Choose your region

This morning the dependent orphans were greeted by ex-orphans Lualeni, Loijuk and Sidai with their babies Lulu and Lexi, Lili and Sita. They had just come to the compound to pay a visit and didn’t stay long before heading on their way. We were happy to see them as it has been some time! The orphans had their lucerne pellet supplemental food and then walked out to the bush to begin their day.

Pare started playing with Sana Sana. Sattao was doing some early morning exercise as he rolled about on the ground. Lualeni’s herd showed up out of the bush again and the orphans were delighted to be able to socialize with the wild born babies for a while. Lexi was happily running about here and there. We spotted Dololo browsing on his own, quite content, and nearby Mundusi started a pushing game with Ambo, and Jotto with Mapia.

At the mud bath today, the orphans were very active after having their milk feed. The whole herd got into the mud bath to wallow. Rambunctious Roho started testing his strength against Naboishu while in the water, which escalated into him trying to climb on his back. Pare and Musiara were also wrestling in the water. Eventually Esampu led the herd out of the water and over to the pile of loose soil to dry off. After rolling in the soil, Roho decided to continue his play fight with Naboishu. We saw the hippo once again at the mud bath today as well! We couldn’t believe how far he must have walked to get to the mud bath, maybe even all the way from Athi River!

Back out in the bush Larro continued to show some affection for little Roho and they two could be spotted patting and lovingly embracing one another.

The orphans, led by Naboishu, started their day early by walking out to the bush after having just a few dairy cube supplements. They walked towards the foot of Ithumba hill and started browsing there. Ndiwa set about enjoying the browse from a nice bush while Kauro walked past her to drink water that had collected on a rock from the rain last night. Mapia's mouth was full of grass. Musiara and Ambo started playing with each other and nearby Dololo and Mukkoka had their own strength testing match.

The orphans had their midday milk bottles as usual before walking into the main mud wallow to cool down and play. Some of the orphans, such as Kauro, Malima, Jotto and a few others didn't want to wallow, and chose instead to go to the water trough for a drink, where they met with a wild bull also coming for water.  

Later in the afternoon all the orphans looked very active and busy browsing together in a group. Kamok took Ambo and Neshashi and disappeared with them, however just before it was time to return to the stockades for the night Kamok returned with the two youngsters. We spotted the two ex-orphan bulls Challa and Zurura in the area around Ithumba today as well and they both seemed in good health.

Today the orphans had their 6am breakfast milk bottles as usual before walking out to feed on a few supplements. They all enjoyed the lucerne which was recently delivered and is very fresh and green. Malkia took a bunch of it and walked off with it on her head to enjoy a bit later. Musiara and Mteto went to drink some water from the troughs, while Sattao and Naboishu started playfighting nearby. Dololo and Sana Sana seemed very affectionate with one another this morning and in a very happy mood as they patted and hugged one another with their trunks.

Again the orphans seemed in a very active and playful mood today. Ambo and Naboishu started their day out in the bush with a strength-testing match while some of the others took a break from browsing to roll and play on the ground.

Today only Larro, Rapa and Ambo decided to wallow in the main mud bath after the 11 o’clock milk feed. All the others chose not to join them and instead walked back out to the bush to continue browsing.

Kamok, Ambo, Larro and Neshashi decided to separate themselves from the group and went off to browse a short distance away as their own little herd. They returned to join everyone just before it was time to return home for the night, but we can tell that there is some reluctance on Kamok’s part. At nine years old she is showing some signs of wishing to be more independent, however she doesn’t want to go alone and acts like she wants to take some orphans like Ambo and Larro with her. Unfortunately, Ambo and Larro are still too young, and don’t share the same urge she has to be wild. Kamok has been spotted several times with them a short distance away from the rest of the herd and often she is in no hurry to walk back to the stockades in the evening and loiters at the back. Perhaps it won’t be long until she decides to go with one of the ex-orphan herds, as she will become impatient waiting for her favourite youngsters to join her.

