For a herd as small as Umani Springs, every member’s presence is felt keenly. When they arrived from the Nursery in May, Kiasa, Kiombo, and Maktao shook things up. Now that they have been in residence for two full months, everyone seems to have settled into the new dynamic.
The budding friendship between Enkesha and Maktao continues to blossom. Having Enkesha as a neighbor has helped Maktao settle into his new life as part of the Umani herd, Enkesha’s constant re-assuring presence has shown Maktao that this a friend he can rely on.
This morning Maktao and Enkesha exited their pens, finished their bottles of milk and walked over to the lucerne corner together. They were the first ones there, as the rest of their friends were still finishing their milk. Both Enkesha and Maktao started to grab trunkfuls of the lucerne pellets and stuff their mouths as much as they could, before the rest of the Umani herd arrived. The Keepers thought Enkesha was on the lookout for her friends, but they realized it was Mwashoti she was looking out for. Enkesha’s friend Mwashoti has been hesitant to accept Maktao and Kiombo into the fold, so when Enkesha saw Mwashoti approaching, she quickly ushered Maktao away to avoid any trouble.
Sonje and Kiombo are another duo who are always together, during the day they are seen browsing side by side, at the milk feed they are side by side and even when it is time to go home, Kiombo is never too far from Sonje’s. The two young bulls have now made it very clear who have settled on as their caregivers. Jasiri and Faraja thought that they could also share in the affections of Sonje and so decided to join Sonje and Kiombo during their browsing sessions, but a very firm rumble from Sonje confirmed that she did not want these boisterous boys around Kiombo. She took Kiombo and they both walked to Umani Hills where they could browse in peace, away from the rest of the herd.
Around midday the nightclubber boys arrived, accompanying them were a few of their young wild bull friends. These wild bulls decided they would stay with the Umani herd and joined them as they went about their day browsing in the Chyulu Hills.
The wild bulls were particularly interested in Sonje, but Sonje was so engrossed with her little boy Kiombo that she didn’t even notice. So, the wild bulls decided to turn their attentions onto Lima Lima. Lima Lima was more than happy to join her nightclubber friends and the wild bulls, they all walked away together, leaving the Umani herd behind. Towards the end of the evening, poor Lima Lima was a bit shocked when she wasn’t invited to stay out the night with the wild bulls. Ziwa and Alamaya walked away with their friends, leaving Lima Lima to look for hers and re-join the Keepers who were slowly making their way home. Perhaps the wild bulls thought Lima Lima was not old enough or experienced enough to stay the night with them.
When the orphans arrived at the stockades, a pleasant surprise awaited them. The Keepers had laid out fresh lucerne hay! The three new babies had tasted lucerne pellets, but nothing had prepared them for the deliciousness that was fresh lucerne hay. Kiombo and Maktao couldn’t get enough of the lucerne, these two greedy boys stuffed their mouths with as much lucerne as they could. By the time they were done, their bellies were round and fat. All the lucerne had made them very thirsty so they made their way to the water trough. Kiombo and Maktao, looked as though their bellies were about to burst! The Keepers were a bit worried that the boys may have overeaten, but both Kiombo and Maktao were fine. Zongoloni and Ziwa must have caught scent of the fresh lucerne so they too turned up at the stockades and enjoyed their share.
Zongoloni arrived with her five boys, including Ngasha and Alamaya, but today they hung back and did not want to mingle with the Umani herd.
For Murera this was such a relief and more so when she saw Ngasha walking away towards the springs. Murera could now relax and commit fully to her duty of looking after her baby Kiasa, instead of being on the look out for Ngasha looking to chase her and mount her. Jasiri sometimes adopts the same behavior as Ngasha but not today, he instead decided to join his friends and browsed peacefully along side them. Faraja and Lima Lima remain good friends, Lima Lima has a bit of tomboy streak in her, she always prefers the company of her male friends and doesn’t mind a bit of roughhousing with her bull friends. Faraja, in particular really enjoys mounting Lima Lima in a playful manner as does Lima Lima with him. These two are always content in each other’s company. The Keepers feel that Faraja plays with Lima Lima in this manner to prepare her for when she eventually re-integrates back into the wild.
