Keepers' Diaries, January 2022

Voi Reintegration Unit



For our Voi family, the year began on an auspicious note: On the morning of the 2nd, Edie’s ex-orphan herd arrived at the stockade compound after nearly a year away. Icholta was there with her firstborn, Inca, plus a tiny baby, who we have called Izzy! As has become a time-honoured tradition among our ex-orphan mothers, she promptly returned home to introduce her newborn to the people who raised her. 

01 January 2022

This morning Ishaq-B went and stood next to the stockade water trough and stretched her trunk high to reach some green branches from a nearby tree. Kenia went and scratched her bottom against a big rock close to the water trough; her friends were eager to leave the stockade compound once they had finished their milk and lucerne, so she decided to catch up with them later.

Kenia did catch up with her friends and as soon as she found them she started a dust bathing game and lay down on the ground, but she wasn’t joined by any of her friends who were busy browsing. Only Pika Pika chose to stand behind her waiting and watching Kenia’s games.

In the afternoon it was quite funny to watch Tamiyoi running in front of Sagala, Emoli, Murit and Pika Pika to get one of the first milk bottles. The orphans then proceeded to have a lot of fun in the mud bath, with Ngilai pursuing Tagwa as usual, but his games turned out to be a bit too forward and Tagwa and Tamiyoi ended up running out of the water to avoid him. Tamiyoi carried on playing outside of the mud bath, but Ngilai pursued Tagwa and tried to climb on her. Eventually Sagala came out of water to rescue Tagwa from Ngilai.

Meanwhile, Godoma was having fun rolling on the ground just beside the mud bath, and her game was drawing a lot of admirers. Rorogoi became slightly jealous of Godoma and went and pushed her with her tusks which was a bit unfair, so the Keepers sent her away until she calmed down and rejoined the herd. The rest of the day was more peaceful and the orphans happily browsed for the afternoon before returning to the stockades for the night.

02 January 2022

Ndotto and Arruba enjoyed catching up with one another this morning, patting each other with their trunks, while their friends focused on their supplement food pellets. The orphans left the stockade compound to browse and settled at the foot of the rocky Msinga Hill. Mudanda and Bada, who are great friends, posed beside the great big boulders there, and relaxed while the rest of the orphans were busy browsing.

After the afternoon milk feed, the orphans went down to the baobab tree to have some fresh water and to wallow in the mud bath. Tundani was seen walking up to Ndotto, who was in the water, for a sparring match. Ndotto has grown tall and big for his age, which is marvelous considering how tiny he was when he came into our care, and this is slightly concerning for Tundani who, being the oldest, is currently the dominant bull among the stockade dependent orphans. Although it seemed as if Tundani wanted to gauge how strong Ndotto is becoming, the two enjoyed a friendly pushing game.

Today was the happiest day for a very glorious reason though, for ex-orphans Icholta, Edie and Mweya arrived at the stockade compound with their wild born calves and Kihari in tow, and none other than a tiny newborn baby. Icholta, whose firstborn son Inca just turned six years old, had a two week old baby with her, a little girl we have called Izzy.

Edie had her two babies with her, Eco and Eden, while Mweya was with her little girl, Mwitu. Icholta was fulfilling the ritual and time-honoured tradition among our ex-orphan mothers - promptly returning home to introduce her newborn to the people who raised her. The ex-orphans enjoyed a very brief drink from the stockade water trough and then left soon after they had their fill, leaving up hoping we will see them again very soon.

03 January 2022

The milk dependent orphans came out of their stockades early this morning to gulp down their milk bottles before settling down with their older friends in Kenia’s herd for the lucerne pellet feeding. They all then left the compound to browse out in the Park for the day, with Tamiyoi in the lead.

As the dependent orphans browsed and the Keepers watched over them, we could see the ex-orphans Edie, Mweya, Icholta and their calves browsing on the lower western side of Msinga Hill. Icholta could be seen leaving little Izzy under the trusted care of Kihari, and Izzy was clearly very comfortable in Kihari’s company, following her all over the place, while Icholta browsed a considerable distance away. Later on, when some of the Keepers got close to the ex-orphans, Eden and Eco stayed very close to their mother Edie, and were very aggressive, charging at any Keepers who tried to come close to take a photo of them; they were born wild and so it is of course natural that they should behave this way, and a good thing too. Mwitu was also browsing and sticking close to her mother, Mweya.

After the noon milk feed, the dependent orphans went to have some fresh water from the nearby trough and only took a brief mud bath. Tundani and Mashariki enjoyed a wonderful sparring session before joining their friends who were leaving the water hole to continue browsing for the rest of the afternoon.

