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For a third day in a row, Faraja’s bull friend joined the Umani herd today. He has started to be friendlier towards the younger girls. Today he managed to convince Enkesha and Kiasa to follow him towards the Chyulu Hills. When it was time for the herd to move and the Keepers called out to all the orphans and soon realized that Kiasa and Enkesha were not with them. The Keepers broke off into two groups, one to stay with the main herd and the other to look for Kiasa and Enkesha. Zongoloni must have heard the Keepers calling out, because after a few minutes, the wild bull, Enkesha and Kiasa emerged from the bushes with Zongoloni. Relieved to see the girls Sonje and Quanza quickly ensconced them into the centre of the herd.  

Faraja and the rest of the bulls must have sensed that the Keepers were not too happy with their wild bull friend, so they decided to leave the Umani herd and as predicted, the wild bull followed them. It was late afternoon and seeing the orphans tired, they Keepers started to lead the orphans’ home. They had to take a detour and a slightly longer route as their way home was blocked by a large herd of buffaloes. The orphans got home later than usual, hot and thirsty, they all gulped down their bottles of milk and retired to their quarters quite early.

A wild bull whom we haven’t seen for many years, appeared where the Umani orphans were browsing. He is a huge bull, almost 40yrs old with one very large tusk and one broken tusk. The Keepers have nicknamed him One Tusker. This bull is not very friendly, and the Keepers think he must have heard their voices and sought them out. As soon as he was spotted, the Keepers quickly gathered the orphans and moved away to avoid any altercations. Kiasa, curious as always, started to walk towards the big bull, but Sonje and Quanza put a stop to this right away.  

Zongoloni, Alamaya and Faraja had joined the orphans earlier, but when the wild bull started to walk towards the Chyulu Hill, these three nightclubbers decided to follow him. Sonje and Quanza guided the orphans towards the stockades as it was almost time to go home. Maktao and his friend Enkesha took lead and were the first ones to reach the stockades, have their milk bottles and retire to their rooms. Murera as always made her rounds of all the pens before settling down into her now quarters. She walked past Enkesha and saw the young girl resting her trunk on the wooden planks taking a quick nap before continuing to browse on the greens the Keepers had laid out for her.

The stockade orphans were eager to exit their pens today and meet their friends to start their day. Alamaya and Zongoloni were already there, waiting patiently. Lima Lima arrived a short while later and as soon as Kiasa caught their scent, she ran out of the gates to greet them. The Umani orphans and their friends headed towards the Chyulu Hills along the Kithasyo Airstrip. On arrival, the found a large herd of female elephants had already taken over quite a bit of the area. Murera was very hesitant and wanted to turn back but she saw that Zongoloni, and Quanza had already walked up the oldest female of the herd and after a while all the orphans were browsing peacefully with the wild herd. Murera decided to stay but browsed away from them, keeping Mwashoti close to her.

Since Faraja’s wild bull friend tried to sneak off with Enkesha and Kiasa, the nightclubbers boys have been keeping to themselves, the Keepers have spotted them with various wild herds, but they have not been to visit the Umani herd yet. Ngasha remains on his own. He sometimes visits the stockades after the orphans have left, but he has not been spotted with any wild herds yet. It could be because of this bullish nature.

It has now become a common sight to see Faraja and Ziwa, in the company of wild bulls. Ever since Ngasha had his disagreement with the nightclubber boys, Faraja and Ziwa have chosen to join wild bull herds. Jasiri still spends time with his friends in the Umani herd, but sometimes he too is seen with other wild bulls. These boys seem happier in the company of wild bulls, enjoying the adventures of now what seems like another step towards their re-integration. The Keepers also noticed how much bigger Ziwa and Faraja were looking, their tusks seem bigger and both bulls look healthy and strong. Jasiri has tried to reconcile with Ngasha, but Ngasha chooses not to mend his ways, and because of this the Umani herd have made it clear his bullying ways are not welcome. Sometimes Ngasha visits the stockades, on his own, after the Umani orphans have left, he walks around the stockade picking up leftover pellets.

