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This morning the big girls were busy greeting and checking over the young ones Musiara and Sattao whilst almost all the boys, including Jotto and Ambo, were seen to be in a playful mood engaged in pushing games as they walked out and approached the forest. Jotto was playing with Ambo, Galla was taking on Wanjala, Pare was with Rapa, Lasayen with Ngilai and Murit was playing with his best play-mate, Luggard. Ndotto as usual had picked the biggest boy to play with and was messing around with, Kauro. Whilst the others settled in the forest the browse, all the bulls in the nursery were scampering about the bushes and trumpeting in excitement. Ambo and Jotto’s game was being watched by Tamiyoi and Malima and after a short while they wanted to join in. Tamiyoi took on Jotto and Malima Ambo, but when Esampu came over to join is as well it proved too many and the game came to an end.

Although Esampu is naughty and sometimes a bully she still has an inner caring heart; she loves to care and protect for the little babies like Musiara and Sattao. Today as soon as the baby orphans had settled out in the forest with the other orphans, Esampu was seen shoulder to shoulder with Musiara, sandwiching him between herself and the matriarch Mbegu - neither of them wanted him to walk away from them! Esampu tried to pull him away and all he wanted to do was stick close to Mbegu. Eventually Musiara shouted out in protest against Esampu and Mbegu warned her away with a pointed trunk, and Esampu then shouted out in protest too! The yelling of Esampu and Musiara saw another caring baby in the form of Malkia approach, who came to check what the cause of the yelling was. When she found Mbegu right there she knew she needn’t enquire any further; she only checked on Musiara and went to settle next to Tagwa and Sattao who were enjoying a soil dust bath. Little quiet Tagwa is another figure who is starting to like hanging out with the babies. Early in the morning today Ukame, Wanjala and Galla successfully left for the Ithumba Stockades where they will be slowly reintroduced to the wild over a number of years; we are so happy that they are beginning this next step towards returning to a wild life.

Out in the bush this morning the orphan herd, under the care and leadership of Mbegu, looked calm and composed. The likes of Mbegu, Maramoja, Pare, Lasayen, Rapa, Ndiwa and Mundusi looked bored and sad as they seemed to miss the company of the older orphans Ukame, Wanjala and Galla who left yesterday for the reintroduction unit in Tsavo East National Park. They all browsed close to their keepers and none wanted to walk off very far from the group, as they used to do in the company of the older orphans. During the public visit today, soon after the first group had settled down after their milk bottle, some settled to soil dust and roll around on the dusty ground whilst Esampu and Kuishi were busy chasing after a football. Esampu would run after the ball and try to kick it but more often than not would miss and fall on it. Kuishi would then take advantage of her having fallen on the ball to clamber on top of her. This annoyed Esampu and she got up and head butted her hard to dissuade her from doing it again, but Kuishi didn’t pay attention and every time Esampu fell over the ball she tried to climb on top of her again! This was all very funny for the visiting public and keepers to watch.

This morning during the public visiting time after the first group had finished their milk bottles, Esampu was being a naughty girl and bulling little Kuishi who was trying to drink water from the water trough. Kuishi showed Esampu some respect by turning her back on her, but Esampu just started to head butt her from behind. She then pushed Kuishi so hard she fell into the mud pool, which really surprised the visiting public as they could not believe Esampu would be so naughty.

Mteto is becoming more of a bully towards her friends these days and it seems she hasn’t understood that it is important to care for one another in a family herd yet. She is naughty even with the little ones Musiara and Sattao and Luggard as well. She seems to especially not like Luggard for some reason and seems to push him every time she comes across him. The keepers therefore keep a close eye on him as he cannot afford to be pushed around with his bad leg. Jotto is a very friendly boy on the other hand, to his friends and to the keepers as well. He has a similar character to Ndotto and wants to be friends with everyone. He enjoys making others happy as well, even when they are not in the mood. After having his milk at the public visiting time today, he went to get some water from one of the water troughs. Esampu was at the same water trough and when she saw him approaching she changed her position to block her from getting to the water. She knew he was coming to drink as they usually do after having finished their milk, and it took Godoma’s intervention to assist Jotto in accessing the water. She stepped in and pushed Esampu aside so that Jotto could have some as well. Rapa was also behaving in the same way, by blocking Pare from accessing the water trough during the second groups milk feeding. Musiara loves the mud bath at the moment and gets in it all the time. Yesterday Mbegu ran into the mud pool when Musiara went under the surface to completely submerge himself and today it was Godoma’s turn to get into the mud bath with him during the private visiting time, to protect and care for the little one and make sure no bullies came to bother him. He had decided to jump into the mud pool by himself again but when Godoma saw Rapa getting in she also decided to enter to assist him.