At the mud-bath, it was fun and games for everyone. Murera was the first one to wade into the water, followed closely by Kiasa, Maktao and then Enkesha. The rest of the orphans soon saw how much fun these four were having and so decided to join them. The night clubbers not wanting to be left out, waded into the mud-bath too. Soon the air was filled with sounds of splashing and loud trumpets as the Umani herd and nigh clubbers enjoyed their mud wallow. Some of the orphans were kicking at the thick mud to loosen it so that they could splash it on their backs. Soon every elephant was covered in the dark mud and Lima Lima then decided it was time to head to the dusting mound. This took a bit of convincing on Lima Lima’s part, she kept running back and forth between the mud-bath and dusting mound, but nall the orphans were having far too much fun to leave the mud-bath, and when they did eventually, they followed Lima Lima to the dust mound. All the elephants were now covered in the beautiful yellow dust found at Umani.
Unlike other days where the night clubbers arrive early morning to join the orphans during their morning activities, today they arrived mid-afternoon, but not all of them turned up. Alamaya and Ziwa were missing, the Keepers guessed they were off on their own adventures.
After the midday milk feed, instead of venturing towards the mud-bath, Murera lead her baby Kiasa and the rest of the Umani herd towards the water trough to enjoy the fresh clean water the water tank has just brought. Kiombo was done before everyone else so he stood behind Sonje rumbling and nudging Sonje, that he was ready to go to the mud-bath but Sonje rumbled back signaling him to wait. The little boy waited patiently, but as soon as all his friends were done, Kiombo urged Sonje to take lead and take everyone to the mud-bath. Murera, Kiasa, Zongoloni and all the other babies followed Sonje, but Kiasa and Enkesha decided to give the mud-bath a miss and instead made their way to the Chyulu Hills. The older girls must have had a change of mind because they too decided to follow the younger girls. They know Enkesha has the knack of finding the juiciest forage. Enkesha has already started to share this knowledge with Kiasa and Kiombo as showcased today when she let them take the lead.
Later in the afternoon Zongoloni and Sonje decided to take break from browsing and walked over to some bushes to rest but startled a herd of wild buffaloes who were also resting near the bushes. Sonje’s loud trumpeting alerted the rest of the Umani herd,they rushed to Sonje’s rescue and when the buffaloes saw that they were outnumbered, they retreated, leaving the orphans to rest and browse. A few bushbucks that were resting in the same bushes as the buffaloes, also made a run for it, not wanting to get in the way of the orphans.
A herd of wild elephants arrived at Umani Springs sometime mid-morning and accompanying them was one of our night clubber boys, Alamaya. Alamaya saw his friend Mwashoti and decided it would be the perfect opportunity for Mwashoti to spend time in the company of a wild bull herd, perhaps readying him for when he will eventually go wild. Alamaya managed to lure Mwashoti away from the Umani herd and join the wild bulls, the wild bull herd moved away from the Umani herd and continued to browse further afield.
As the midday bottle feed time approached, Mwashoti was nowhere to be seen. The wild bull herd and Alamaya had kept him so occupied that the young bull forgot all about his milk bottle, but after a while, the milk pangs must have made Mwashoti realize that he’d missed the feed and rushed towards the mud-bath area, using his sense of smell to catch the scent of his Umani herd friends. By the time Mwashoti got the mud-bath area, the milk van had already left and there was no milk bottle for poor Mwashoti. The young bull had to wait all the way until evening, when they returned to the stockades. This time Mwashoti was first in line and demanded a second bottle to make up for the one he missed earlier but was only given one.
Later in the afternoon Maktao and Enkesha decided to take a walk on their own. Enkesha wanted to show Maktao where the juiciest shrubs were, so when Kiombo decided to join them, Maktao was not too happy and head butted him. Little Kiombo realized his company was not wanted and decided to seek out Sonje, who dotes on him and welcomed him with trunk hugs. Quanza who was not too far away from where Maktao and Enkesha were browsing, saw Mwashoti walking towards them. She knows what a bully Mwashoti can be at times and stayed close to Maktao and Enkesha in case Mwashoti decided to cause trouble.
It was a day well spent for the orphans, with bellies full, the Umani herd made their way back to the stockades slowly.
On the way their way home, we encountered a large wild herd with many small babies. understandably, Lima Lima, Murera and Sonje, who love little babies, walked up to the wild herd to greet the females and were welcomed by them. After a few minutes Murera and Sonje were happy to return to their wards, but not Lima Lima. Lima Lima was overjoyed to see so many little ones and so the Keepers decided to let her be and they walked back to the stockades with the rest of the orphans. Lima Lima continues to interact with wild herds at every given opportunity, slowly expanding her territory, she has now spent time with several wild herds, where she has been welcomed by matriarch to walk with them. This helps Lima Lima learn the structure of how a wild herd operates, how the different roles within a herd works, from the matriarch to the second in command, and so forth.