04 January 2022

The earliest callers to the stockades today were the ex-orphans who arrived just before 6:30 in the morning. They drank some water and decided to relax in the compound, enjoying some supplement pellets too. Mbegu and Kenia’s herds were all too happy to interact with the ex-orphans and their youngsters, sharing lucerne pellets with them. Mbegu and Mashariki evidently had a soft spot for Izzy and wanted to play with her. Her brother Inca was very jealous though and kept coming in between them, trying to block Mashariki and Mbegu from Izzy. Perhaps he was being a protective older brother too. Mashariki and Mbegu kept stretching their trunks out to try and touch Izzy and have any interaction with her whatsoever! This is very in-keeping with Mbegu’s character, as she was the matriarch of the Nursery herd for so long, she has always had a soft-spot for babies.After the supplement feeding, the ex-orphans left the stockades for the bush. Kenia, Ndii, Ishaq-B, Araba, Ndoria, Tundani, Mashariki, Naipoki and Panda decided to leave with them, leaving the sixteen younger and milk-dependent orphans behind under the leadership of Mbegu. Pika Pika noticed her adopted mother Kenia and Ndii were missing but was comforted and looked after by Arruba instead; another long-time adopted mother of hers who was only too happy to look after her without Kenia and Ndii around!

05 January 2022

Just as the orphans were feeding on their lucerne pellets this morning, the ex-orphans and Kenia’s herd who left with them arrived and went straight over to drink water from the stockade trough. Sagala then went to greet the babies Eden, Inca and Mwitu. She was cautious in her approach, tentatively walking forwards and backwards as she didn’t want to annoy Panda who was watching over the babies, but Panda was fine with Sagala coming to say hello to them. Sagala went on to pursue Mwitu, trying to play with her, while Inca staying close to his little sister Izzy, blocking any of the Voi dependent orphans from greeting or playing with her. The same orphans from Kenia’s herd left with the ex-orphans once again today. This left Mbegu to take charge and she lead the herd out to the bush where they had a peaceful day of browsing.

The orphans visited the water hole in the afternoon and had their milk and some fresh water. They decided not to take a mud bath today as it was quite cloudy and they didn’t feel like it. 

06 January 2022

The ex-orphans arrived in the stockade compound early this morning to get their share of lucerne grass pellets. Mwitu kept herself busy running around chasing after baboons who were coming down the hillside. Arruba spent some quality time with Inca and the two socialized together for quite some time, while Godoma was busy scratching against one of the favourite rocks in the compound.

The ex-orphan then left towards the Park to browse together with Kenia’s herd members, while Mbegu lead the Voi herd in the opposite direction. After the noon milk feed the dependent orphans had a lot of fun in the mud bath, and when they were done quite a number of them chose to play some one-on-one wrestling games. Of course, Ngilai took on his best friend Emoli, while Pika Pika went for Embu. Ndotto and Mbegu has their own fun pushing game which wasn’t serious at all. These two elephants have known one another for so many years, since Mbegu was the matriarch of the Nursery herd and Ndotto and Lasayen were just tiny calves.

The rest of the day’s browsing activities took place to the south of the water hole. 

07 January 2022

Soon after the stockade dependent orphans left the stockade compound this morning, the ex-orphans arrived with Panda, Kihari, Mwitu, Izzy and Icholta in the lead.

The rest of their friends arrived soon after, and they all assembled to drink water from the stockade water trough and feed on the leftover lucerne pellets.

The Voi dependent orphans spent the morning traversing and browsing across the flatter grass land. The milk dependent orphans made their way along their well-trodden path to reach the baobab tree water hole for their noon milk bottles. They then all walked down to the mud bath to cool off. It was a warm day, and we watched Bada siphoning trunkfulls of water from the water trough, where he was drinking, and pouring it on the ground to create his own small water pool, and he proceeded to take a small bath right there. For whatever reason he didn’t want to get into the main mud bath so he chose to make his own instead! Bada has been quite shy around the Voi herd since he went wild and returned recently, but he is just a quiet member of the herd and does his own thing. Pika Pika plunged into the main water hole to have a swim, and was joined by Arruba and Rorogoi and they all had a lot of fun splashing about, before coming out and joining up with the rest of their friends who chose not to have a mud bath today.

08 January 2022

There were a lot of fun and games in the stockade compound this morning after the orphans finished their milk bottles and supplement pellets. Ngilai took on his female best friend Tagwa in a wrestling match, but it was cut short as he tried to climb on her which annoyed her, so she walked off. Mbegu teamed up with Rorogoi and Pika Pika to play on the pile of lose soil, and they were later joined by Emoli, who had been ignored by Ngilai this morning. Arruba and Murit engaged one another in a tough sparring match, but as soon as Arruba noticed Pika Pika playing on the soil mound she abandoned Murit and chased away Rorogoi and Mbegu so that she alone could play with Pika Pika. She lay down and offered for Pika Pika to climb on her, which is always a fun game for youngsters. Suswa went over to the big rock close to the stockade water trough to enjoy a good scratch, while Ndotto did the same against another nearby boulder. Once Suswa and Ndotto had finished scratching, they suddenly noticed one another, and decided to start a pushing game.

