes and not letting them anywhere near the herd. Today after the 3pm visit Wanjala went back into the forest with the others but then decided to go a different way. Because he normally wonders off with Ukame and Karisa and they were in the herd still, the keepers assumed he was there too. The keepers realised though just before it was bed time and found him browsing some distance away from the others. He was walked to join the last ones that were returning home and we hope he does not decide to browse on his own again soon!