The Keepers thought Lima Lima would stay out for the night, but her love for her Umani family is just as strong as her love of her wild friends and their babies. The Keepers were closing the gates to the compound when they spotted Lima Lima making a wild dash for the gates, she came in and straightaway demanded her milk bottle, which luckily her Keepers had kept ready for her, she then retired to her quarters that she shares with Quanza, settling in for the night. The Keepers often joke that Lima Lima has two great loves, the need for a large family and her milk bottle!
The Keepers realized late last night that Ziwa and Jasiri were part of the wild herd that Lima Lima had spent time with yesterday evening. After all the orphans had settled in for the night, Ziwa and Jasiri appeared at the gates looking for Lima Lima, thinking perhaps Lima Lima would like to spend the night in the wild with them, but left when they realized she was already in her quarters.
In the morning, Zongoloni arrived with Alamaya and the others, but no sign of Ziwa and Jasiri; these two bulls joined the Umani herd much later. When they arrived, they greeted all the orphans and then trumpeted very loudly at Lima Lima, as though voicing their disappointment at Lima Lima for not joining them on their nightly adventures yesterday. Lima Lima loves to spend time with the boys, but she also loves the comfort of her warm hay bed and bottle of milk in the evening. Lima Lima is certainly exploring her horizons but she doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry, the Keepers are happy she is doing it at her own pace.
After Lima Lima arrived at the stockade compound last night, Quanza who had clearly missed her friends’ company, welcomed her with a jubilant trumpet that woke up the sleeping babies. Kiasa and Kiombo woke up with a start and quickly huddled under their guardians’ bellies. Murera and Sonje both soothed their babies and once all the trumpeting had died down, the babies and the rest of Umani herd settled in for the night.
With Lima Lima’s growing social skills , the Umani herd is visited by a different wild bull almost everyday. Today was no different.
From a distance, the Keepers noticed some movement in bushes, not quite sure what to expect, but also pleasantly surprised when it was Lima Lima who emerged, but what they were not prepared for was the large older bull that followed her. This bull had magnificent tusks, the biggest the Keepers had seen for a while. Jasiri who has the longest tusks in the herd, did not even compare. The night clubber boys and Mwashoti were all in awe and perhaps also in fear of this magnificent elderly bull. They all retreated thinking perhaps the wild bull may attack. Sonje and Murera had the same idea and moved away quickly with their babies, but to the surprise of the Keepers, this bull was not at all aggressive, whilst his size was quite intimidating, his manner was gentle. He stayed with orphans without causing any trouble. The Keepers wonder where and how Lima Lima finds these bulls and manages to convince them to follow her to join the Umani herd for their daily activities, this girl definitely has very good social skills.
It very clear now, the older girls of the herd have chosen their wards. Sonje has settled in with little Kiombo, Enkesha with sweet boy Maktao and Murera with our energetic little girl Kiasa. Murera remains the matriarch of the Umani herd, and although Zongoloni visits with the Umani herd, she also knows that her place is as the matriarch of the nighclubber boys and not the Umani herd. So whilst she is allowed to socialize with all the babies, Murera remains the leader of this herd.
Early morning, as they orphans were walking towards the Chyulu hills, a troop of monkeys made their way to the salt lick area but quickly regretted their decision, because Quanza, Ngasha and Ziwa surrounded the monkeys, and chased them off into the acacia trees by blowing their trumpets at them. The poor monkeys sought refuge from these naughty elephants, but the acacia was also not safe and Jasiri was already at the tree trying to pull at the branches by using his trunk. Eventually the monkeys tired of all the noise and disappeared in to the forest.
Yesterday evening once again, as the Umani orphan here was making their way home, Lima Lima struck off into a different direction, walking to an area where she knew she would encounter numerous wild herds, perhaps even some of her friends..
This time she managed to convince Mwashoti to join her. Mwashoti, tired after a long day browsing, was in two minds, lured home by idea of a warm bottle of milk and comfortable hay bed versus the excitement and adventure of spending a night out in the wild. In the end Mwashoti’s curious streak won and he accompanied Lima Lima into the night. The adventure did not last long, Mwashoti must have heard the sound of the buckets, where the Keepers were preparing their milk and they knew that if they didn’t make it in time, they would miss out on their delicious milk. As the Keepers were feeding the other orphans, Mwashoti and Lima Lima both turned up at the gates. The Keepers were happy to let them in and gave them their milk bottles. Happy, well fed and ready for bed their settled into their pens.
