01 June 2016

The orphans exited their stockade in a jovial mood before downing their morning milk bottle. The sun was rising on the horizon as the orphans made their way towards the browsing grounds. Soon after their arrival at the foot of Msinga Hill, they queued up for a scratching session against a rock. Araba was first followed by Lentili then Ishaq-B and Nelion. Once out at the browsing fields the orphan group joined a wild herd that had two small calves. Mashariki, Embu and Rorogoi went to greet the calves after which Embu enjoyed a chasing game with one of them with Bada, Mudanda, and Rorogoi also taking part. The orphans were rather exuberant in their games with the youngster and the little one had to rest for a while once its mother had come to its rescue. Suswa enjoyed browsing together with a teenage cow while Ndii engaged one of the other youngsters in a pushing game which she won. The two groups browsed together until about 8:30 after which they went their separate ways with Ndii staying with the wild herd for an additional 10 minutes before rejoining the orphan group. In the evening Nelion and Tundani who were still ascertaining their position among the bulls took each other to task in a wrestling match before joining the others who were making their way to safety of the stockades for the night. At 6.10pm when the orphan elephants were already in their respective stables a small wild elephant herd of three cows and their two calves came to the stockade for a drink of water. This wild elephant herd which often frequents the stockade for a drink left twenty minutes later having quenched their thirst.

02 June 2016

It was a wonderful start to the day with the orphan elephants feeding on milk and supplements before moving away from the stockades to the browsing fields. They settled to feed on the far northern side of the stockade area before making their way to the middle waterhole for the afternoon. Here they had a lot of fun enjoying mud bathing games before going to browse on the base of the Msinga Hill where there was some tall and green bushes that the orphans enjoyed feeding from. Kivuko and Mzima came to join the orphan herd in the afternoon and enjoyed interacting and browsing the with the stockade dependant orphans. Kenia was not very happy to see them, especially so late in the day, as she always worries that the older Ex Orphans are going to try and steal her charges from her. Kivuko and Mzima accompanied the orphans back in the evening and tried to force their way into the stockades but were prevented from doing so by the keepers. The two hung around the stockades pulling some grewia branches from the stables and feasting on them before heading back to the park at 7pm.

03 June 2016

The morning was calm and cloudy with the orphan elephants moving in a straight line towards the browsing grounds once the feeding and socializing activities at the stockade compound were over. They browsed their way to the eastern side of the stockade where they also enjoyed their afternoon milk bottle as it was a cold day and none of them wanted to go to the mudbath. At 3.40pm, Ndoria and Araba found themselves alone after being left behind by their friends who had walked a considerable distance ahead of them. Araba was quick to notice what had happened and took off running to rejoin them but had some difficulty doing so as Ndoria kept blocking her path. Ndoria started to chase Araba in an effort to bite her tail. Thankfully Araba was quick today and was able to avoid having her tail bitten and she made her way around to join the orphan herd. Embu, Ishaq-B and Rorogoi resorted to browsing behind Ndoria, with Naipoki making sure that Ndoria received a warning for his antics. In the evening, Bada approached Tundani for a pushing game. It seems that some of the boys see Tundani as a threat and are eager to engage him in strength testing games.

04 June 2016

It was another beautiful morning with the orphans coming out of their stockades in a happy mood and downing their morning bottle before enjoying the copra cake piles that had been put out for them as a wonderful morning treat. Kihari settled to browse with the other orphan elephants. Her left side tusk which has yet to come out looks to be pushing the skin and should soon be visible. The orphan elephants enjoyed a quick bathing moment before leaving the mudbath and returning to their browsing activities. Ndoria had some time browsing by herself before attaching herself to Arruba for the remainder of the day. Arruba was happy to have her with her having forgotten the previous day’s naughty behaviour. The orphans all enjoyed browsing until it was time to return to the stockades for the night. Embu enjoyed leading the group home.

05 June 2016

This morning the stockade dependant orphans began milk feeding as soon the gates of their stables were flung open. There was a nice socializing moment while they enjoyed a gulp of clean water before proceeding to the copra cake feeding area. As soon as the supplement feeding process was over, Kenia noticed that her adopted baby Bada had been taken by Ishaq-B who was embracing and nursing her like a new born baby. Kenia came in a rush to reclaim Araba and did not get any resistance from Ishaq-B who was happy to hand the youngster back to Kenia who kept a close eye on Araba for the remainder of the day. At noon Kenia and Araba enjoyed a mudbath followed by a dustbath before rejoining the rest of the group who were browsing near to the mudwallow. Mudanda and Bada enjoyed leading the orphan herd back to the stockades in the evening.