Today Ziwa and Faraja arrived with four wild bulls, the bulls were very curious of the Keepers and when one of them tried to charge at the Keepers, Ziwa stopped him, by stepping in front of the wild bull. After that, Zongoloni rumbled at Ziwa, and Faraja and Ziwa left with their friends. Zongoloni and Quanza decided to follow the wild bulls but returned a short while later to join Kiasa and her friends. Kiasa and Kiombo were engaged in a tug of war over a branch. In the end Kiasa gave up and joined Maktao and Enkesha where they were browsing.

Lima Lima has finally been weaned off her milk bottle, for an elephant who loved her milk, she has accepted her transition quite gracefully. Today she watched as Enkesha and Maktao enjoyed their bottles of milk, without causing a fuss. Mwashoti not so much, this little bull still demands his milk bottle, the Keepers have been trying to wean him off too, but their efforts have been futile. Today, again they tried, but Mwashoti screamed in protest so much that the Keepers felt sorry for him and gave him a bottle to keep him happy.

All the orphans were getting ready to wallow, Kiasa was the first one at the mud-bath, but Lima Lima noticed there was a water buffalo also making his way to the mud-bath, she trumpeted loudly at the Keepers to alert them, but before the Keepers could get to Kiasa, Lima Lima had already ushered Kiasa away from the mud-bath towards Murera and went on to chase off the buffalo, after which everyone enjoyed a leisurely mud-bath.

We have a total of fifteen orphans at Umani, out of that seven are members of the nightclubbers, none of whom visited the stockades this morning. As always, the Keepers kept watching out for them but after a while, Keepers and babies all set out towards the Kibwezi Forest. Earlier the Keepers could hear trumpeting coming from the Hills and they hoped this was their beloved nightclubbers. Once everyone got the to forest, the Keepers heard some rustling in the bushes, they thought Zongoloni had arrived with her troop, instead it was a herd of wild bulls. They had caught scent of Murera and Sonje, but on catching scent of the Keepers, they were a bit hesitant, so the Keepers backed away and let the bulls socialize with Sonje and Murera. Sonje was enjoying the company of the wild bulls, but not Murera, after a while she disappeared into the forest. Kiasa and Enkesha were very curious of the wild bulls, so they followed Sonje and stayed with the bulls for quite a while, until it was time for their midday feed. The orphans and wild bulls parted ways, the orphans went down to the mud-bath to wait for the milk van and the bulls stayed in the Kibwezi forest. 

Last night, the heavy rain falling on the roof proved to be too much for Kiombo. The sound scared him, and Sonje could see he was not comfortable, she rumbled at him gently to reassure him and coaxed him to stand under her belly. Kiombo settled down after that. Next door to him were Maktao and Enkesha, unperturbed by the rain and enjoying the greens the Keepers had left out for them. What finally scared everyone was the big clap of thunder, but the Keepers were at hand to reassure them, and soon after the babies had fallen asleep.

The next morning, by the time Lima Lima and Mwashoti arrived the orphans had already left the stockades. These two elephants took their time walking around the stockades, feasting on left over pellets and inspecting their old rooms. Mwashoti heard Murera call out for him, the orphans had already reached the slopes of Umani Hill, so Mwashoti and Lima Lima quickly made their way to Umani Hill to join their friends. As both friends were making their way to Murera a lone buffalo came out of the bushes startling and scaring Mwashoti, Mwashoti trumpeted so loudly at the buffalo, that the buffalo ran away, leaving the friends to carry on.