The orphans were divided and undecided which direction to go in today. Murera finally decided for everyone and they moved towards the Umani Hills.
After walking through the Kibwezi forest, the herd was making their way to the Hills, when they realized that the Umani hills might be too steep for the little ones, so the Keepers decided on a detour but not all the orphans followed them. When Keepers emerged at the top of the Umani hills and looked down, they saw a very sweet sight. Little Kiasa was holding on to Murera’s tail, as Murera walked up the hill. The little girl was clearly struggling with the steep climb but was such a trooper, she did not give up once and Murera being ever patient let the little girl hold on to her tail with her trunk because she knew otherwise Kiasa would not be able to make it to the top. Once there, everyone rested for a while and then carried on with their browsing.
Zongoloni heard Enkesha rumble as did Quanza, so both girls rushed over to Enkesha to see if she was in any danger. Nothing was amiss, all Enkesha wanted was some company and comfort which both older girls were happy to oblige with.
Today we had another wild bull join us. The orphans were in Kibwezi Forest getting ready to make their way to the Chyulu Hills when Lima Lima emerged from the bushes with her new wild bull friend.
Also, with them were Faraja, Ziwa and Zongoloni, the wild bull was flanked by these four elephants as though to gently introduce their him to the Umani herd. As soon as the Umani orphans’ saw the wild bull, there was a bit of panic and the older girls scattered with their younger wards. Later Murera decided to hand over Kiasa to Zongoloni and Quanza handed over Maktao to Enkesha. Zongoloni was overjoyed to finally have a chance to take care of Kiasa. The two girls enjoy each other’s company very much. Kiasa snuggled under Zongoloni’s big ears and Zongoloni wrapped her trunk around Kiasa’s head, and the little girl very much enjoyed the love, care and attention she was receiving from Zongoloni and Zongoloni was delighted to spend time with this energetic little girl.
Maktao was browsing with Enkesha and Kiombo wanted to join but as soon as Kiombo got closer, Maktao chased him away, not wanting to share Enkesha with anyone. Enkesha and Maktao are neighbors and at night when the orphans are in their pens, Enkesha shares her greens with Maktao. They have developed a close bond and Maktao is often seen following his friend Enkesha. Both of them are calm and enjoy browsing together. Kiombo who was upset after Maktao chased him away, sought comfort with his surrogate mother Sonje, who is always happy to give Kiombo trunk hugs.
Today a very good friend of Lima Lima, who has visited her in the past, came looking for her. This wild bull is very fond of Lima Lima and is liked by all including the Keepers. He is always happy to interact with the Umani herd.
The biggest surprise of all was when the older bull approached Maktao. The younger bull remained very calm as the wild bull sniffed the air with his trunk, trying to catch Maktao’s scent. The Keepers were a bit apprehensive, but they also knew that this bull is very gentle with the babies. Maktao, then led the wild bull to the mud-bath area, walking calmly in front of his new friend. For the Keepers, this was a very proud moment to see how well Maktao handled being around a wild bull. Lima Lima was close by just in case, but there was never any need for caution. The wild bull waited for Lima Lima to finish her milk bottle and then they both disappeared into the bushes. The very first time the bull arrived with Faraja, he had to be chased away for being a bit unruly, but it seems since then he has matured and become accustomed to the Keepers and the Umani herd.
Kiombo and Kiasa sought refuge under Sonje’s belly when they came across a heard of buffaloes. Faraja and Jasiri fell into a disagreement about who should walk with Lima Lima to the waterhole, Faraja feels only he is entitled to as he is best friends with Lima Lima. The feud came to abrupt end when Murera was seen chasing Mwashoti. Chances are the young bull was trying to bully little Kiasa and Murera decided to reprimand his behavior. Zongoloni and Ngasha did not join the orphans today, they remained in the shade, browsing away from their friends.
The Umani Springs is a beautiful spring filled with fresh clear water that flows from the volcanic rocks in the Kibwezi area. Many wild animals arrive here in search of fresh clean water. Today a large herd of wild elephants had stopped at the Springs.
Faraja, Ziwa and Alamaya were atop the Hills and immediately sensed the presence of a wild elephant herd. Faraja curled his trunk over his head to catch their scent and within minute’s all three boys were making their way down to the Springs to catch up with their friends. Lima Lima who is always looking to make new friends, followed the boys. She left Kiombo, Kiasa and Maktao in the capable hands of Sonje and Enkesha. Enkesha has already started to show the makings for a good matriarch, with Lima Lima now spending more and more time with wild herds, Enkesha has certainly stepped up and displayed the necessary skills to fill Lima Lima shoes, when the time comes. The Keepers are very confident and proud of Enkesha’s progress.
