Choose your region

Little Malima’s character is blossoming and coming out more and more since Esampu, Mteto, Ngilai and Mundusi moved to Tsavo. During the public visit she waits until all the orphans have had their milk and the Keepers are looking relaxed. Then she suddenly runs along the rope cordon intentionally bumping, head butting and kicking the visiting public who were standing closest to the rope. The public obviously love this interaction and applaud, which causes her to trumpet before running off as she knows the keepers will be coming to tell her off. She is so quick though and by the time the keepers reach her she is already playing a game of rolling on the loose soil with an innocent look about her. The little elephant orphans are so very clever and they are always surprising us with their next clever antics.

Whilst many of the orphans were busy browsing this morning, Malima, Kuishi, Jotto, Ambo, Maisha and Enkesha were all busy scampering about in the thicket, charging and stamping their feet in protest of we were not sure what! They were in a very lively mood. The keepers wondered if it was because of the cold weather and they were just running around to keep warm. Malima and Kuishi were running about so much and then they started trumpeting, which stirred up everyone in the group, even poor Luggard with his bad leg who started stamping his feet close to his good friend Musiara. All the orphans remained in this restless mood trying to beat the cold weather for almost an hour, when it seemed they had all warmed up from this very active game and they all just settled down to browse. It is so cold in Nairobi at the moment for we are well into our ‘winter’ months when it is very grey and cold but not rainy. This also means the orphans do not mud bath anymore as it is too cold and also there is not very much sun to protect their skin from, but instead they prefer to roll and dust themselves in the loose soil. In this weather even Maxwell the rhino stays in his bedroom on his hay bed until it is warm enough to wake up! His friend Shabby the Sacred Ibis with the bed leg who we have raised stays next to him in the hay too sometimes.

A play-fight broke out between two stockade neighbours Tamiyoi and Malima in the forest today. With her ears held out wide anyone would think that Malima was ready for a real fight! They then started pulling each other’s trunks and Malima also started pulling Tamiyoi’s front leg with her trunk as well, as the game reached its climax. Jotto then interrupted, which almost brought an end to the game, but then the two changed their style and instead of play-fighting each other, they decided to pick a fight with the newcomer! Jotto found himself sandwiched between the two girls and he struggled to free himself. Ambo came over to support his friend, but then fellow bull Mapia came over to offer a helping hand and instead of assisting the boys, he allied with the two girls Tamiyoi and Malima! Mapia took on Ambo, who looked very serious about the fight as he was determined to fight his neighbor who always takes advantage of Ambo in the afternoon by stealing his green browse through their partition. Perhaps this was a good opportunity for Ambo to seek revenge! However it did not go according to plan for Ambo as Mapia has longer tusks which gave him an advantage over Ambo. Slowly the orphans calmed down and the game came to an end as they decided to all go back to browsing on the green bushes.

The scramble for Maxwell’s leftover lucerne pellets has turned all the elephant babies mad. Every elephant wants to be the first to reach his gate in the morning to find the leftovers there. Some like Mapia, Ambo, Malima and Enkesha are heard banging away at the doors first thing in the morning, as early as 5:30am, to alert their keepers that they want to come out. Mapia was the loudest this morning, banging on his door so hard we were sure it was going to fall off! His banging reverberated all the way down the length of the stockades, which disturbed some of the other babies. They began to rumble and cry out as they thought something was wrong. When Mapia’s door was opened he almost knocked the Keeper over he was in such a hurry to reach the pellets first and try his luck. Sana Sana and Ndiwa then came racing in. Sattao and Maisha tried their luck from Maxwell’s other gate, before Musiara also found them. Some of the other orphans weren’t so lucky as the keepers then started to lead the orphans out to the forest and they all had to follow.

Kiko the giraffe was behaving very badly today. It is almost because he is the tallest amongst all of the orphans, he believes he can do whatever he likes. As the elephant orphans were browsing in the afternoon, the tall boy decided to interrupt their peaceful feed. The elephants were not interested in his attempts to disturb them, but Kiko kept provoking them and looking for attention. At one point he threw a little side kick towards Sattao to get his attention, and a few minutes later he tried to prod Kuishi with his head. Then Kiko threw a back kick towards Maisha which caught her on the bum and she cried out in protest. This now attracted all the elephant’s attention as they are always ready to protect one another and come to one another’s aid, and Tagwa rushed over quickly to find out to find out what was happening. She started chasing the giraffe and playful girls like Malima mock-charged from the side, as Emoli and Kiasa trumpeted in an attempt to scare Kiko away. The herd of elephants eventually managed to drive the naughty Kiko away from the herd and Kiko went running all the way back to the stockade compound kicking his legs out in protest and excitement. Calm was then restored amongst the elephants and they went back to enjoying their peaceful browsing session.

It was such a lovely start to the day for the orphans. The big girls Sana Sana, Ndiwa and Sagala were very over excited. As all the orphans prepared to walk out to the forest, the three girls engaged high gear and ran around in different directions towards the forest. It was all about trumpeting the loudest and stamping their feet in excitement. Ndiwa ran in the direction of the mud bath, Sagala ran towards the public parking area and Sana Sana ran to the milk feeding area in the forest! There were several birds on the ground feeding on insects ahead of Sana Sana, and they flew up into the air making a lot of noise as Sana Sana charged towards them. All the commotion attracted Maxwell’s attention as he was resting in his stockade. He got up too and started charging about in different directions thinking that perhaps there might be danger to fend off! His restlessness then affected the rest of the elephants who up until now had remained calm, Malima, Tamiyoi, Jotto and Ambo ran back to Maxwell’s gate, perhaps to reassure him that everything was fine and the older elephant girls were just in a hyperactive mood! It took some time however before Maxwell settled down. All the elephants then started filing out of the compound and following their Keepers to the forest where they met up with Sana Sana. It took some time before Ndiwa and Sagala too re-joined the group after they had calmed down.

While the herd was busy out in the forest with their daily browsing routine, Ambo was causing trouble by bullying Mapia, his neighbor, and Malima. Malkia seemed to be watching him and had kept an eye on his for some time, hoping he would stop disturbing the others. She seemed to get so worked up over his bad behaviour that when she came to discipline him she was very hard on him. She went over and pushed him so hard he fell on the ground and the Keepers had to shout at her to stop. Maktao has become great play-mates with Emoli. They were enjoying their usual pushing game after the midday milk feed today and it looked like Maisha was very envious of Maktao playing with her friend Emoli. She tried to push them apart but the more she tried, the more energetic the game became. Eventually she managed to separate them but this didn’t end the game for the boys, they just moved to a different spot and carried on with their wrestling and mounting game. Maisha just moved away and waited for another time to play with her friend.

In the morning as the elephant orphans were walking out to the forest, Maxwell was asleep at one of his gate’s which is close to Sattao’s room. Enkesha came along and decided to wake him up and have some fun with him before walking out to the forest, but he didn’t respond so she started sharing his lucerne pellets through the gate. Malima however then came charging over in an effort to play with Max and he couldn’t then resist playing too. She came charging over and started pushing and pulling on his gate, making lots of noise. Max then got up and started playing with both of the girls, but it did not last for long as they then decided to accompany Luggard out to the forest as he had been left behind. Jotto was playing a pushing game with Tagwa in the forest. From a distance he saw the two girls and Luggard approaching and he left Tagwa and ran to meet them. Luggard was happy to see Jotto coming to welcome him and started running towards him. Right away they started playing a wrestling game, with Jotto making sure not to be too rough with Luggard.