The orphans then left the stockades for the bush, browsing along the northern side of the hill on the open grasslands until it turned to woodland, where they slowly turned and made their way down to the baobab tree water hole for the noon milk feed. As it was overcast today the orphans chose not to wallow and left the area to continue browsing when they had finished drinking some fresh water from the trough.

09 January 2022

It was very funny for the Keepers watching the orphans in the compound this morning. It seemed as if every one of the orphans was showing off; their games were very elaborate as though they were all competing in a competition in which one of them wanted to emerge the winner. Once again Arruba decided to lie on the ground to play with Pika Pika and allow her to climb on her, but Ngilai came over and ruined the game by climbing on Pika Pika. He was actually trying to push her away from Arruba so that he could play a wrestling game with her instead. This annoyed Arruba who got up to take revenge, but Ngilai sneaked away and instead went to pester Tagwa, by trying to climb on her again. Arruba followed and tried to chase Ngilai away from Tagwa.

Suswa, who is one of the most senior orphans in the herd now, had been watching everything unfold, and with Arruba and Ngilai now preoccupied, she went and lay down where Arruba had been and offered Pika Pika to play and climb on her instead, which she gladly accepted.

Tamiyoi took the lead today with Sagala staying close to her, and they both took charge of the dependent herd for the rest of the morning.

10 January 2022

For the past few days we have been preparing to receive Thamana and Lemeki from the Kaluku Nursery and today the day has finally arrived. The day began with the earliest callers to the stockade being the ex-orphans, who arrived to drink water and feed on some Lucerne grass pellets. They had a guest with them today, a very big wild elephant bull who was very shy.

A few minutes before 8am the ex-orphans left and the wild bull stayed behind for a while, and was seen sticking close to Ndii, seemingly interested in her.

Soon, the elephant moving lorry carrying Thamana and Lemeki docked at the stockade ramp. The doors were opened for them, and the two little orphans came out ready for the two milk bottles which had already been prepared for them. The Voi stockade-dependent orphan elephants arrived in small groups to welcome them. First Sagala came with Tamiyoi and Emoli. Sagala has a special love for babies and went straight over to greet Lemeki, but this was all quite much for Lemeki to take in and have such big elephants showing an interest in her, and she took off at a terrific speed. Sagala ran to catch up with Lemeki to reassure her, but this only succeeded in scaring Lemeki more, who anxiously held her ears up high and spread out. Thamana was much more settled down and was taken by Ngilai as soon as he arrived to greet the new babies, although he stayed quite close to one of his accompanying Kaluku Keepers for most of the morning. Mbegu, Tagwa and other friends came forward for greetings too, but didn’t show as much interest in the new arrivals.

Out in the bush today Sagala and Tamiyoi were in hot pursuit following the two new arrivals everywhere. Sagala could be a bit heavy handed in her attempts to spend time with the new babies, using her trunk to pull them closer to her. Voi’s mini-matriarch Mbegu started to show more interest in Lemeki too, while Ngilai and Ndotto were keen to recruit Thamana into their boy’s group. Lemeki and Thamana came charging down for their milk bottles at noon as if they were already familiar with the routine, but Lemeki almost missed going down to the mud bath to wallow. Thamana really enjoyed the mud bath with his new friends and all in all, it was a perfect first day for the new Voi additions.

11 January 2022

Thamana and Lemeki were the first to be let out of their stockade for their early morning milk feeding, followed closely by the rest of their milk-dependent friends.

While the dependent Voi orphans were busy feeding on the lucerne grass pellets, the ex-orphans with Kenia’s herd arrived in a hurry, as they were apparently very thirsty for water. This gave Lemeki and Thamana quite the fright and you could see their confusion as more overly familiar and very big elephants like Edie, Icholta and Mweya arrived in the compound. Icholta, Mweya and Edie mostly ignored the presence of the new arrivals however treated them the same way they interact with all the Voi dependent orphans. Ndii and Kenia very quickly noticed them however, and they went straight over to touch the new babies with their trunks and say hello. Ndii later moved over and stayed with Pika Pika, but Kenia stayed with Lemeki and Thamana all through. Later, Pika Pika went over to start a sparring match with Inca who is about her age. Godoma went to mischievously sit on the ground to woo Izzy and the other ex-orphans babies into playing with her too, but she didn’t succeed as Kihari was standing firm in her role as nanny and was being tough about who could play with who.

