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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. 

When the orphans came out of their night stockades early in the morning, as many were entwining trunks and greeting each other, or initiating pushing games to welcome the new day, it was funny to watch Enkesha and Kiasa busy struggling to decide between them who should be the one to escort little Larro out into the forest for the day. The two sandwiched Larro between them as neither one wanted to give up. As they approached the forest, each one expressed their love and care for Larro. Enkesha lay on the ground and tried to appeal to Larro to come and play and climb on her, while Kiasa gently and affectionately lay her trunk across Larro’s back to express her affection. With Enkesha showing off and playing on the ground in the most extravagant poses however, she soon won Larro’s heart, and she went to go and play with Enkesha on the ground. She climbed on Enkesha’s tummy, but Kiasa was jealous and tried to push Larro off Enkesha. Larro didn’t leave however, and Kiasa resorted to playing on the ground next to Enkesha to try and entice Larro to come and play with her instead. Due to her larger body frame and tummy however, Larro enjoyed climbing and sliding on Enkesha as she provided a good playing point and climbing frame, so poor Kiasa was left disappointed. 

It was a lovely start for the elephant orphans today when they arrived out in the forest. Musiara and Maisha were the most playful ones, despite the fact they are not very good friends nor play mates. Today, however, both of them came across some fresh loose soil that had been dug up by some warthogs in the night, and this was their new playground. Maisha was wallowing and dusting in the soil and Musiara was on his back rolling around. It didn’t take long for Tamiyoi to join them, and as usual, once the matriarch Tamiyoi joins in then all the others like to get involved as well. Larro arrived and then Sattao, Luggard, Maktao and Enkesha all followed as well, and it became everyone’s game. Browsing was completely abandoned as all the orphans enjoyed rolling in the soil apart from Dupotto and Kiombo who carried on browsing. These two have become quite close and enjoy browsing together. 

Larro is such a brave and clever girl who knows who to hang around with whenever she feels like having protection from some of the more boisterous orphans, as she is still the smallest in the Nursery. Kiasa loves her but Tamiyoi and Enkesha are older and can protect her from any of the others in the herd as most of the orphans respect them too, and will not mess with Larro if either of them are there.

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.

Today was one of Luggard’s very happy days. When he came out of his stockade in the morning he started chasing Musiara around the stockades. Upon arriving out in the forest he was very playful, but a lot of the other youngsters are actually quite afraid of him and didn’t want to play, and that is only because he has quite long sharp tusks. Whoever he ran up to to play with mostly tried to avoid him, but he will still very excited and running all over the place. In the end it was only Musiara and Sattao who engaged him in a pushing game for a short while.

Day after day Kiasa is proving to love, care and protect little Larro. During the public visiting time today, she didn’t allow any of the others to spend any time with her. She even started a fight with Enkesha in order to stay with Larro on her own. 

Luggard’s happy mood carried on the whole day and during the 3pm milk feed he even decided to go in the mud bath as well. He waited for all of the others to come out before he moved in with Musiara, Kiasa and Maktao, and he really enjoyed a lengthy mud bath.

There was a bit of drama today when a warthog emerged from nowhere and ran through the group of elephant babies. Almost the whole herd had surrounded a bush and were browsing from it when the warthog came barreling through, which gave Maktao, Kiombo, Nabulu and Sattao quite the fright. They ran away screaming for help from their Keepers and it took them a long time to settle down again. Tamiyoi, Kiasa, Enkesha and Musiara took the initiative of rounding up the group and convincing them that everything was fine, as the Keepers walked beside them and reassured them as well by calling all of their names.

Kiko really wanted to go out to the forest today. He attempted to sneak away from the Keepers when they were walking him to his big boma where he spends his morning hours, and later he was let out to the forest where he didn’t want to go out to see the elephants, but instead chose to browse around the stockade compound area.

Musiara is quite a peaceful boy and always wants peace within the herd as well. Today Enkesha had been having a good time playing with Maktao, rolling in the dust for awhile, when Kiasa joined them and the game took on a different tone. She started climbing on Maktao’s back and instead of Enkesha stopping her, she started sliding on him as well. Musiara had been watching them from a distance for some time, until he decided to jump in and rescue Maktao. Kiasa didn’t want to give in just like that without a challenge, and as she saw Musiara walking towards them she raised her ears ready to charge. Musiara was very determined and was not going to give up on his mission, even with Kiasa’s warning. He moved on majestically and just shoved Kiasa to the side, making it easier for Maktao to stand up. Kiasa was very surprised and turned back to challenge Musiara – so it then became a fight of boys against girls. In the end, Kiasa gave up as Enkesha just started playing with Musiara and Maktao as she always does. She started rolling in the dust as Musiara and Maktao climbed on her back and slid into the dust. Musiara and Sattao seem to be going back to how they always used to be – playing wrestling games at length.

The spoiled girl Larro has many older girls around to protect and care for her. The orphans always arrive for milk feedings in small groups so that there are enough Keepers to feed them when they arrive. Due to the fact that Larro has recently become a bit naughty around feeding times, having learnt this from her friend and mentor Kiasa, she has to come at the back of the group just like Kiasa as well, so that most of the others have already been fed when she arrives. This morning Larro had been left until last with Tamiyoi, Nabulu, Kiombo and Sattao and when the others took off towards the feeding area, Larro started complaining and yelling out for Tamiyoi to wait for her. Maisha and Enkesha had already finished their milk share and were waiting for the others to finish so they could all walk out to browse. When they heard Larro yelling they went running to find her to find out what was going on, and escorted the unhappy baby to the milk feeding point.

Just like human children with a new toy, sometimes there can be a fight amongst the elephant orphans over something that is new. Today we used a new football at the mud bath area and Kiasa was the star, kicking the ball all over the place, but she wouldn’t allow anyone else to play with it as well. Maktao and Musiara tried to play with the ball as well but she wouldn’t let them, which resulted in a pushing fight over the right. In the end Maisha came and took the ball away to play with herself, which brought an end to Kiasa’s game and the fight as well.

When it was time for the orphans to have their mid-morning bottles of milk, Kiasa decided to chase all the other orphans apart from little Larro. The Keepers are always amazed to see Kiasa’s compassion towards Larro, especially when she seems to enjoy stealing milk from all the other orphans so much. The Keepers had to usher her away so that the rest could finish their bottles.

After their midday bottles of milk, Tamiyoi walked straight over to the dust mound where she began having a dust bath and lay down to roll around. Maisha, who appeared happy that she was lying down, walked straight over to dust mound and began to climb on Tamiyoi’s back and roll around with her. Enkesha also decided to join the two in their fun. 

Today, Kiko headed out a bit further out into the field looking for some fresher greens. When it was time for him to come back in the evening, he spotted the vehicle carrying all the greens for the orphans and decided to chase it back, making his Keepers run to keep up. 

In the early evening, Maxwell was spotted having some fun charging around his stockade with the warthogs. 

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. 

Usually when the orphans go out to the bush in the morning they are grouped together and follow the Keepers in the direction they suggest to take for the day. Dupotto and Luggard are slow walkers and they were following the group slowly at the back, browsing as they walked. Enkesha, Kiombo and Musiara were in the lead and were taking the herd in a direction they thought they would find lots of green vegetation, and as the Keepers thought that Dupotto and Luggard would soon get left behind, they decided to stop the herd to allow them some time to catch up to go to this lovely green area for browsing.