Just as the Ithumba dependent orphans were settling for some lucerne this morning, Yatta’s ex-orphan herd arrived including Naisula, Nasalot, Ithumbah, Lualeni, Loijuk, Chyulu, Galana and Lenana with all their babies. It seems that they wanted to come for some lucerne as well, even though it’s not that dry out in the bush yet. The wild born babies Lexi and Yogi were very playful and were chasing each other about and climbing on one another. Their funny antics caught the attention of Nasalot’s baby Noah who came to join in. It was also lovely to see how Karisa and Mundusi are really enjoying life with Yatta’s herd and they are looking so well. It’s about three weeks that they have been with Yatta’s herd now and they look like they are doing really well in the wild.

Kamok and Ambo went on to feed on some lucerne that the Keepers had put out next to a rock in the bush, before walking on to the Kone dam again to wash it all down.

After the 11 o’clock milk feed all the orphans decided to wallow today. They played and splashed about energetically! Roho was the first one to come out after he was done with his games and he looked eager to continue browsing as he walked straight back out to the bush.

Dololo and Mukkoka started a wrestling match in the afternoon while Roho, Ambo and Esampu browsed together nearby. Kuishi, Kauro, Kamok and Mapia bunched together and looked like they were having a private meeting, and it wasn’t long before they started walking back to the compound for the night which suggested what their conversation might have been about! Nabulu then took the lead and walked the first group in for the night.

Ambo and Sattao had a disagreement soon after they had finished feeding on some lucerne. The two boys decided to sort out their differences through a pushing game, but this dispute was cut short by Kauro who, as usual, passed by and decided to disrupt the game. We don’t know why Kauro likes to disrupt the pushing game of others, but he often does!

Soon after the orphans left for browsing, the ex-orphans showed up at the stockades and decided to clean up the leftover lucerne before leaving again.

Kauro teamed up with Malima and Jotto to browse while Naboishu, Mukkoka and Roho had fun by rolling about on the ground. Later, Mukkoka, who is acting quite tough with the other bulls in the herd at the moment, decided to tackle Dololo. Their game was disrupted by Rapa this time, who came over and separated the two boys.

When it was time to head to the mud bath, Kamok, Kauro, Rapa, Ndiwa and Pare chose to lag behind and showed up twenty minutes later after their friends had nearly all finished wallowing. Rapa and Pare had a pushing game before getting into the water to cool off. Roho emerged as the star of the day as he led his friends for the wallowing session. Neshashi was the first one out, followed by Dololo and Mapia.

In the afternoon Larro was seen having a spot of fun by performing her own little games sitting and rolling on the ground. Enkikwe played with Kauro but their game came to an abrupt end when Enkikwe turned and bit Kauro's tail! Kauro obviously didn’t want to continue playing if Enkikwe wasn’t going to play by the rules. Roho settled to browse with Larro for a while, as Naboishu chose to engage Sattao in a light wrestling match to test his skills. Pare played with Musiara and later in the evening, Neshashi led the way back to the stockades for the night.

The orphans left the stockades in a jovial mood soon after finishing their morning milk. As the orphans waited for the Keepers to put some lucerne out, Roho decided to occupy himself by scratching against a nearby rock, while Jotto happily rolled on the ground to warm up and stretch his limbs. Once the Keepers had distributed the lucerne all the orphans happily tucked in. Challa emerged from the east in a slow measured walk and decided to join the orphans for a while. The impressive young bull was welcomed by Naboishu, Sattao and Ambo. As soon as the orphans had enough lucerne, Malkia followed by Malima led the way out. Challa was joined by Makena and later they both left the compound too.

Neshashi teamed up with Sana Sana to enjoy some nice green bushes while Maramoja browsed with Musiara. Whilst wallowing in the mud bath today it was Kamok, Malkia, Malima, Pare, Kauro and Rapa who emerged as the stars of the day, showing off and splashing everywhere. After coming out of the water, the orphans encountered a troop of chattering baboons. Larro, Dololo, Naboishu, Rapa and Mapia charged and trumpeted as they tried to drive away the noisy baboons. The baboons responded by running off and climbing up a baobab tree, where they sat comfortably and jeered down at the orphans and their inability to climb up the tree to get them. Mapia called off the now pointless game of chasing the noisy creatures, and led his friends away to continue browsing instead. The orphans settled to browse west of Ithumba Hill and browsed calmly throughout the remaining part of the day.