As much as Lima Lima enjoys interacting with wild herds and her occasional nightly adventures, this greedy girl also loves her milk, so even though she was with the wild herd, come midday, this girl was back with her friends enjoying her milk bottle. Zongoloni and Ziwa accompanied her, but they weaned themselves off the milk years ago when they started their re-integration back into the wild.The Keepers long for the day when one of the Umani girls, has a little baby of their own, they are hopeful as both Zongoloni and Lima Lima are interacting with wild bulls. For them it will be a great achievement to see the girls come full circle.
Kiombo and Sonje have a very sweet morning ritual, instead of rushing off to the lucerne corner after their milk bottles, one waits for the other to finish his or her milk and then Kiombo gets a trunk hug from Sonje and then the two make their way together, to the lucerne corner.
Once Quanza was done with her milk bottle this morning, she joined Maktao and Enkesha who were already at the lucerne corner. Quanza put her trunk over Maktao and Maktao gently rumbled in response. After a few minutes the night clubbers started to arrive, one after the other. They enjoyed the lucerne with the orphans and then set out for their day of browsing.
As they were walking past the water trough, Mwashoti and Kiasa noticed a few bushbucks had stopped to drink water. Mwashoti was in a naughty mood and with Kiasa who can be just as naughty, they blew their trumpets at the bushbucks startling them. The bushbucks took off in a fright, not stopping to see where the noise was coming from. Later at the mud-bath, Sonje and Quanza did the same thing, but instead of trumpeting, they chased the bushbucks away from the mud-bath. The poor bushbucks had to wait for this rowdy lot of elephants to leave the mud-bath area, to then drink water in peace.
Lima Lima spent the whole day in the company of wild bulls today. Whenever Lima Lima meet a wild bull or a wild herd, she will divide her time between her wild friends and her friends in the Umani herd.
Today was a little different, because from the time she joined her wild bull friends this morning, we did not see her until early evening. She even missed her midday bottle, which was very unlike Lima Lima, the Keepers found this very surprising as we all know how much Lima Lima loves her milk. When she finally did arrive at the stockade compound gates it was early evening and the rest of the Umani herd had already had their milk bottles and were getting ready to settle down for the night.
The Keepers decided to give Lima Lima her bottle as they knew she needed the sustenance because she would be spending the night out with her friends. Lima Lima gulped down her bottle in seconds, dropped it on the ground and turned around and exited the stockade compound, no doubt on her way to join her wild friends. Tail in the air and clearly in a rush, we saw her disappear into the bushes. We know she will be back tomorrow morning and wish her well on this new journey of her life.
The orphans had a wonderful start to their morning, everyone all had their milk bottles by their pens and then moved on to the lucerne corner. It was a quiet and easy start, with the orphans indulging in some friendly pushing games and dusting in the compound before they made their way out to the browsing field.
At about 4:30pm Lima Lima, who had left her friends and disappeared with a wild herd, returned to the stockade with a wild bull in tow. The Keepers were busy preparing milk bottles for when the orphans returned in the evening, and so did not notice the wild bull right away. He stood outside the stockade compound by the gate, observing all the goings on. Lima Lima walked in confidently and that is when the Keepers noticed the wild bull. The Keepers gave Lima Lima her milk bottle and once she was done, she trumpeted at the wild bull, almost asking him to join her in the compound, but the bull remained outside. When Lima Lima saw that her friend was hesitant, she turned around and with one last loud trumpet she joined him, and together they disappeared into the forest.
Later that night the Keepers heard a lot of trumpeting coming from the Springs area, we assumed this was Lima Lima with all her wild friends, enjoying the joys that come with being wild and free, which is what we want for all our orphans, to live a life of freedom.
Lima Lima is making many friends, male as well as female wild elephant friends, and with Lima Lima’s outgoing personality, she also does not have a shortage of male suitors.
Today she turned up with a different wild bull. He was much smaller than her wild bull friend from yesterday. This bull seemed quite young but completely enamored by Lima Lima. He followed our beautiful girl all day and was happy to stay with the Umani herd. Around 4pm the Umani herd were getting ready to make their way home, when Lima Lima’s wild bull friend who visited us yesterday turned up. He saw the younger bull and was not too happy. A fight broke out between the two bulls, and whilst the smaller bull tried his best, he was no match for the bigger older bull. After much jousting and pushing, the bigger bull chased the younger bull into the forest. Lima Lima did not follow her younger bull friend, but instead stayed with her friend from yesterday.