The ex-orphans later left the compound and the Voi dependent orphans left not long after, but they walked in the opposite direction. Ngilai was seen occasionally approaching Thamana on a mission to strengthen their friendship, and Thamana didn’t seem to mind. We will have to see what Emoli makes of that though!

12 January 2022

After the milk and supplement feed this morning, Ndotto came running over at full pelt to socialize and play with the new arrivals Lemeki and Thamana. Arruba intervened before he could reach them however, and diverted Ndotto away from the babies to play in a sparring match with her instead. The ex-orphan herd had come to the stockades early this morning too but left soon after drinking water.

Sagala and Tamiyoi seem to be running the adoption campaign and want to spend the most time with Thamana and Lemeki, and Sagala even sometimes tried to block Tamiyoi from playing with the two babies so she can have their full attention. Nevertheless, it seems Tagwa is the one that Thamana and Lemeki would rather spend the most time with! They opted to browse with her for most of the morning session. Tagwa was excited to be looking after them and at one stage she got down on the ground to play with them; however Thamana and Lemeki seemed more comfortable standing and watching Tagwa roll around. Perhaps they still need a little more time getting used to these bigger elephants. While Thamana has started to interact a little more freely with the Voi orphans, Lemeki remains shy and we think it might be due to the fact she is no longer the oldest, and she has to get used to being the baby of the herd. She used to love mud baths at Kaluku, but she has yet to lie down in the mud bath at the baobab tree here as she remains a little wary of all the older elephants around.

13 January 2022

The orphans were joined by the ex-orphans and Kenia herd’s herd while they were feasting on lucerne pellets this morning. As they arrived, Tagwa stopped feeding and took Thamana away, escorting him to hide from the ex-orphan herd behind a big boulder. Kenia went over to socialize with the new arrivals Lemeki and Thamana, but Ndii still has a soft spot for Pika Pika so she went straight over to her.

The ex-orphan herd started to leave for the bush and as Kenia and Ndii left with them we saw them stop on the way, as if they were having a difficult time making a decision whether to follow the ex-orphans Edie and Mweya, or return back to stay and help look after the three babies of the Voi herd, Pika Pika, Thamana and Lemeki. Eventually they decided to follow Edie’s herd as they have three wild born calves as well that they can help to look after, and being 14 and 13 years old now, perhaps they know it is their time to become more independent now.

The Voi orphans browsed peacefully this morning, with Arruba occasionally checking on and patting little Thamana, wishing to browse next to him for a while. We can see Arruba at a cross-roads on whether to abandon Pika Pika for Thamana who is younger, but now Kenia and Ndii have decided to leave she finally has Pika Pika’s attention all to herself! 

14 January 2022

The ex-orphans arrived at around 7am this morning, missing the Voi dependent orphans who had just left for browsing. Izzy tried suckling from Kihari but of course Kihari has no milk, but little Izzy was clearly very content in Kihari’s company nonetheless. Kenia, Ndii and the others were quite envious of all the attention Kihari was getting, and the special bonding time she had with the tiny baby. Ndoria went straight to offer for Izzy to suckle from her too, followed by Mashariki and Araba, but all in vain as Izzy went trotting off back to her mother.

Bada went to relax and have a drink from the stockade water trough with Mweya’s baby Mwitu, before all the ex-orphans left the stockades.

Sagala was persistently following Thamana and Lemeki this morning, but Lemeki was also trying to pull Thamana away from Sagala as she has always been the one to look after Thamana and she didn’t want Sagala trying to help. At the water hole after the noon milk feed, Ngilai was playing with Emoli and he was being a bit bullish; he kept trying to climb on Emoli’s back and Emoli was turning to confront him in a wrestling match. With the two bulls playing so vigorously, Lemeki and Thamana decided to sneak away to play further away on the mound of soil.

15 January 2022

Embu went to take up position for an early morning dust bath on the soil mound before the area became too crowded with her friends all vying for a position at the dust bath too. Embu was trying to invite Lemeki and Thamana to play with her, but the two youngsters ignored her invitation and just stood like spectators as she rolled on the ground. Ndotto walked from the bottom of the stockade terraces to feed on some lucerne pellets. Sagala and Tamiyoi then took the lead and ushered all the orphans out of the compound to begin their day of browsing.

The orphan elephants browsed peacefully in single file. We didn’t see the ex-orphans or Kenia’s herd today. Kenia’s herd who have decided to join up with the ex-orphans are Kenia, Ndii, Araba, Ishaq-B, Naipoki, Panda, Mashariki, Ndoria, Tundani and Bada (although he decided to stay with the dependent orphans this morning), making ten in total and leaving eighteen stockade-dependent orphans led by Mbegu. Thamana was seen to be interacting with his new friends in the Voi herd, but Lemeki is still occasionally pulling him away from them.