06 June 2016

It was a nice and sunny morning with the stockade dependant orphans following their usual routine milk feeding and playing at the stockade compound before heading to their usual browsing ground where they settled to browse with the noon milk feeding time coming up faster than they expected. The orphans went in groups of five to the milk feeding are before going to the mudwallow where they all had a lot of fun playing some mud bathing games. Soon after the orphan elephants had left the water hole, Kenia and Ndii joined up with Bada who had proved to be a mud bathing star today. Taking advantage of Kenia’s absence Mashariki took Araba for some amazing dust bathing games. Mashariki was so excited to be looking after Araba that she was in a very playful and mischievous mood and enjoyed entertaining Araba. It was not long before Kenia came looking for her charge and the two went off together. Ndoria was seen to be keeping company with Arruba who was happy to welcome her. Arruba later invited Ishaq-B for a scratching game on a fallen tree trunk before joining others in the day’s final browsing session. Towards the end of the day a small herd of wild elephants took Mudanda away with them. The keepers went to get her and were able to retrieve her from the wild herd and had her back at the stockade by 7pm.

07 June 2016

It was a fantastic morning with the orphan elephants happily playing games of hide and seek at the stockade compound before heading to the browsing grounds under the leadership of Naipoki and Lentili. It was quite windy as the orphans made their way out and as such they moved slowly trying to feed as they walked. Following a few days absence Layoni, Taveta and Kivuko came and to the stockades at around two in the afternoon and had a drink at the water trough after which they enjoyed feeding on acacia pods before making their way to the water pipe line area where the keepers believe the rest of Lesanju’s herd was located. Kenia’s orphan herd was led back to the stockades in the later afternoon by Suswa how enjoyed taking the lead. In the evening a herd of wild elephants came to the stockade water trough for a drink of clean water. Embu, Rorogoi and Arruba rumbling a greeting to them from inside their stable complexes. The wild herd stayed at the stockades for half an hour after which they headed into the park to browse.

08 June 2016

The morning was beautifully bright with the orphans coming out of their stables running to empty their morning milk bottle and move to eat the copra cake before leaving for the browsing grounds. The orphan elephants had a nice and perfect browsing moment on the northern side of the stockade before turning slowly and heading into the middle water hole in groups of five. Here they had a lot of fun in the mud bathing games before leaving for a soil dusting session. Later they browsed close to the water hole area. Kenia browsed closely with her adopted baby Araba, occasionally offering her assurance by placing her trunk on Araba’s back whilst they browsed. Araba responded with deep rumbles of appreciation for Kenia’s love and affection for her. The rest of the browsing day went on perfectly well with Embu enjoying the lead of taking them back to the stockades that evening.

09 June 2016

The morning was good with the stockade dependant orphans concentrating on their usual milk and supplement feeding in the morning before following behind Nelion and Mbirikani who lead the orphans up the southern side of Msinga Hill above the stockade office to browse. They later went down to take their afternoon milk bottle and drink water in the stockade water trough that afternoon. Soon Lesanju’s herd arrived which completely stole Kenia’s happiness because Lesanju went to greet Kenia’s adopted baby Araba, and then embraced Ndoria as well. Kenia was relieved however when a teenage wild elephant bull approached to join the orphans at the water trough and Lesanju left the stockade with Kivuko, Dabassa, Sinya, Layoni and Lempaute. Taveta remained behind to drink with the wild bull and join him for a brief drinking session in the stockade water trough. He saw off the wild bull before following Lesanju’s herd who were far off into the browsing grounds. Later in the day, Kenia’s orphan herd interacted with a wild elephant herd in the field for some time whilst they browsed. Ndii successfully separated a wild calf from its mother and took it away for some time to play with. Bada and Embu also seized the chance to play with that wild calf too. Bada went down on the ground with Embu and the wild calf enjoyed riding on his back in a very fun game. Rorogoi later followed that wild elephant herd and they went off for some distance before she came back to join her orphan elephant herd for the rest of the day.