Sopat is the name of the orphan who arrived on the evening of the 6th and he was moved into a stable since he is very weak and needs to be watched all the time, plus it is warmer in the stables. Tamiyoi was very happy when she came back from the forest that evening and had a new neighbour. She was very welcoming compared to Mteto and throughout the night they communicated through the space between their rooms. Sopat was not happy when Tamiyoi left her stockade this morning to head out to the forest and rolled around on the ground and pushed his head into the hay with low rumbling tones. Nothing could be done however as he is still too weak to join the others out in the forest. The orphans were very happy out in the forest this morning and were running around in excitement. Esampu led Malkia, Godoma, Sana Sana, Tagwa and Malima all around, but their happy time came to an end when the milk arrived. This morning Kiko had an unexpected visitor in the stockade compound when a wild female giraffe came over. After watching her for a long time he decided to go and hide in another stockade on the other side of the compound!

As all of the orphans settled out in the forest today and were busy browsing, we watched as both Tagwa and Maramoja, who had previously shown less interest in taking care of the young babies unlike Godoma, Mbegu, Esampu, Kuishi, Tamiyoi and Malima, very much attach themselves to the little ones. They even tried to fight off Esampu, Tamiyoi and Kuishi when they tried to approach the two little boys. Later in the day all the caring girls including Malkia, Tagwa and Maramoja were all spotted with the little boys – we have never seen so many protective females around the babies at once!

Solio visited in the early morning this morning which was nice for our orphan rhino Maxwell. He enjoyed a warm greeting from Solio through the bars of his stockade as they smelt each other and after they tried to play and lock horns. This went on for almost 20 minutes! Maxwell was seen to be so happy and excited that Solio had joined them that morning as they grew up together in the nursery, although Maxwell was always kept in his stockade unlike Solio who was allowed to walk out into the forest and come back in the evening like the elephants; Maxwell’s blindness made this a bit more difficult as he got older. When Maxwell got tired of their games and went to rest in his mud pool, Solio got bored and went to enjoy some lucerne grass that was provided for her by the keepers. As the compound got busier in the morning Solio didn’t seem to like all the activity and left to go back into the National Park. Enkesha is doing so well at the moment and is so friendly with everyone. She often browses with Tagwa and Esampu too when she is in a friendly mood!

The orphans appeared to be in a very happy mood when they came out of their pens this morning and they were engaged in all different games. Jotto normally plays with Tamiyoi but today instead he chose to play with Malima who also enjoys his type of pushing game. They enjoyed their game for some time and we were surprised to see Murit and Rapa also playing. They have very different personalities and more often than not Murit will try to avoid Rapa when it comes to playing. Today Murit seemed to have found a way of tackling the naughty boy and they were engaged in a lengthy wrestling game. Brave boy Murit had the advantage of tackling Rapa due to his long tusks although Rapa is stronger than him, as these are to be respected amongst elephants. The wild giraffes that can be found all over the Nairobi National Park seem to be wondering what happened to Kiko after they saw him the other day. He had not been out into the forest for a couple of days, so two wild female giraffes paid him a visit in the stockade compound. They walked in swiftly without Kiko even noticing their presence until they were close to him. When they were but 5m from him he noticed them on the other side of the pole barrier that keeps him in the compound area and he watched them for some time, before deciding to run off and hide in one of the stockades. They waited there hoping for Kiko to return but they left when he did not return. Esampu is becoming quite the handful during public visiting. She has a new habit of always going into the mud pool and then coming out to run along the rope cordon kicking and putting mud on the visitors there. She gets even more excited when there are school children there too; she was very hard to control during today’s visiting!