It was a very brief mud bathing session today. Ndotto avoided a mud bath completely and instead had a wonderful dust bath.

 

Later in the afternoon, we spotted the ex-orphans browsing at the bottom of the northern slope of Msinga Hill, and Bada decided to leave and walk up to join them.

16 January 2022

The ex-orphans and Kenia’s herd arrived early in the morning to join up with the dependent orphans and share lucerne pellets with them. Mbegu still has a soft spot for little Izzy and even tried to follow the ex-orphans when they left the compound about half an hour later. The Keepers had to call Mbegu back as she is still milk-dependent and looks after a lot of the other dependent orphans in the Voi herd still. The ex-orphans spent their morning browsing on the northern wooded side of Msinga Hill while the dependent orphans browsed on the other side of the hill.

Ngilai is still pursuing Thamana’s friendship and tried to get close to him while they browsed, but Lemeki became jealous and came over to collect ‘her’ little baby.

There was a lot of fun in some mud bathing games in the afternoon after milk feeding. Lemeki chose to take a bath inside the water trough and she rolled around having a great time in there, fully submersing her head. Suswa thought she was drowning and came running over to try and assist Lemeki to come up with her long tusks. Lemeki was fine though and ignored Suswa, and went on playing until she was fully satisfied and voluntarily came up and out of the water trough.

17 January 2022

The Voi dependent orphans left the stockades for the bush soon after they were done with their feeding this morning. Tamiyoi spent most of today browsing close to Lemeki and Thamana, but jealous Lemeki kept herself between them to try and separate Lemeki from Thamana as much as possible. In another jealous encounter, Thamana went and played with Suswa who was walking along stretching and playing some warming up exercises, but Lemeki soon caught up to them both. Thamana got a fright at the way Lemeki ran up to them, and he ran off and took refuge close to Rorogoi.

Mudanda was spotted securing a wonderful area for a scratch against some outcropping rocks, and later invited Lemeki to join her; Lemeki did come over but decided not to partake in the activity. Sagala also went and scratched her back and her bottom against a different rock.

A few minutes before the afternoon milk feeding, Suswa decided to lie down on the ground and mess around in front of Lemeki and Thamana, trying to get them to play with her. It was a very bright day so the orphans had a wonderful time playing and mud bathing after their milk bottles, before carrying on with the rest of their afternoon of browsing. 

18 January 2022

The orphans took off to the bush for the beginning of a busy browsing day after their feeding this morning. Suswa’s campaign to take over the new babies was in high gear, and she chose to browse closely with Lemeki this morning. This time it was Thamana who became a little jealous, and came over to head butt Lemeki in the bottom and push her away from Suswa! He obviously enjoys the older females in the herd looking out for him. The competition continued however, as Sagala came over to intervene and take Thamana away from Suswa so now she could browse with him instead. Tagwa also tried her luck adopting Thamana, and moved over to pat him with her trunk and check what he was eating.

Meanwhile, Arruba never left Pika Pika’s side today. When Pika Pika was lying on the ground playing, Arruba was standing guard over her; it’s clear she isn’t a contender in the competition for the attention of the new babies, and is quite happy looking after little Pika Pika!

The orphans went for their noon milk feed and a drink of water in the stockade compound today, as there is a problem with the Mzima Spring pipeline. They enjoyed a small mud bath and then proceeded with their normal afternoon of browsing close by on the hill. 

19 January 2022

The earliest callers to the stockade compound today were the ex-orphans, with Kenia’s herd of course, who arrived around 6.20am. They went straight to quench their thirst from the stockade water trough before settling to have some lucerne pellets. Mbegu’s herd then came to join them after they were done with their milk bottles. Kihari took up a strategic position, guarding Izzy from interacting with Mbegu’s herd members.

Izzy later went and sought Mwitu as her play mate, sparring with her and ramming her several times with her small head. Mwitu didn’t react and just stayed calm and still for Izzy to enjoy head-butting her and messing about. Perhaps she was just jealous that Mwitu was feeding quite close to her mother Icholta!

The ex-orphans left the compound and Mbegu’s herd members behind and the dependent orphans enjoyed their morning of browsing.

Lemeki, Thamana and Tamiyoi ran down the hill at a terrific speed for their noon milk bottle. The weather was cloudy and cold and even Pika Pika, who loves the water, avoided the mud bath and went to play around the baobab tree instead. Godoma joined her there.

Later in the evening, Ndotto successfully secured Mudanda for a sparring game. Mudanda isn’t the usual playmate of choice; she can be a little reserved and sometimes a little rough too, but her game with Ndotto was purely a friendly match!