10 June 2016

It was a wonderful morning with the orphan elephants coming out early for their morning milk and supplement feeding before following behind Kenia to the browsing grounds. Today Kenia took the great decision to see her herd out of the stockade at 6am, in fear of Lesanju’s herd coming in and stealing the attention away from her babies. Ten minutes after the orphan elephant departure, a small herd of wild elephants arrived with their calves to drink water from the stockade trough. The wild elephant herd lingered around the stockade relaxing for twenty minutes or so before moving off into the bush. Kenia took her herd to the far northern side of the stockade to browse. They later visited the middle water hole to drink milk and water but didn’t take a bath as it was slightly cold and windy. The rest of the browsing went on close to the water hole with Rorogoi enjoying the lead taking everyone home that evening.

11 June 2016

The morning started well with the orphan elephants running and emptying a milk bottle before moving onto the copra cake piles availed to them as a big morning treat. They only played briefly in the compound before following behind Lentili to the browsing field. Lentili bumped into Lesanju’s herd as she was leading, and Sinya wasted no time in taking Bada aside to play with. Lentili protested by shaking her trunk followed by a very loud trumpet blast, but it had very affect. Kenia also had no other option than to relax and allow her superiors to take charge and control of her herd. There were not many games at the water hole this afternoon, except a few trunks dipping into the water to splash and cool down hot bodies. Later around 3.40pm, Lesanju and Kenia’s herd joined a big wild elephant bull who relieved Kenia and Lentili of their leading responsibility momentarily. The two had very little to celebrate when Lesanju’s herd left as it was almost time to go back to the stockade for the evening.

12 June 2016

After their usual morning routine the orphans went out to browse. The weather was fairly cold and their midday milk and water was taken to them at the browsing grounds, although they later came to the middle water hole after 1pm to have some more water too. Later around 4pm a wild elephant herd that usually browses around Msinga Hill and also comes to drink from the stockade water trough was seen, with Ex orphan Tassia with them too! Tassia has been missing for some months and has apparently joined this herd and is very comfortable with them, blending in very well and mixing freely. Mzima, who is usually with Lesanju’s herd, came in slightly behind this wild herd and stayed a slight distance away from Tassia and them. One teenage wild friend tried to approach Mzima to welcome him into their herd but Mzima was reluctant to freely interact with them, opting instead to playing a wrestling match with that wild male boy instead. A few minutes later the wild elephant cow that came in and stayed browsing around Msinga Hill above Malaika house for two days a few months ago, approached with her very small calf and drank from the stockade water trough. This wild elephant seemed more relaxed this time around and we even wondered if she was one of the members from absent Ex Orphan Natumi’s herd. This cow with its calf joined the other wild elephant herd and moved out of the stockade with them. Tassia went with this wild herd that has adopted him, with Mzima staying behind in the stockade alone. Mzima later left the stockade to browse after all the stockade dependant orphans had come back to the compound and settled into their respective stables.

13 June 2016

The morning was good with the orphan elephants proceeding with their morning feeding routine and playing briefly in the stockade compound before heading to the southern side of the stockade to browse. Here they browsed contentedly except Bada who mischievously lay down in some rolling games. Panda spent her time guarding him from the other playful orphans who might attempt to climb on him whilst he played. After he finished playing they both walked to catch up with the rest who had started to head back to the stockade for an afternoon milk bottle, as well as interact with some visiting school pupils from Tsavo. After their milk, Embu had an amazing game of scratching her neck and the school children were very interested in watching her. The orphans later moved off to browse half way up Msinga hill. Kihari sneaked away from the herd, leaving the rest on the hill and she later arrived alone into the stockade compound just after 4pm. She was cordially welcomed by Kivuko and Layoni who had also come to the stockade almost around the same time. The three stayed around the stockade compound feeding onto the grewia leaves that had fallen down when offloading the bush from the lorry. The two Ex Orphans Layoni and Kivuko were left out of the stockade when Kihari joined her dependent herd when they arrived later that evening. Layoni and Kivuko then left the stockade back to the bush around an hour later, as the orphans rested for the evening.