The bigger bull accompanied Lima Lima to the stockades and once she had her milk, both elephants returned to the Springs to join their wild elephant friends.
Mwashoti is another Umani orphan who has been exploring his horizons. He has been spending a lot of time with the night clubber boys, out in the wild.
He doesn’t spend all his nights out with the night clubber boys, he divides his time between spending his nights at the stockades with his Umani herd family and out in the wild with the night clubber boys. The Keepers think he is trying to gauge which life is the better option. The re-integration process can be a slow one, but it is important that all our orphans do it at a pace they are comfortable with.
At the midday milk feed, Mwashoti turned up with a wild elephant girl. She seemed very hesitant to join the Umani herd. The sound of the milk van and seeing the Keepers must have come as a surprise to her. Mwashoti went on to have his milk, but the wild elephant girl hung back and watched all the elephants from a distance. Even after the milk van left, and all the orphans proceeded to the mud-bath, she remained at a distance. We are guessing this is the first time she has seen humans and is unsure what to make of the Keepers. As soon as Mwashoti was done with his mud-bath and dusting, him and his new friend disappeared into the bushes.
Today Mwashoti turned up with more wild female elephant friends, not just one but several. Seems like our boy is quite popular with the girls.
They all joined the Umani herd, but the older girls were not too happy having wild female elephants with them and they made it very clear. A fight between the wild female elephants and Quanza and Sonje lasted almost half an hour after which the Umani girls chased away the wild girls, much to the disappointment of Mwashoti who was hoping for his friends to stay longer and spend the day with his Umani family. The Keepers were relieved when the wild girls left as it was quite a task for them to keep the Umani girls and wild elephant girls separate.
Mwashoti tried to sneak his friends back into joining the Umani herd, but Quanza and Sonje’s spotted them right away, they chased them off, and so Mwashoti left with his new found friends, only returning early evening to rejoin the Umani herd as they were making their way back to the stockades.
It has been a while since we saw Ziwa and Jasiri, so as you can imagine, when they turned up at the midday milk feed today, there was an air of celebration amongst the Umani herd members.
All the orphans were overjoyed to see them and surrounded them with trunk hugs and loud trumpets, welcoming back their friends, letting them know how much they have been missed. For the Keepers it is always heartening to see the strong and deep bonds that have developed between these orphans. Although they have all suffered the loss of their own families, they have embraced their new family as their own. We will perhaps never fully understand and appreciate the intricacies of elephant emotional bonds, but seeing the orphans celebrate the return of their friends always warms the Keepers hearts.
The Keepers immediately noticed tusk wounds on Ziwa and Jasiri’s backs, this was a clear indication that the boys had been in a few fights with other wild bulls. The decided to pacify the boys with milk bottles so that they could get a closer look at their wounds. Luckily they allowed the Keepers to examine the wounds and the Keepers treated them by apply green clay. The Keepers will continue to monitor these wounds and will apply green clay on them every day until the wounds are completely healed.
For a few days now the Keepers have noticed that Lima Lima will leave the Umani herd and walk off on her own. They assumed she was interacting with wild herds, but their curiosity got the better of them.
Today two Keepers decided to follow Lima Lima to see where she disappears to. They walked for almost three kilometres, before Lima Lima stopped. She led them to a clearing where they found the carcass of a dead elephant. On closer examination, the Keepers determined that the carcass was that of a very old bull, they were able to determine this by looking at the tusks. The Keepers called the SWT de-snaring team that was on duty to report the incident who then, with the KWS team, arrived to remove the tusks of the old elephant.
On a not so separate note, the Keepers were amazed at Lima Lima’s persistence, all these days that she had been leaving the Umani herd, she had been coming to this area to pay her respects to this fallen bull. She must have come across the carcass when out with her wild friends. Every day, the Keepers are amazed at how intelligent elephants are.
For the third time recently, Lima Lima watched Murera and then timed it perfectly to go off with Kiasa all by herself. While Murera was busy playing on some soft loose soil in the forest, Lima Lima took the opportunity and wandered off with Kiasa. When Murera finally looked around and realized her lovely baby Kiasa was not around, she got up and started looking everywhere for the little girl. Eventually she got so frantic that she started trumpeting, and all the Keepers came over to see what was wrong. They realized that her adopted baby Kiasa wasn’t around and that must be what was upsetting Murera.