The dynamics of the Umani orphans has started to change somewhat. Initially it was the older boys who started to spend their nights outside of the stockades. Zongoloni followed next, to look after the boys, Lima Lima was the next female and Mwashoti is the latest addition. After Ngasha’s disagreement with Faraja and Ziwa, they made their own group and have now joined a wild bull herd. These two bulls seem to be very happy living their lives as wild and free elephants. After Jasiri’s numerous attempts at reconciling with Ngasha were thwarted, this bull has remained within the nightclubber click of Zongoloni, Alamaya, Lima Lima and Mwashoti. Though Mwashoti seems somewhat undecided. He spends his days with Murera and the stockade-dependent orphans, but at night he stays with his nightclubber friends. He is taking his time transitioning fully into the nightclubbers herd.   

The stockade-dependent herd remains under the care of Murera and Sonje, with the help of Quanza. Enkesha is our mini matriarch in the making and all our babies Kiombo, Kiasa and Maktao. Ngasha is the only one who remains on the outskirts of each herd. It will be a while before he finds his place.  

There were a few buffaloes, lying in the tall grass and although their heads were slightly visible, but not so much from a distance, so when Lima Lima set out on her usual mission of scouring the area for any danger, she spotted them and immediately returned to the Keepers to alert them. Anytime the Keepers see Lima Lima returning they know something must be amiss, so one of the Keepers walked ahead with Lima Lima and as soon as he too spotted the buffaloes, he signalled our Head Keepers to change direction. Luckily all the babies were far behind and so there was no encounter with the buffaloes today, thanks to Lima Lima’s vigilance. This girl is invaluable to the Keepers, and they applauded her. Alamaya decided he still wanted to have a look for himself, so he turned back to look at the buffaloes who were dozing in the sun. He let out a loud trumpet that startled the buffaloes and sent them running off, down the hill.  

Murera decided to move further uphill where they would have a good vantage point. Just as the orphans were settling into their browsing, a disagreement broke out between Enkesha and Kiombo. Kiombo dropped a branch that he had been chewing on and Enkesha was quick to scoop it up. Kiombo grabbed on to it with this trunk, pulling it out of Enkesha but Enkesha held on to it and a tug-of-war broke out between the two orphans. Maktao wanting to help his friend Enkesha started to walk towards her but before these little ones could take the fight further, Sonje stepping in putting an end to the tussle. Zongoloni took advantage of this distraction to try and sneak off with Kiasa, but Quanza was watching them and alerted the Keepers, who were able to coax Kiasa to return to the herd. 

Last night was very noisy. The sounds of trumpeting and screaming of wild elephants coming from the forest near the stockades made Murera and her herd quite restless. The Keepers came out to check and on them and around midnight Alamaya, Lima Lima and Ngasha appeared from the bushes and came up to the stockade gates. With Lima Lima was a very large bull and as the Keepers looked around, they realised it was mating season for the elephants. Murera, Sonje and Kiombo caught Lima Lima’s scent right away as they raised their trunks. The bull stayed with Lima Lima for the rest of the night, but Ngasha left with Alamaya as they did not want to be with Lima Lima’s friend.  

After last night Maktao and Enkesha stayed close to the Keepers and Sonje. They know that a surprise encounter with a wild elephants could result in an unwanted altercation. Wherever Sonje and Murera went, Maktao and Enkesha followed them. Even when the older girls went to nap under some trees, the two little ones followed them.  

Yesterday after Zongoloni left with the wild bull, we did not see her again. She did not return this morning, when Alamaya and Mwashoti came to the stockades. Murera and Sonje were in deep discussions, when Kiasa bumped into Murera, whilst Enkesha was chasing her. The older girl turned to Kiasa and placed her trunk around Kiasa in an affectionate manner. The girls decided to take the Umani herd towards the Kenze area today. Mwashoti was a bit jealous of the attention Murera was giving Kiasa and so he decided to go his separate way with Quanza, but this did not last long. Both these orphans missed their friends and eventually caught up with them. As they were walking through the forest, a troop baboons began screaming in the trees, little Maktao who is the youngest, got scared and ran to hide under Sonje’s belly. Enkesha ran up to Sonje to see why Maktao was scared and then she pacified Maktao with a trunk hug.