14 June 2016

It was a beautiful beginning of the day with the orphans happily playing around the stockade before moving out around 7am into the bush. Lempaute came alone into the stockade twenty five minutes later, missing the milk dependent orphans. Lempaute went to drink clean water from the stockade water trough and left the way the juniors went, but did not catch up with them, as she was seen proceeding towards the Voi River after missing them at the middle water pan. The orphans browsing day went on perfectly well with Taveta emerging from the bush alone to join Kenia’s herd at the water hole. Ishaq-B had a wonderful game in the water and she was seen playing in all sorts of poses, including on her knees. Mudanda excelled in other games of rolling in the water. Panda got jealous of Mudanda’s game and decided to try and start a pushing game with her. Taveta had fallen in love with Mudanda’s game and went to stop Panda from playing with little Mudanda, and took Panda away to continue playing in the water. Taveta then spent the rest of the browsing day with the stockade dependant orphans. He only left them once they were back at the compound in the evening and the orphans were safely in the stockades for the night; then he left them and walked off into the bush.

15 June 2016

The orphans ran for their milk bottles when their gates were opened this morning. They enjoyed their milk bottles and left the stockade for browsing under the careful leadership of Lentili and Ishaq-B. The orphans browsed in single file, returning to the stockade to interact with the visiting school children as well as drink their milk and water later in the morning. Ndii jumped into the water trough with her forelegs in water, to be ahead of others in drinking. This amazed the visiting school children! Nelion was taking part in a different game of sharpening his tusks on a rock, to make sure they were the best between the other boys Tundani and Bada as well. Arruba and her friend Suswa decided not to play very much, and instead they chose to salvage the remains of the morning’s copra cake. The orphans then returned to browse after wards which they enjoyed for the rest of the day.

16 June 2016

After drinking milk and eating the journey to the browsing grounds started in earnest with the orphan elephants arriving in the bush well on time. Embu detached herself from the rest and explored further afield to browse. Rorogoi attempted to follow her up but decided against it and came back to join her other friends. Embu joined the rest two hours later to prepare to head to the middle water hole for bathing; they all had a lot of fun in the mud bathing games. At 8.40am this morning some members of Lesanju’s herd including Lesanju, Lempaute, Sinya, Kivuko, Dabassa, Taveta, Mzima and Layoni arrived into the stockade to drink water before leaving for the bush again. They never linked up with the stockade dependant orphans today.

17 June 2016

It was a nice and calm morning with the orphan elephants welcoming another day as they played after feeding in the morning. As they left the stockade for the browsing grounds they unexpectedly came across Layoni who was alone and hiding behind the big rocks in a mission of waiting for the dependant orphans. Layoni emerged to join them from behind the rock nearly scaring away Arruba, Suswa and Naipoki who were in the lead! Layoni then had a nice moment browsing with the juniors for that half of the morning, and came back with them to the stockade at noon where they interacted with visiting school children. A baboon posed amidst the school group as if he were one of them, sitting on the bench and watching the orphan elephants milk feeding. The orphans then returned to their usual browsing grounds as Layoni walked away towards the Mzima-Mombasa water pipe line.

18 June 2016

Whilst browsing this morning Ndii and Kenia showed affection to their favourite adopted babies. Kenia stuck with Araba as Ndii kept Mudanda company throughout the day. The orphans visited the middle water hole and had a very brief bath before moving on to browse again. In the evening, Mashariki and Lentili were about to lead the others back to the stockade when Ndoria stood in front of their path; the two certainly gave way to her rather than risk overtaking her and possibly having their tails bitten. The two only made their way to the front again when Naipoki broke through that Ndoria barrier and cleared the way.

19 June 2016

It was a beautiful and bright morning as the orphans came out of their stables in high spirits looking forward to a perfect browsing day. Suswa and Arruba nurtured their friendship by choosing to browse close together throughout the day. Nelion took the orphans to browse up Msinga Hill, after a wonderful noon mud bath where they enjoyed browsing on untouched grass that was slowly drying up. They spent the remainder of the day here. Later in the evening around 4.30pm, Mzima was sighted walking alone on a mission that we presume was to locate the orphans in Kenia’s herd. However Mzima was not very lucky this time as the orphans were still on the hill and they only came down to the stockade in the evening when Mzima had already moved off far away.

