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After the orphans had settled down once again to browse after their 9am milk feed, we watched as Dupotto walked off with her select group of friends like Nabulu, Kiombo and Sattao. They walked off deep into the forest. She is often seen with this little herd walking off on her own, separate to the others, which shows she is forming her own little group somewhat. In return, the others like Nabulu love Dupotto and are happy to follow her, delighted with the love, care and protection she offers them. Dololo is one little elephant that is happy to move between groups – sometimes he is with Tamiyoi’s herd, and sometimes with Dupotto’s. When Mukkoka accompanies Dololo to Dupotto’s group they both spend a long time with her group. If Mukkoka doesn’t accompany Dololo then it isn’t long before Dololo leaves the herd to go and find him, as these two boys are very good friends. 

Although being very well known for her naughty character, Kiasa also has a loving and caring side, which no one expected from her before. Today during the public visiting hour, as the first group of orphans were busy playing on the loose soil, little Larro got trapped between Musiara and Dololo which meant she couldn’t get up as they blocked her way. She had no other option than to yell out for help, which brought Kiasa running to her aid. Kiasa adores Larro and came running to her rescue, pushing Musiara to one side to allow Larro the space to get up. When Larro showed difficulty getting her balance to stand up, Kiasa went down on her knees to act as a prop for Larro to lean against and stand up. When Larro made as if to go and play on the soil pile again, it was funny to watch Kiasa deny her this opportunity and push her away from the soil so that she didn’t need to worry about her getting stuck there again! 

At 11am it became very sunny after a cloudy beginning to the day, which meant the first group of orphans to the mud bath dived into the water after finishing their milk bottles. Kiasa, who always loves mud bathing even when it is chilly, was the first one to wade into water. This sparked interest in Maktao, Larro and Dololo who decided to join her for a mud bath. As these babies rolled and splashed around looking like they were having the best time, Enkesha and Musiara also became interested and decided to walk into the mud bath as well. Baby elephants rely on these fun games to build important relationships with one another as well as social skills, and it was great fun to see them playing altogether. Musiara and Maktao were very busy climbing on top of whoever they came across lying down in the mud pool. Whenever one of them was climbing on one of their friends, the other would push them off in order to have their own opportunity of climbing – these two are always pushing and challenging each other. 

Kiombo has always been such a quiet and gentle boy, but today seemed to be the day he decided to put Mukkoka and Dololo in their place. Mukkoka and Dololo have bullied Kiombo in the past, and it seems Kiombo has finally had enough of it. Kiombo spent all morning chasing them around and not being very nice to them at all. Mukkoka and Dololo might just accept it as well, as they know they haven’t been very nice to him in the past. At one point Enkesha and Maisha had to step in and save the duo from Kiombo! 

Kiko was in a good mood today when he visited the elephant orphans and the Keepers out in the forest. Even though Musiara, Kiasa, Maisha and Tamiyoi were already prepared for him when they spotted him approaching and raised their ears to warn him away, he was very well behaved and didn’t annoy them at all. He just browsed on the nearby trees and minded his own business until it was time to return to the stockades later in the afternoon.

It is so funny to watch sometimes how the babies copy some characteristics from their friends. Dololo was another bull who was always very quiet, but recently he has started copying his close friend Mukkoka, and now and then decides to test his strength against Maktao. Today was one of those days, and Dololo has been measuring himself up against Maktao, and Musiara came in at one point to separate them when it became a little serious. 

Enkesha is always very happy doing her own thing. Today after the bottle feeding at 3pm which took place around the mud bath, she decided to wander off and browse on her own while all the others were enjoying a dust bath. When she was brought back to join the herd, she just wandered off again to enjoy the bushes in a different area, but she is quite comfortable and happy.

Before Dupotto arrived back in the Nursery, Kiombo was Nabulu’s close friend. The two elephants went most places together and spent a lot of time together, but now Dupotto is in the Nursery Nabulu and Kiombo have spent less time together. Today out in the forest Kiombo tried to reach out to Nabulu but she ignored him. Kiombo left and joined Dupotto who was standing quietly to the side away from the herd for awhile.

There was a funny incident today between Maktao and a tortoise. Maktao was looking for soft fresh grass to eat and stretched his trunk around the base of a small bush looking for all the soft grass he could find. At one point his trunk touched a tortoise that was resting under the bush, and when the tortoise felt Maktao it made a loud hissing sound. This gave Maktao such a fright he lifted his trunk very quickly and raised his ears in shock. The tortoise, which just looked like a rock to him, suddenly started walking off at quite a pace, which gave Maktao even more of a fright and he quickly ran away. Dololo saw Maktao running away from the small bush and went to investigate, and when he too saw the tortoise he ran away as well!

Larro and Dololo had some fun in the forest in the afternoon when they came across a herd of impalas. Two baby impalas found themselves caught up amongst the baby elephants, and Dololo and Larro took it upon themselves to chase them around up and down, until the Keepers came to their rescue and drove the two naughty elephants away. 

It was quite a chilly morning when the orphans came out their stables and stockades to head to the bush. Enkesha headed straight over to the store where the Lucerne pellets are kept and found Mukkoka and Dololo already there stealing some of the pellets on the ground. When it was time to head out into the bush the Keepers had to usher the three away from the store. Dololo and Enkesha went running towards Maisha, who also began to run as she seemed to be unsure as to why everyone was running. 

When it was time for the orphans' midday bottles of milk, Mukkoka who is known to trumpet loudly for his milk was charging down to the mud bath area. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to catch up with Larro and Kiasa whom were just in front of him and had to wait a little bit to get his own bottle. This caused him to rumble even louder. 

After the midday feeding time, Kiko enjoyed walking out to the bush to join the orphans in their browsing activities. 

Mukkoka is known to be a close friend of Dololo and they are often spotted browsing together in the forest. Sometimes they will sneak away from the rest of the herd and go their own direction to browse. Today Mukkoka seemed to spend most of the day with Maktao however, and just before it was time to return home at 5pm today, Mukkoka and Maktao could not be found anywhere with the rest of the herd. This would not bother Mukkoka who often likes to browse some distance away with his buddy Dololo, but Maktao likes to be close to the Keepers and the rest of the herd, so when he realised he could not see any of the others and he knew it was drawing close to milk feeding time, he started yelling out for help. Luckily for him Tamiyoi was not that far off, and she came running to find him together with one of the Keepers. As soon as Maktao saw Tamiyoi and the Keeper he was happy and settled down, eager to follow them back to the rest of the herd and prepare himself for his milk bottle which he knew was coming soon.