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The day started off quite chilly and it was predominantly raining throughout the morning. This meant that Dololo and Mukkoka stayed indoors until the weather was better, as the other orphans happily made their way out to the forest enjoying the light rainfall. Once out in the forest they decided to roll around on the ground enjoying the damp wet earth. Luggard, even despite his bad leg, wasn’t left out and was seen rolling on the ground with his best friends like Musiara, Sattao and Maktao, and even Jotto too. 

It was still raining during the public visit today and it was funny to watch Musiara, Sattao and Maktao make a dash towards the visitors standing around the rope cordon with their umbrellas to seek shelter with them! Maktao was the funniest because when he failed to get to one of the umbrella’s a visitor was holding due to the rope cordon, he started yelling. He then ran after one of the Keepers who was holding an umbrella too. He happily settled under that umbrella with him until the rain subsided a bit.

Malima was initially quite a naughty young bully girl who was forced to go up into the older group so that she could be disciplined by the older members. This method seemed to work and the big girls really brought her back down to size, so that she had a better character and nature around the others. This is why socialising with the other elephants is so important for our young orphans! Malima is now a much more gentle and calm loving girl who is much more protective of the younger babies. Today we watched as she went running to Mukkoka who was yelling after being pushed by naughty Emoli. As Mukkoka struggled to get to his feet after being pushed over by Emoli, Malima came running out of the bushes and went to rescue Mukkoka before Tagwa and Tamiyoi arrived. When Mukkoka got to his feet, Malima didn’t want to leave his side and she attached herself to his side all day long. She especially shows interest in caring for Mukkoka and Dololo.

It is quite common for two orphans who arrive within a short time of one another to become quite close friends. The same can be said of Dololo and Mukkoka, even though they have quite different characters. Mukkoka likes to stick with the herd, while Dololo likes to wander off, but they do tend to keep an eye on one another. If they sneak off from the herd they will tend to go together, but today Dololo decided to sneak off on his own and stayed away for almost two hours! 

During the public visit today, Maktao and Kiasa, who are also neighbours, decided to try and resolve their long term differences with a fight. Kiasa started the fight but Maktao seemingly finished it, but after that she became a good girl and decided instead to go and baby sit the little girl Larro until it was time for them to leave the mud bath and go back to the forest.

Recently it has seemed like Malima is trying to prove to the other older girls that she can also be a leader. Sometimes, like today, she will try and lead her own group off to the side from the others. This morning she had her own group of seven babies who decided to go off and browse for about two hours on their own. The orphans always all wake up in a different mood every day; sometimes they want to play, sometimes they just want to browse, and sometimes they want to walk off and explore. At was at this point in the day that Malima tried to keep Dololo, Larro, Luggard, Sattao, Maisha and Musiara under her watch. She can be very good at protecting the younger ones if she wants to. Musiara is a quiet outgoing little boy though and sometimes he likes to accompany those walking out further into the forest. While he was with Malima today he didn’t see Tagwa or Sagala and he started running all over the place looking for them. Malima grew concerned as he frantically ran around, so she left the rest of the group to help him. Within no time, it was only Luggard and Larro left behind in the spot the group of seven had been browsing, as all the others left after Malima too. By the time they caught up with the older ones, it was almost time for the 9am milk feed.

Ambo is crazy for the Lucerne pellets; he loves them so much he will try all means and ways to play tricks on the Keepers and to find his way to the Lucerne pellet store and help himself. Today as the orphans made their way out to the forest in the morning, Ambo sneaked back to the store area three separate times. He goes behind Dololo’s stable and manages to stretch his trunk through the bars to the pellets. Whenever he shows up there it is never an easy job to drive him back to the herd either. 

When baby Maarifa came down to the public visiting hour today, she was not interested with quietly walking along the line and saying hello to the visitors as she normally does, but instead today she came running down and straight to the heap of loose soil where she started rolling in the dust. She later then went close to the mud pool and lay down on her tummy next to the edge of the pool. The Keeper started splashing her with mud and after having enough of that she went back to the soil to have a dust bath. She rolled a couple of times before running back out to the forest at high speed.

At the stockades in the evening, Maktao stole all of Kiasa’s greens and pulled them over to his room through the partition. The Keeper kept trying to pull some back for Kiasa to feed on and Maktao kept pulling it back!

As the days pass, Kiasa’s size and body strength are also growing, and so is her streak of naughtiness. She has passed her age-mates in size and her playmates are not keen to play with her as she has a rather cheeky character. These days she has found new playmates who are slightly older than her, being primarily Malima and Emoli. Today during the 9am milk feed, Malima had a very hard time trying to defend her milk bottles from Kiasa who was determined to have more than her share. Despite her bigger size and being able to stand her own, Malima was having trouble with the sassy little girl from Tsavo. As the feeding went on, our attentions turned to Dololo who was really enjoying his milk bottle. He was drinking it in style and even raising his front feet. When the bottle was finished he continued to suckle on it to make sure there were no drops left. As the Keeper removed the teat from his mouth he complained and yelled bitterly, as though to say he was not done yet!

Today it felt as if the temperature was rising as every minute passed. The morning dew quickly dried up and the baby elephants prepared for another hot day of browsing out in the forest. Dololo and Mukkoka chose to browse under the trees while some of the others braved the hot sun to browse elsewhere. Maktao and Maisha decided to join Dololo as they started to find the heat too much. The bigger girls like Kuishi, Sagala and Tamiyoi took cover under one large tree, with Kuishi pulling down big branches to ensure they could all still browse while standing in the shade. Tagwa, Sattao and Larro browsed under nearby shrubs before they got a fright by some impalas running past. Larro took cover next to the Nursery matriarch Tagwa, who trumpeted loudly to protect the baby. This attracted the attention of the other elephants, who also came running over to chase off the impalas who had interrupted their browsing.