20 January 2022

The ex-orphans arrived in the morning again to catch up with their stockade-dependent friends! Araba was standing on top of one of the stockade terraces and seemed to have missed spending time with her friend Pika Pika, since she had decided to stay with Kenia and the ex-orphans. She came running down to catch up with her little friend and patted her with her trunk. Her bonding session didn’t last long however, as Suswa came running over to take to take Pika Pika away, informing Araba that since she left with Kenia and the others, she doesn’t get to play or look after Pika Pika anymore!

Ishaq-B was showing off this morning too, sitting on her bottom and throwing her trunk in the air while on top of the terrace. She was clearly showing off to Mbegu’s herd who were below the terrace. Kihari was standing to the left of Ishaq-B watching her, and little Inca was to her right. While Ishaq-B was showing off to the dependent herd, Ndotto was already occupied in his own games. Both Tundani and Arruba wanted to play with him and availed themselves for a sparring match. 

It wasn’t long before the ex-orphans left and Tamiyoi, Mbegu and Sagala decided to lead the dependent Voi herd in the opposite direction to browse. Once they arrived out in the bush, Ndotto, who is always curious, approached Lemeki for a sparring match. Thamana wasn’t very comfortable with Ndotto, who is a very big elephant these days, wanting to play with them and he touched Lemeki wanting her to leave with him and walk away from Ndotto.

When they finished mud bathing Lemeki and Thamana joined Godoma who was playing and rolling on the ground; she is also trying her luck to adopt the two new little babies. Lemeki and Thamana don’t seem to mind spending time with Godoma who is one of the smaller dependent babies, but she is still very confident. Mbegu came over to join in too, but she lay on Godoma which made her yell out. This caused Thamana and Lemeki to jump up in alarm and run away from the mound of lose soil.

Ndotto seems to have succeeded in pacifying Mudanda somewhat and today the two of them spent most of their time at the mud bath in a friendly sparring match, before joining up with their friends to leave for browsing.

21 January 2022

Ndotto decided to pursue his new friend, Mudanda, again this morning for another friendly sparring match. The other stockade dependent orphans were reduced mere to spectators as no one else really trusts Mudanda enough to play with her quite yet!

Eventually Rorogoi decided to go and lie on the lose soil where she invited Godoma to join and play with her, but Godoma apparently wasn’t interested as she just walked right on past Rorogoi. there and went by-passing her as if she never existed. Pika Pika came to join Rorogoi instead, who in turn allowed her to enjoy climbing on her stomach.

The weather was pretty warm this morning and the orphans resorted to taking an early morning mud bath in the stockade water hole. Embu, Arruba then teamed up with Pika Pika and Rorogoi on the loose soil to dry off. Rorogoi was rolling around and really showing off, until Godoma came over and ruined her games by sitting on and scratching against her.

Eventually the orphans left for the bush and the lush green grass that lay in store for them, along with the creepers and other palatable bushes now growing everywhere after the recent rains.

Later in the day after a brief mud bathing session, Murit and Araba, who had been affectionately patting one another, changed tactics and started a sparring match instead when they noticed that Mbegu was becoming curious about their interaction. Mbegu was jealous of their game but her efforts to separate them were futile, as Murit and Araba just kept shifting position each time she pursued them; eventually they just left the mud bath area to resume browsing instead of having Mbegu follow them everywhere.

Ndotto went to roll on the pile of loose soil to dry off after enjoying the mud wallow. Rorogoi and Pika Pika enjoyed some quality time in the waterhole in the absence of Arruba. It wasn’t long before Arruba noticed that Rorogoi had taken over ‘her’ adopted baby however and she ran back into to the water, splashing loudly and kicking up a huge amount of muddy water with her feet to scare away Rorogoi who came out running out, although Pika Pika wasn’t far behind her.

After an eventful wallowing session, Lasayen sauntered over from the soil pile and posed quietly beside the mud bath. He later joined his friends to browse along the open grasslands.

22 January 2022

It was Ndotto’s day today, with the ladies queuing up to enjoy a sparring match with him this morning. Rorogoi was the first in line, followed by Mudanda and finally Arruba, leaving Ndotto fully exhausted for once!

Despite all the wrestling matches with Ndotto it was a lovely and peaceful morning. The orphans left the stockades once all the feeding and playing sessions were over.

Mbegu, Godoma and Sagala hadn’t been browsing for long when they decided to take a break and lie down on the ground to play. They used the opportunity to invite Thamana to join them too, and Thamana seemed very excited as the prospect of joining that group. He happily went to lie on Sagala’s tummy and had great fun climbing on her and sliding down her belly.

The orphan elephants browsed in single file, walking around the hill to arrive at the water hole in the afternoon after their milk feed. Godoma started a sparring session with Lasayen after her mud bath and was later very excited to host Pika Pika in the same sort of game. To show her happiness Godoma went to splash water in the trough with her front feet, before joining her friends for their afternoon walk through the bush.

