July began with a new Nursery princess taking the throne! At the midday milk feed, Zuri had her bottle with one beady eye fixed on her friend, agemate, and rival, Kipekee. Zuri always has her milk while standing close to one of Mzinga, Nyambeni, or Muridjo, and her nanny security guard gives her confidence.
The moment she finished her milk, Zuri ran at Kipekee, pushed her off her bottle, and chased her away, clearly hoping to banish her so that she might get her share of milk. We intercepted the squabbling pair, frogmarched naughty Zuri over to her nannies, and returned Kipekee to her rightful bottle.
Most mornings, Maxwell, our blind black rhino, can be found by his gate, waiting for the Nursery herd to pass by. He enjoys these interactions enormously and stands very still as the elephants rest their trunks over his head in greeting. Some days, however, the sunshine wins out and nothing can coax Max out of his warm napping spot! One such morning, Pardamat head-butted the gate to attract Max's attention, but the rhino ignored him and continued resting in the sun.
Tytan, our other black rhino, is also doing very well. He and his best friend, Notty the zebra, are growing fast — Tytan is nearly as tall as Notty and much wider. Notty has always been Tytan's guard and has become overprotective. Whenever Tytan lies down for a nap during the day in the forest, Notty is left watching over him. She takes this responsibility very seriously and chases away every wild animal that dares to approach, even though none of them pose any threat. Baboons, impalas and even warthogs who like to trot around the orphans are all driven away.
However, Notty has got used to the elephants and sometimes tries to approach them. One morning, she came across the herd on one of her baboon-chasing missions, changed direction, and trotted up to the herd. Predictably, Mzinga welcomed Notty — she always loves non-elephant friends — while Muridjo and Talek did not. The two girls were trumpeting and chasing her but Notty kept dodging and hiding behind Mzinga, whereupon Mzinga shielded the zebra and charged towards Talek!
On 2nd July, our new girl, Maisor, was ready to join the Nursery herd out in the forest. While the orphans were still hanging around the stockades, we brought Mzinga, Nyambeni, and Wamata round to escort her out of her stable. As the girls clustered around her, trunk touching her in welcome, Kipekee, Daba, and Arthi ran around the Nursery, trumpeting in excitement. A new member of the herd is a big day for everyone!
While Maisor is still on the road to recovery, she has settled well into Nursery life. Nyambeni, Talek, Muridjo, and Mzinga are very protective of her, and she can usually be found sandwiched between a combination of nannies. Predictably, Kipekee and Zuri were initially quite jealous, but they eventually set their grievances aside and accepted the newest member of the herd. In fact, we have noticed that since Zuri arrived, Kipekee has become less spoiled and better behaved. Our little princess is growing up!
Elephants are so intelligent. They pick up on cues, put the pieces together, and know exactly what is happening. For instance, Arthi, Daba, Wamata, Kipekee, Pardamat, and Mzinga have become the 'masters' of the Keepers' walkie-talkies. Whenever they hear a message come through on the radio, they know there is a high chance that milk is incoming and head for the Keepers, rumbling in anticipation.
Alia is a funny elephant. Sometimes, she gets in a muddle when it is milk time — even though she loves milk and always empties her bottles. One such muddly morning, she ran down to the feeding point with her group but then, at the last minute, turned around and walked back up the path. She waited there until all the other orphans had arrived, then slowly brought up the rear with a Keeper. Perhaps she wanted to avoid any argy bargy antics.
Arthi, on the other hand, is completely clear-headed when it comes to milk: He loves to make a fuss and to be first in line. One morning, he started off last in line when he, Kipekee, Daba, Wamata, and Zuri headed down for their milk feed. Trumpeting indignantly, Arthi charged down the path, overtaking all four of his friends along the way and reaching the wallow in first place. He behaves as if he has not had a bottle for days rather than just three hours!
Daba's favourite early morning browsing spot is the small, fenced square of grasses and shrubs next to the stockades. One morning, as we ushered the herd into the forest, we realised that Daba was not there. A minute later, we heard trumpets of alarm and found him stuck beneath the fence! When he was little, he could squeeze his rotund body beneath the fence, but no longer — now, he is too short to climb over the fence yet too tall to get under it. It took some manoeuvring to extricate the growing bull.
Several of our Nursery boys seem to enjoy food that requires some outside-the-box thinking. Olomunyak, our loveable thief, gets plenty of his own evening snacks, but prefers to steal them from his friends. We often find him squatting and stretching his trunk beneath the partitions into his neighbours' rooms. Good-natured Arthi lets him pinch a trunkful, but Taroha is not so generous. The older bull gives Olomunyak's trunk a firm kick, sending him into a hasty retreat.
On 21st July, we welcomed Kamili back to the Nursery. She graduated to Umani Springs back in December. Initially, she thrived in the lush Kibwezi Forest, but she has not been well in the past few weeks and so the decision was made to bring her back to the Nursery where she could be monitored closely. We opened the door of the translocation truck and Kamili walked out to a great welcome from the older elephants, all of whom know her very well. Muridjo, Mzinga, Nyambeni, Taroha, Pardamat, and Talek clustered around her, rumbling in welcome.
While most babies kick up a fuss when they're promoted from stable to stockade, Wamata seemed to be longing for more grown up accommodations. She had started pushing the walls of her stable, so we knew it was time. We put her in the stockade next to Kamili, who was pleased to have a neighbour. We could hear the girls rumbling through the night and then they walked into the forest together at dawn — already fast friends.