20 June 2016

The day started with the usual feeding and playing activity in the stockade compound before moving out to the browsing ground. Today Nelion took the lead and it was his mission to move all the orphans to browse up Msinga Hill. Today the weather was pretty cold and the orphans were not in a hurry to come down as they never went to the water hole today. Their milk was delivered to them at the northern base of Msinga Hill when they came down around 2pm. They then went uphill again but this time only half way up for the rest of the day. To go back to the stockade this evening Arruba took position at the front, completely blocking Naipoki and Lentili from overtaking her. She made absolutely sure it was her that got to lead the orphans all the way back today!

21 June 2016

They orphans browsed nicely this morning before moving back to the stockade for an afternoon milk bottle and to interact with another group of visiting school children from the Tsavo area. The children were so excited to touch an elephant that many of them had not even been that close to before. The orphan elephants then had a wonderful time bathing in the stockade water trough, before moving back out to the bush to browse for the rest of the day. A wild elephant herd of three big cows and their two calves arrived at the stockade to drink water. This wild herd arrived around 4pm and left the stockade ten minutes later before the arrival of the stockade dependant orphan elephants at 5pm.

22 June 2016

The day was nice with the orphan elephants obeying their morning routine before heading out to the browsing grounds at the first light of the day. They settled to browse in single file along the eastern side of the stockade before visiting the water hole at noon. The weather today was cold and windy and they only drank water and proceeded with their usual browsing close to that water hole, without bathing. Later in the evening, Kivuko emerged from the bush alone and took Arruba to browse away from the others with. The two seem to accept and enjoy each other’s company, which made Arruba’s closest friend Suswa look a bit sad. Naipoki and Panda eschewed their anger over Kivuko’s arrival by taking both Arruba and later Mudanda away to browse. Nelion and Bada didn’t want to get involved in any of this commotion amongst the females and browsed away from them all altogether. The day later ended with Kivuko following the stockade dependant orphans all the way back to the stockade but later leaving around 2pm for the bush again. Kivuko wasn’t part of a small herd of wild elephants that visited the stockade to drink later in the afternoon close to 6pm, but it seemed he decided to stay back and be in the bush on his own.

23 June 2016

It was a nice morning with the sun rising up far on the far horizon predicting a hot and sunny day ahead. The orphans hurried up finishing all their feeding activities before moving out to the bush where they browsed peacefully. Today the orphan baby Oryx (Salla) that has mostly been staying in its stable joined up with Ngulia, Kore, Tawi and Jamuhuri, the orphan buffalo. Salla was very happy to join up with Ngulia’s herd and Ngulia shifted her adoption from Jamuhuri to overindulge in the new orphan Salla. Ngulia played a game of chasing Salla around the compound which Salla seemed to enjoy a lot. She also enjoyed feeding on the lucerne grass with Ngulia’s herd, but she prefers to lie down that stand up for long periods of time. She even fed on the lucerne grass whilst lying down for maximum relaxation.

24 June 2016

It was a nice beginning of the day with the orphans happily coming out of their respective stables in happy mood looking forward for a perfect browsing day which indeed was the case. After having a wonderful browsing moment for this half of the day, a tuskless elephant cow joined the orphans to browse just after 1pm. This wild elephant was with its calf and only visited the orphans briefly, leaving its herd behind. Lentili, Ndii and Bada moved forward to welcome the wild elephant cow into their herd, with Naipoki taking quick action to play a wrestling match with that wild elephant calf. Ndoria then took over the game with the wild calf, with Bada offering to give her that much needed reinforcement to win the game. This wild elephant cow loved the orphans herd and stayed with them for half an hour before moving away to join her herd that had already moved further afield.

25 June 2016

After feeding and walking out to the bush, the orphans spread out across the browsing grounds with Kenia taking some close browsing ties with her adopted baby Araba, upon noticing that Mashariki was making out to go browse with Araba and she wanted to stop that before it was too late. After a very active mud bathing session, the orphans joined a big wild elephant herd of nearly ten members. All the orphans had a very relaxed and perfect interaction with this herd, with some temporary friendships really coming to the fore whilst they were together. One wild cow had a soft spot for Embu and spent most of her time paying her lots of attention. Embu also felt very happy and embraced this wild elephant cow as her own matriarchal mother. Three hours later around nearly 4pm, the keepers called out the names of the orphans to prepare them to head back to the stockade for the evening. The wild elephant cow that was socializing with Embu took her with them, moving to the back and softly pushing her to run with them. Embu decided to go with that wild herd even after the keepers attempted to separate them with the stockade land cruiser.