Murera started walking and the Keepers followed behind her, and they soon realized she was following Kiasa’s little footprints. After following Murera for some time, she directed us to a place where we came across the skull of a dead elephant. It was very old, before the Trust started helping to manage the forest, and Lima Lima was touching and smelling the skull. Of all the animal grieving and funeral rituals, perhaps the elephants’ is one of the most documented and observed. Upon seeing the bones or carcass of another elephant, a family will stop and investigate them, even if the elephant was unrelated to the group. The ritual includes touching the bones gently with their trunks while remaining very quiet, covering the body with leaves and grass, and if the elephant belonged to their own, sometimes they stay with the body for many days at a time.
Finally, the Keepers and Kiasa, Lima Lima and Murera left the elephant skull and walked back to join the other orphans, as it was almost time to head home for the night.
Quanza and Lima Lima are acting a little jealous of one another at the moment and the time each gets to spend with the little boy Maktao. Both want to spend as much time as possible with him and accompany him throughout the day on all his different little activities, and both want to be able to show as much love and care towards him as possible. Lima Lima found an easy way to coax Maktao into spending more time with her. That is every time she goes browsing through the forest and Maktao happens to be following, she tries to break the branches which are much higher up and are often a lot tastier, so that her little friend below can enjoy them as well. Maktao knows Lima Lima likes to do this for him, so he is often happy to follow along behind her as she browses! This way Lima Lima seems to have won over Maktao’s attention and the two can often be spotted browsing together.
The orphans had their 11am milk bottles as usual close to the mud bath area. When they had finished the milk bottles the orphans made their way over to the mud bath as it was a hot day and they wanted to cool their bodies down. While they were wallowing, they came across a little baby crocodile in the water. It is very dry at the moment so some of the crocodiles are spending some time at the mud wallow and keep changing water holes, but some of these small waterholes are drying up! Murera tried to chase it away so that the others orphans felt safe there, but in all the commotion she hit the crocodile on the tail as it was trying to escape the water, which gave her a fright and she trumpeted loudly. The crocodile wasn’t safe for a moment after that, because all of the orphans came charging out of the water to chase it away. Some of the orphans like Sonje and Mwashoti wanted to step on him! The Keepers managed to intervene and save the crocodile however and prevent the orphans from harming him as he had just been trying to protect himself and get away. The Keepers called the SWT Kibwezi Forest anti-poaching team to come with a trap and relocate the crocodile to the Umani Springs where he would be much happier.
Early in the morning while our orphans are browsing, Murera was pulling down the high branches for Maktao to browse on, just like Lima Lima does. She came across one branch and did the same, but this was a mistake because there happened to be bees in that tree! Elephants don’t like bees at all, and as the bees came out to investigate what was happening to their tree, all the orphans dispersed and ran in all directions! Some ran with Murera towards the stockades and Lima Lima, being a smart girl, lead some others to the mud bath where she knew they could escape the bees in the water! Some of the Keepers followed Murera and those orphans, and the others followed Lima Lima and her team, and later when they thought all was safe and the bees had returned back to their hive in the tree, they all joined up again. They decided to take a different route so none of them would encounter the bees again!
At midday while our orphans were browsing, they came across a female buffalo stuck in some mud. Lima Lima was the first one to find her, and she went back to inform the other orphans to follow her and come and see the stuck buffalo. The Keepers spotted all the orphans following behind Lima Lima and running to the swamp, and they decided to follow behind as well to see what was going on. All the orphans surrounded the female buffalo, as if they wanted to help her. The Keepers followed them and saw the stuck female buffalo, and immediately called the Trust mobile anti-poaching team again to come and help rescue the buffalo. When the unit arrived, the Keepers called the orphans away to make space for the rescue team to pull the buffalo out to safety. The orphans seemed so happy when they saw the buffalo running off into the bush. Today the orphans managed to alert us to the distress of an entirely different species in trouble, and otherwise we would never have known about the poor buffalo. The Keepers couldn’t help but be amazed by their concern and their compassionate nature, and once again, particularly Lima Lima.
An easy start for the Umani herd this morning. The Keepers opened the doors to the orphan’s pens and all the orphans exited in a leisurely manner, some going to greet their friends, whilst others stretched their legs and indulged in some dusting.