The orphans stopped to enjoy some lucerne this morning which had been put out early by the Keepers. Shortly later, Loijuk and her daughter Lili emerged from the east and joined the orphans for some lucerne too. Yatta and the rest of her herd showed up later. Maramoja welcomed them all for the lucerne breakfast, before walking off to catch up with her dependent friends and leaving the ex-orphans behind to pick up all the remaining leftovers.

The orphans browsed as they walked along, slowly making their way towards the Kone dam. Sattao, Musiara and Dololo, all Nursery friends, had a moment together, heads bowed, discussing something but of course we could not be sure what. The boys parted ways when Rapa came over and intruded on their privacy.

Just before the orphans were about the make their way to the mud bath for the midday milk feed, they were interrupted by a rather hostile wild bull who started pushing them all around a bit. When some of the orphans started to yell out for help, the Keepers intervened by shouting at the wild bull. The wild bull then turned his hostility on the Keepers and trumpeted and mock-charged, but finally he stormed off into the bush, much to the relief of the orphans and their human family.

After having their milk bottles Jotto decided to engage Mapia in a pushing game. Kuishi and Naboishu settled for a soil dusting exercise while Mukkoka teamed up with Pare to browse for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening the orphans passed by the mud bath to cool off again before heading home.

Jotto and Mapia have been trying to see who is the strongest between them recently, so the two can often be spotted engaged in a strength testing match trying to out do one another. This morning they locked trunks in yet another trial to see who would emerge as the winner. As usual however, their game ended in a draw, which means they will undoubtedly have to have another wrestling match another time! Meanwhile their friends decided to have some lucerne and shortly later we were joined by Kinna, Kama, Kaia and a wild bull. When the orphans were done with their morning snack, Neshashi led the way out.

Mukkoka is trying to establish himself as a strong boy in the herd at the moment, and challenged Dololo to a strength testing exercise. Their game went on for ages, until Malkia intervened and told the two boys to concentrate on feeding first, so they will still have energy to play later if they want. Quiet Musiara held a brief private meeting with Rapa, until he saw Roho go to play in some loose soil and Musiara decided to join him.

Later in the morning Malkia teamed up with Larro and Sattao to browse. Sattao ran into trouble with Malkia however when he started taking some food from Larro's mouth. Malkia pushed Sattao away to leave and find a place to get his own food instead of relying on someone else’s. Larro ended up leaving anyway to team up with Roho and have a chat with him. Perhaps she was wondering how life has been for him since he arrived at Ithumba! Roho seemed very happy to be in gentle Larro’s company.

While the orphans were at the mud bath later on a wild bull emerged from the thicket. Kauro walked towards the bull to find out whether he was someone he knew and chose to share water with him at the water trough. The rest of the herd decided to get into the mud bath soon after finishing their milk. In the afternoon, the orphans settled to browse west of Ithumba Hill and had a quiet afternoon.

The orphans settled for lucerne as soon as they left their night stockades this morning. Mukkoka had brief strength testing exercise with Dololo that ended in a draw. Sagateisa walked down to the water trough to quench her thirst where she was soon joined by Kamok. We were a little worried about how Kamok might treat the newcomer, but she settled quietly for some water and didn’t cause any issues. The calm and composed Sagateisa had her fill of water and then turned to face east while relaxing her back leg on the edge of the water trough. Naleku and Suguroi came to pick her up to rejoin the rest of their new friends who were deciding which way to go today.

As the orphans walked along to their desired browsing spot, Mapia and Kamok decided to stop for a brief soil dusting exercise to stretch their limbs, before running to catch up with their friends. As usual the orphans decided to stop off in the Kone area near the dam, where they had a quiet morning. The temperature was moderate and the sky was cloudy -the ideal browsing conditions for elephants!