23 January 2022

Ndotto’s dream of conquering Mudanda’s reserved personality seems to have come to fruition today as we watched Mudanda actively seek out Ndotto, walking around everywhere looking for him, instead of the other way around, for a morning sparring match. The other orphans seem like they aren’t very comfortable playing with Mudanda yet, but Ndotto is breaking through.

The orphans continued with their usual morning routine, with Arruba and Murit taking a break from browsing for a wonderful sparring game with one another. Later on it was Lemeki and Thamana who lead the way to the noon milk feed. The mission of the older orphans to adopt little Thamana into their care is being thwarted somewhat by the ever-vigilant Lemeki who already likes the role of looking after Thamana and isn’t ready to give that up yet; she still sees him as her little charge. After milk feeding the orphans visited the mud bath. Pika Pika didn’t want to go into the water as she found it too cold today. Emoli joined her on the edge of the water to play instead. Embu broke the mold by running into the water to play and this encouraged Pika Pika to do the same, so eventually she went into the water to play with Embu. Arruba, who had initially been reluctant to get into the water too, was overcome with jealousy and ran into the mud bath to push Embu away from Pika Pika.

The orphans started to file out away from the baobab tree and the rest of the day’s browsing session took place to the south of the mud bath.

24 January 2022

This morning the orphans chose to play around for a while after finishing their milk bottles and supplement food. Ngilai went to climb on Tagwa’s back, but this made her friend Tamiyoi angry and she came marching over, demanding Ngilai to get off Tagwa. We were surprised how angry Tamiyoi got; she was furious! Engaging Ngilai in a real fight, with Tagwa staying and taking refuge behind Tamiyoi. At seeing all the ruckus unfold, Arruba quickly went and stood guard over Pika Pika who was lying on the loose soil playing, to prevent any possibility of her being Ngilai’s next target.

The orphan elephants then took off to the bush for a busy browsing day. After the afternoon milk feed, the weather turned slightly chilly, and the orphans were reluctant to get into the mud bath as a result. Emoli stood behind Pika Pika, pushing her slowly towards the water to use her as his thermometer to test the temperature of the water. Embu, however, loves water, and was the first to plunge in and encourage Pika Pika to join her to swim. Tamiyoi resorted to taking her bath from the clean water at the trough instead of the main water hole, so she didn’t have to get as wet and cold.

25 January 2022

Tamiyoi was lucky to spend a bit of time with Thamana this morning, although Lemeki was browsing very close by of course. Thamana was very happy to spend a bit of time with Tamiyoi however, and lay down on the ground comfortably to play, happy in the knowledge that Tamiyoi was guarding him.

After the orphans had been browsing for about four hours or so, the Keepers looking after them saw a lioness with her six cubs lying in ambush close to the baobab tree water hole. Instead of heading in that direction the Keepers chose to lead the herd back to the stockades for their afternoon milk bottles. The orphans didn’t mind the change in routine at all, and had a lot of fun in mud bathing games at the stockade water hole, with Arruba teaming up with Pika Pika, Embu and Mbegu to swim. Ngilai went over to the orphans’ favourite rock and enjoyed a wonderful scratch there, before all the orphans left to continue browsing to the south of the hill, away from the lions.

26 January 2022

The orphans chose to mess around in the compound a bit this morning after their milk feed. Arruba invited Ndotto for a sparring game but Ndotto snubbed her and went to play with his new friend Mudanda instead. Embu and Rorogoi were busy browsing over the stockade fence on the delicious acacia leaves. Sagala picked up her new friends Thamana and Lemeki and lead the way out to the bush towards the northern side of Msinga Hill.

Later on at the mud bath, Arruba teamed up with Pika Pika and Rorogoi to charge in and out of the water and shine in the mud bathing games. Sagala decided to play in the water that was spilling on the outside of the waterhole, to avoid the stiff competition from her friends inside the mud bath.

After all the dependent orphans had returned home for the night, the ex-orphans in Mweya and Edie’s herd arrived to drink from the stockade water troughs late in the evening. Although it was dark, the Keepers spotted a tiny calf amidst the feet of the ex-orphans and realized that Edie had given birth to her forth wild born baby! The Keepers couldn’t wait until morning to see if the ex-orphans would still be around so that they could get a good look at the new baby. 

27 January 2022

The Keepers fed the orphans their bottles this morning and were excited to leave the compound in search of the ex-orphans to find out more about Edie’s new baby. After about half an hour of searching, they were spotted browsing in one of their favourite spots on the northern side of Msinga Hill.