26 June 2016

It was a worrying morning with the fate of the lost Embu at the front of our minds; she was still very young and we could no ensure the wild elephant herd would look after her. The whereabouts of Embu who had gone right into the bush had to be established as the keepers left the stockade before sun rise in a search patrol. A DSWT aircraft was sent by the Trust management to assist in the search for Embu who was still milk dependant and we worried about her if the wild cow decided not to stand with her throughout the night. Lions were a big threat and there are many in Tsavo and we were not certain she would be okay with that herd. Out in the field, Rorogoi and Mashariki seemed to have noticed the absence of Embu and were looking sad and sometimes rumbling as if searching for her or consoling themselves with her disappearance. The search went on for the whole day without sighting that wild elephant herd that managed to spirit her away, nor could we see little Embu on her own. It was another sleepless night for us as Embu’s fate was still hanging in balance and at the front of the keepers’ mind. We would have felt better if Embu was spotted still with the wild herd and had enough protection and happiness, rather than going missing altogether.

27 June 2016

The search started again in earnest today with both the stockade keepers and the Burra de-snaring teams working together in the search for Embu and her wild elephant herd before 6am. After two hours of searching we were both relieved and saddened when the team located Embu all alone without the wild herd, and she had indeed had a fateful time having been attacked by a lion during the night. Fortunately and somehow, they had not managed to do very significant damage and they (or perhaps it was only one lion) had only punctured her right hind leg and thigh. One of her ears on the right side and also been clawed by a lions paw; she was lucky to be alive. Embu was so happy and relieved to see the arrival of the keepers and followed behind the front vehicle all the way home, with another vehicle bringing up the rear. She was found very far away between the Mzima-Mombasa water pipe-line, and was heading in the direction of the Voi Safari Lodge. Embu clearly recovered new energy upon seeing the keepers rescue team, she was exuberant, and walked back to the stockade with great energy. The vet was called to treat her wounds and giving her the necessary antibiotics and medication. She was put in the holding stables in the company of Araba to recuperate for the night, with the other orphans coming to touch her between her between the stockade to communicate and check that she was okay, relieved to have her back!

28 June 2016

The orphans came out of their stables this morning and surrounded Embu touching her wounds and feeling her with their trunks as if enquiring where she had been the last two days. Embu looked assured that all was well and was in high spirits now that she was in the safety of the stockade and her orphan and human family as well. She is even walking okay without any sign of a limp, even leading the others out to browse for the day. All the stockade dependant orphans felt very happy that Embu was back, and this was equally revealed in the happy games at the water hole that afternoon. Embu plunged into the water like everyone else, with Kihari, Kenia, Ishaq-B, Tundani, Bada and Mbirikani celebrating in a bathing spree. They then all came out of water with Mashariki welcoming them for a dusting game, before moving on with their final browsing session of this day.

29 June 2016

It was a fantastic morning with the orphan elephants coming out of their stables to empty a morning milk bottle and settle down to play games after feeding on the copra cake piles. They had some amazing games on the soil piles lying and rolling on them before heading out to the browsing grounds. Embu came to the stockade water trough spraying her wounds with water and some of the healing clay we had applied fell away. The keepers put some more on her wounds to boost the healing process. Rorogoi browsed closely with Embu throughout the day, clearly comforting her friend and glad to have her back in the fold. The orphans then visited the middle water hole, with Embu smearing mud on her wounds before coming out for a final browsing session of the day.

30 June 2016

The morning was beautifully bright with the orphan elephants coming out of their stables in a happy mood drinking a morning milk bottle before playing on the piles of soil in the stockade compound. After this wonderful game, Lentili and Naipoki took the lead of taking the others towards the browsing grounds. Later in the day, Embu was seen comfortably heading to the front and taking the lead of all others whilst they moved and browsed. In the afternoon, Rorogoi sneaked ahead and stayed well in front of the others as they moved towards the middle water hole for an afternoon milk bottle. The orphans then came across a big wild elephant herd that had just finished drinking water and they socialized with them nicely; however the union was very brief mainly focused on a greeting, before the wild herd left leaving the orphans still quenching their thirst. The rest of the day went on peacefully well, close to that water hole, before they left for the stockades that evening under the leadership of Suswa.