Only Rapa, Dololo, Mukokoa, Roho, Kamok, Sattao, Suguroi, Naleku and Sagateisa chose to wallow after having their noon milk bottles. A lone wild bull appeared and headed straight to the water trough for a drink. Kauro, Ndiwa, Larro and Pare joined the wild bull for some water and to exchange pleasantries before joining their friends.

The orphans walked to the Kanziku area to spend the afternoon there. It was very hot though and they had to take a break from feeding to relax under a tree. In the evening, Musiara and Maramoja settled for a soil dusting exercise while Naboishu and Ndiwa found small muddy pool and chose to play there for a while.

The weather was cloudy and although it looked as if it might rain, none actually fell. Ambo was the first one to leave the stockades once the gates were opened this morning. The orphans settled for lucerne before newbie Sagateisa led the way down to the water troughs. She was followed by Naleku, Suguroi and Ndiwa, who escorted the young girls. Sidai appears to have come to the end of her season as she showed up with her baby Silas and only one junior wild bull following them. Naleku and Suguroi ran to meet and interact with Silas, excited to see a small baby once more, but Silas appeared uninterested in playing with the two girls and tried to hide by his mother. Suguroi and Naleku eventually gave up and walked back to the water trough. It was Sana Sana who led the way out today.

Neshashi, Larro and Naboishu decided to take a break together and enjoyed rolling on the ground and throwing soil about. Dololo engaged Mukkoka in a pushing game while Jotto decided to team up with his friend Pare to browse on some tasty branches. Suguroi and Naleku chose to share one shrub with Malkia while Malima settled to browse with Ambo.

At the midday milk feed Roho ran as fast as he could to compete with Naleku and Suguroi over who might reach the Keepers with the bottles first, and he nearly lost the lead to Suguroi who is also very fast! It is wonderful to see how fast the three new girls are settling into their new home. The orphans decided not to have a mud bath today after their noon milk feed.

Later, they chose to browse in the Kone area east of Ithumba Hill. Roho teamed up with his old Nursery friend Larro to browse. Ambo and his good friend Kamok spent most of their time removing bark from the trunk of one tree – it appears this particular tree had very tasty bark as they spent quite a lot of time there! Roho chose to browse with Dololo while Malima teamed up with Ndiwa.

The afternoon began to heat up and the orphans decided to visit the Kone dam to drink and cool off. Naleku, Sagateisa and Suguroi were very happy with this decision and jumped into the water to cool themselves down. The rest of the day was quiet as the orphans concentrated on browsing.

Ex-orphans Chyulu, Cheka, Loijuk, Lili, Sita, Tumaren, Ithumbah and Iman joined the orphans in the morning. Sagateisa picked on Iman to interact with for a bit before they parted ways without starting any pushing games. Sita, who doesn’t seem concerned about being around his mother Sidai since she had her second calf Silas, was among the group and seems to be thriving. He is clearly a strong and independent little calf and is happy to join up with any of the ex-orphan groups that he feels comfortable with. On this particular day he seems to have selected Chyulu and her son Cheka! After sharing lucerne together with the ex-orphans, Sagateisa led the dependent orphans out to the bush. She was eager to get out and get going, and as soon as she reached a good spot she got down on the ground and enjoyed her first dusting session of the day. It wasn’t long before she was joined by Sattao too. With Sagateisa now preoccupied, Neshashi took over the lead followed by Sana Sana and Naboishu, who took everyone to browse in the Kone area near the dam.

Pare teamed up with his friend Kauro to browse as usual, while we spotted Dololo choosing to feed with Nabulu. The ex-orphans passed by the dam while the orphans were there, but they didn’t stay long. Kuishi was happy to stay with Suguroi and Naleku to teach them the ways of Ithumba life. She got them to slow down so as not to compete with Sana Sana who was still looking after Neshashi and who was currently leading the herd. The two girls listened to Kuishi, who later escorted them both to the mud bath for the noon milk feed as well.

After a successful milk feeding session without any drama, all the orphans opted to go and wallow in the mud bath. It was fairly cool, however, so they didn’t stay in the water long. When they came out, they all walked over to the pile of loose soil to roll around and dry off, caking their skin in a nice thick layer of soil.