It was very sweet to see Maktao waiting for Enkesha, he held on to her tail as she led him to the lucerne corner. A small rivalry seems to have broken out between Mwashoti and Quanza, the young bull was not too happy when Quanza chased away his female friends a few days ago, so today he charged towards Quanza, knocking down the poor girl. She was so startled that she decided to keep away from Mwashoti to avoid any more altercations. Mwashoti on the other hand was severely reprimanded by the Keepers, he was warned to behave himself whilst with the Umani orphans. Mwashoti knew that the rest of the day might be difficult if he stayed with the Umani herd, so he decided to team up with Zongoloni and the night clubber boys and followed them into the Chyulu Hills.
As the orphans carried on with their browsing, Sonje signaled Quanza to join her in sharing the duty of looking after the little ones. Sonje had not only Kiombo under her wing but also Kiasa, Quanza was more than happy to oblige. Maktao is comfortably ensconced with Enkesha who has shown great promise with taking on her duties as mini matriarch and looking after little Maktao. With the guidance of the older girls, the Keepers are very sure Enkesha will grow up to be an admirable matriarch.
Around midnight we could hear the night clubbers fighting with other wild elephants just outside the stockade compound. The feisty meeting went on for almost an hour without stopping.
The Keepers were awoken by all the commotion and went out to see what was going on and found the night clubbers jousting and sparring with some wild friends. It seems things got a bit out of hand however, and the Keepers decided to open the gate to the compound for their older babies just to see if they wanted some respite from their wild friends. This was certainly the case, for as soon as the Keepers opened the gates the night clubbers shot into the compound. The Keepers closed the gates and left the wild elephants outside and decided to put night clubbers in their old stockades until morning, which they were very happy with. The Keepers gave them enough hay and pallets to eat for the rest of the night, and the night-clubbers seemed beyond content! The wild elephants continued to trumpet and cause a ruckus outside the compound for a while, but eventually left when they realized their new friends weren’t coming back out anytime soon.
The night clubbers enjoyed their evening inside and when morning came, they joined the dependent orphans to feast on some lucerne pellets and chose to spend the rest of the morning with them and the Keepers.
As the sun continued to rise in the sky, so did the temperature, by afternoon the orphans were very hot and looking for a way to cool down.
They all made their way to the nearest mud-bath. Maktao was the first one in, he waded into the end of the mud-bath where the thickest mud was and unfortunately the poor boy got stuck. He trumpeted a cry for help and Murera immediately jumped into action. She rushed over to where Maktao was stuck and helped him out, she comforted the little boy and once he was safely out of the mud-bath, Maktao decided he would rather wallow in the shallow end of the mud-bath.
Lima Lima who was meant to be looking after the little ones, was nowhere to be seen, she had gone off to browse by herself. Murera sought her out and trumpeted several times as though reprimanding her for absconding her duties. Lima Lima knew she was in the wrong and so instead of staying with the Umani herd, she hid in the forest until it was time to go home. By evening Murera seemed to have forgotten about her earlier disagreement with Lima Lima, and so when Lima Lima approached her with a trunk hug, the older girl graciously accepted, and all was forgiven. Both walked to their pens together, their friendship as solid as ever.
There is one wild female elephant who frequently visits the Umani herd. For the past few weeks, we have seen her more often.
The Umani herd are very welcoming of her and just like Lima Lima, she loves the little babies and enjoys browsing and playing with them. Everyone except Murera, this matriarch was not very pleased to see the wild female elephant taking a keen interest in her baby Kiasa. To protect her standing in her herd, Murera challenged the new female and they fought for almost an hour. Eventually, defeated by Murera the wild female left the Umani herd, quite dejectedly and the orphans were sad to see her go but Murera was very steadfast in her position as matriarch, she did not take too kindly to any other female threatening her position.
The Keepers are also very fond of this wild female and hope that she will return if not tomorrow then at least in a few days’ time.
The dawn brought another beautiful day to the Kibwezi forest, the spring is teeming with fresh water and it is wonderful to see all the animals who visit the Springs and the Kibwezi forest with its abundant foliage.
The Keepers were so happy to see the female elephant return today. All the orphans were excited to see her and went up to her immediately to greet and welcome her. The female elephant now knows to keep her distance from Murera, so she chose instead to browse with Mwashoti. Mwashoti also has taken a great liking to this wild elephant female. The two browsed side by side all day until it was time for the Umani orphans to go home.
Mwashoti and his new friend escorted them up to the compound gates and after the two disappeared into the thicket of the bushes, not to be seen again until the next morning.