The Keepers were happy to see Edie had given birth to a bouncing baby boy, who looked very sweet indeed; her other calves, Eco and Eden were diligently and happily guarding the new baby. Her first born Ella, who is 12 years old now, has evidently decided to stay with the rest of Emily’s herd, and will soon be old enough to have calves of her own! We have decided to call the new baby boy Enzo. Nearly all of Kenia’s herd members were there too, excited to guard the new baby, making it hard for the Keepers to capture a picture of Enzo! They were marching about in excitement as if it was an exclusive birthday party and only invited guests were allowed near the guest of honour!

Icholta, Inca, Izzy, Mashariki, and Tundani were missing from the herd but were believed to be together somewhere, and sure enough this small group passed by the stockades around 10am to drink water before going to meet up with Edie and the others. Tundani, despite being a young bull, was seen to be acting as a nanny towards Izzy and was doing a wonderful job looking after her. Kihari was doing her best to be a good nanny towards little Enzo now, even more than Izzy. 

28 January 2022

Edie, Enzo, Eden and Eco were at the front of the ex-orphan herd, leading the way into the stockade compound this morning. Not all of the ex-orphans were with them however; Icholta, her babies and some of Kenia’s herd weren’t with them. After drinking water and feeding on lucerne pellets, the Voi dependent orphans wanted to get close to Edie and her new baby. Edie stood with Eden and Eco however, blocking Rorogoi, Sagala, and Pika Pika from reaching Enzo and the best they could do is stretch out their trunks to try their luck with just being able to touch and smell him! Later Edie left with most of Kenia’s herd, while Mbegu’s dependent chose to go in the opposite direction to them to browse.

At 9.30am, Icholta, Izzy, Inca, Mweya, Mwitu, Kihari and Mashariki, who were missing from Edie’s herd this morning, visited the stockade. After having some water and lucerne pellets, they left to join up with Edie’s herd too, out in the bush.

29 January 2022

Early in the morning, around 6:30am ,all of Edie and Kenia’s herd members visited the stockades for some water and lucerne pellets. Eden and Eco seem so attached to their new baby brother Enzo, leaving a slim chance for the other interested ex-orphan herd members to be Enzo’s possible nannies.

When it was time to head out to the Park for the day, Mbegu and the ex-orphans chose to browse in opposite directions and they both took different paths.

At the noon mud bath, Suswa teamed up with Embu and Godoma to swim fully submerged in the water like mud fish. Then Godoma saw Arruba and Pika Pika enjoying a game of rolling and lying on each other and ran over as an uninvited guest to join in. Pika Pika turned, ignoring Godoma, and carried on with her game with Arruba. Poor Godoma looked embarrassed went charging over to Pika Pika as if to start a real fight, but Arruba blocked her. Godoma decided to walk off and vent her anger in the water trough by splashing about in it with her front foot. Mudanda and Mashariki went to share the big baobab tree for a scratching session, while Lemeki went around the other side of the big tree to scratch by herself.

The rest of the day’s browsing took place south of the water hole.

30 January 2022

Murit went straight to catch up with his friend Emoli this morning and the two started a pushing game. It seems Ngilai was jealous of their game, as he sat nearby Murit and Emoli and pulled funny poses, glancing to the side every now and then to see if he had caught his best friend Emoli’s attention. We could tell it was his intention to woo Emoli and get him to come and play with him instead. Arruba and Pika Pika went to take up position early on the soil pile, before joining up with their friends to have some lucerne pellets, and then leave the compound for their day of browsing.Lasayen begun his games late this morning and decided to lie down on the path on the way out. No nonsense Mudanda came along to push him up and get him out of the way though.

It was quite overcast and cool today, so the orphans just had a drink of water after their noon milk bottles, without swimming in the mud bath.

31 January 2022

Edie and Kenia’s herd were the earliest callers to the stockade compound today, before the baboons had even considered awakening. They assembled to drink water at the stockade water trough and later joined the dependent orphans in Mbegu’s herd for some lucerne pellets.

Sagala and Godoma showed no interest in following the wild born babies Enzo and Izzy, but were busy trying to separate and prevent Thamana and Lemeki from interacting with the ex-orphans in fear that they might walk off with them! The ex-orphans left after about an hour of feeding in the compound. Enzo was seen suckling nearly all the elephants who came close to him, but Kihari is clearly one of his main nannies. She doesn’t seem to look after Izzy as much at present, who is very shy, and hid between the legs of the many ex-orphans present.

At the mud bath today Godoma was once again ruffling feathers, as she demanded to play with Pika Pika which was of course annoying Arruba. Godoma kept moving around and around Arruba trying to get to Pika Pika, but eventually Pika Pika moved off to browse and Arruba just followed her, and Godoma gave up her objective of playing and started browsing quietly with Mbegu instead.