As the orphans settled to browse to the west of the hill for the rest of the afternoon, the sky cleared, giving way to sunshine. In the heat of the day the orphans took a break from feeding and relaxed under a tree for a while. Roho led the way back to the stockades at the end of the day.

Yatta and her large herd of ex-orphans joined the orphans this morning. The dependent orphans weren’t that happy with the competition over lucerne brought about with the arrival of their older friends, and so decided to make way for the ex-orphans and leave the compound to begin their day. Naleku, Sagateisa and Suguroi were hesitant at first as they  wanted to spend more time with wild born babies and their mothers. The independent-minded Sagateisa decided to move first, and started to follow the dependent orphans, and later Suguroi and Naleku followed.

Ex-orphan Lenana and her baby Lapa joined the orphans briefly while they browsed. Naboishu took the opportunity to have a strength testing game with Lapa as his mother watched on. Kamok emerged out of nowhere however to interrupt the game between the two boys, before starting to bully Lapa a bit. We always thought that Kamok’s habit of browbeating younger babies might land her in trouble one day, and today was that day. Lenana took offense to Kamok bullying her son and decided to teach her a lesson. Lenana came running over and pushed Kamok from behind. Kamok panicked and started running away as Lenana ran after her! Lapa looked quite happy to see his mother scolding Kamok who is notorious for bullying young ones. Kamok ran as fast as her legs could carry her and soon disappeared out of sight. Lenana then took her son and walked off into the bush. Lapa raised his trunk towards Naboishu as if informing him they will meet another time.

Later in the morning Neshashi and Ambo took a break from feeding to throw some soil around and on their bodies. Roho teamed up with Ndiwa to browse as Musiara, Dololo and Mukkoka moved a slight distance away from their friends to enjoy some green vegetation they had spotted.

Kuishi led the first group for the midday milk feed while Naleku led the second one. Roho, who has become quite close to Sagateisa, jumped into the water with her soon after finishing their milk bottles. The two had so much fun rolling around in the water and lying on top of each other. Naleku, Suguroi, Larro, Mapia and Malima joined them and all seven of them had a spectacular time in the water. Six wild bulls showed up for some fresh drinking water, which suggested to the Keepers that it is becoming quite dry out in the bush already if they have to come all the way to this trough for a drink.

In the afternoon, the orphans settled to browse in the Imenti area. It was such a clear day and at one point it became so hot it prompted the orphans to take a break from feeding to relax under a tree. Naboishu and Kuishi decided to take a nap and lay down on the ground as they waited for it to become a bit cooler so they could resume browsing.

Independent Sagateisa was the first one to leave the stockades in the morning. She settled for a good long scratch against the wall in the stockade compound. Later, she settled to play with her newfound friend Roho. It is such a sweet little friendship these two have struck up. Larro settled to feed on some lucerne close to Sana Sana while Malkia attempted to bully Suguroi and Naleku. This was quite out of character but happened because the two girls tried to take some lucerne that Malkia was feasting on, and she can be quite protective over her nice green grass supplement! The Keepers shouted at Malkia and warned her to be nicer to her juniors. After feeding on lucerne, Neshashi led the way out for the day.

The morning was quiet as the orphans concentrated on browsing. Malkia decided to take a break at one stage to enjoy a soil dusting, throwing soil in the air and on her back. Suguroi browsed with Naleku while Mukkoka teamed up with Dololo.

At mud bath time the weather was quite chilly as it was overcast, but this didn't deter Suguroi, Naleku, Sagateisa and Roho from wanting a swim! They still find the weather at Ithumba much hotter than in Nairobi and they wanted to cool down. Several wild bulls showed up at the mud bath water trough again. The orphans waited until the bulls left before going for a drink of fresh water. They then settled to browse west of the hill and browsed calmly for the rest of the day.

Karisa visited the stockade in the morning accompanied by several ex-orphans. It has been a while now since Karisa decided to join the ex-orphans permanently and he is looking very well. He did always have a rather independent streak since he went for his three-month walkabout after only just arriving at Ithumba in 2017! Karisa stood at the exit gate greeting each and every orphan as they filed out past him on their way to the lucerne area, before joining them there. The boys Ambo, Rapa, Dololo, Sattao and Jotto held a brief meeting with Karisa as if inquiring from him what life is like outside of the stockades.

Later in the morning while the orphans were browsing, Sattao teamed up with Mapia and Naleku. Kamok, Kauro, Pare, Rapa and Ndiwa decided to browse on their own separate to the rest of the herd. Ambo and Mapia took a break from feeding to have a strength testing exercise while Kuishi had lone game of rolling on the ground.

It was another chilly day today, so none of the orphans dared to step into the mud bathing water, even the new arrivals from Nairobi. As the orphans browsed to the west of the hill they suddenly felt the afternoon warming up, so they took a break to relax in some shade. When it was time to return home for the night, Larro led the way back to the stockades.

A wild herd who we refer to as ‘Queen’s family’ joined the orphans for Lucerne this morning. More wild elephants are showing up these days which indicates it is quite dry out there. There were two youngsters within the herd, one of which Sagateisa picked a fight with. It was the first time for Sagateisa to meet with this wild group. The pushing game went on for quite sometime until Pare intervened by separating the two. The wild baby then moved to play Naleku. Naleku won the pushing game and the wild baby retreated to its family.

Neshashi led the way to the browsing field where Musiara and Ambo started their day activities by participating in a pushing game that ended when Kamok appeared and took Ambo away with her. Sattao engaged Nabulu in a light wrestling match. Despite Nabulu arriving at Ithumba after Sattao she has already graduated to the next class before him.

Nearly all the ex-orphans decided to arrive at the stockade compound around eleven o'clock while all the dependent orphans were at the main mud bath. The only group that we haven’t seen recently is Mutara’s herd! Because the area is slowly becoming a bit drier as we await the March/April rains, perhaps her herd might show up any day now.

The orphans had their eleven o'clock milk feed as usual and since it was quite windy they opted out of a mud bath and instead went back out to the bush to continue browsing. Later Suguroi came across some loose soil that she used for a soil dusting exercise. Pare played with Rapa while Dololo played with Mukkoka. In the evening, Roho led the first group back to the compound while Naleku led the second one, and the rest filed in after them.

The orphans left the stockade compound early as usual to enjoy some lucerne before starting their day out in the bush. Sana Sana kindly shared her lucerne pile with Naboishu. Sagateisa settled for a scratching exercise on a nearby rock and later entwined trunks with her friend Roho in morning greetings. When the orphans had enough lucerne we were surprised to find it was Malima who took the lead of the herd, as she rarely does.

On their way out the orphans met with the ex-orphans. Malkia, Kamok, Rapa and Pare decided to join them. Mteto and Esampu, who have been in the ex-orphan group for a while now, welcomed them. We wondered if Kamok informed the two girls that they were there only for an adventure for the day, but not to stay.

Meanwhile the rest of the dependent herd settled to browse in Kone near the dam. Despite being early in the morning it was already heating up, and the orphans decided to take a break and relax under a nearby baobab tree with nice shade.

Naleku led the first group to the mud bath. Soon after the orphans had their milk, Naleku, Sagateisa and Suguroi got into the waterhole to cool off. They were joined by Roho and later by the rest of the herd too. Roho, Sagateisa’s new friend, moved closer to her so that they could enjoy swimming and playing together. Shortly later, ex-orphans Melia, Challa and baby Milo showed up in the company of a wild herd. The wild herd felt uncomfortable with the Keepers around and so decided to leave. Melia, Milo and Challa didn’t stay long and decided to follow them, having been unsuccessful in convincing them to stay. Sagateisa, Larro and Musiara went to dry off on the loose soil after swimming.

Later in the afternoon we watched playful Dololo engage Mukkoka in a pushing game which ended in a draw. In the evening Yatta brought her herd to the compound and left after enjoying all the lucerne that was given to them.