It was a very dull and cold morning when the orphans went out into the forest this morning as a result from the rain last night. Most of the orphans were slowly browsing and it was only Lasayen and Murit who seems to be in a playing mood. The two engaged each other in a strength wrestling game, even though Lasayen didn’t show much interest in continuing the game. Tagwa is still showing interest in taking care of the little babies and perhaps this has been partly due to Malkia’s influence. Tagwa is almost the same age as her and they are together most of the time. Because of her influence the others like Kuishi, Esampu and even little Malima want to care and protect the little ones too. Today Tagwa chose to be with Malkia whenever she went to find little Musiara and Sattao. During the public visit today the polite boy Ambo was dusting himself on a heap of loose soil in the middle of the group and the cheeky girl Esampu came over and pushed him! Ambo didn’t take this lightly and started pushing her back and then they started fighting. His friend Jotto was meanwhile sizing up with Malima but Esampu went over and pushed Jotto. When Ambo saw that he came running over with his ears raised high ready to engage her but Esampu stood ready to challenge him and by the time they reached each other Jotto and Malima were also there to help put Esampu in her place. The trio jointly disciplined Esampu properly and drove her away from the group.

Musiara is so comfortable in the presence of Mbegu, the herd’s matriarch, and the other young girls in the herd. Most of his time today, especially during the early morning hours, was spent staying in the bushes surrounded by his older friends. Today was also a day of fun for the babies at the mud bath area. During the public visit as well the orphans had great fun in the fresh, loose soil which had been delivered in the morning. Most of the orphans in the first group tested the temperature of the water and found it too cold and they walked away without taking a bath. Esampu was one of the first to test the water, followed by Tamiyoi who tested it and walked away for a soil dusting instead. Murit dipped his trunk in whilst standing on the edge but after feeling the temperature he walked away too. However water-loving Malima doesn’t even believe in testing the water and she jumped into the mud pool straight away and started having a bath. Murit came over and spent a few minutes deciding on whether to get in or not and eventually followed suit and started having fun. Esampu, Ambo and Tamiyoi decided not to be left out and were busy playing with the football in the mud. Only Ndotto, Tagwa and Kauro from the second group decided not to go into the mud but all the others had a lot of fun until the end of the visiting time when it was time to return to the forest.

It seems to be the start of our ‘winter’ judging from today’s weather! It was a cold, foggy and drizzly morning today and very misty when the orphans came out of their stockades. The weather has been getting colder every day and today it seems to be the coldest! Because of the cold weather the babies Musiara and Sattao and even Luggard have been staying in their stockades for longer in the morning. Because of this Mbegu, Tagwa, Malkia have been making several trips back to the stockades. By the third time and this time with Pare in tow, the keepers finally realised it was because the babies were still in the compound. This time Mbegu went straight up to Musiara’s stockade and gave a low rumble to which Musiara responded by yelling, attracting Tagwa and Malkia to run to his door as well. They tried to push it open but in vain. There was no other option that to give the babies an extra blanket each and allow them out into the forest with the other orphans and they came out full of joy, walking alongside the older ones to the forest. Esampu was a naughty girl at the public visit today. After drinking her milk bottles she went on head butting everyone starting with Ambo who pushed her back. She proceeded on to knock Tamiyoi, Malima, Jotto, Kuishi and finally Enkesha who she pushed through the rope cordon and into the crowd. It was hard for the keepers to control her as she was clearly in a very bad mood. As they consoled one orphan she moved on to the next one! The keepers had to take her to the edge of the group and keep her there while she calmed down.

Malima is quite a strange little girl with her love for mud! It’s natural for elephants to use mud to cool their bodies and sometimes for fun too. At 9am this morning the elephants drank their milk in the mud bath area. As it was morning and still a bit chilly, none of the orphans were expected the mud bathe but this young girl surprised everyone by jumping into the mud pool as soon as she had finished her milk bottles. She started wallowing and kicking the football up and down in the mud throughout the entire time the orphans were there, about half an hour! By 11am she was still in the same happy and playful mood. She engaged Ambo in a lengthy pushing and dusting game which was so funny to watch as they raised their ears up wide whilst playing and kicked up a lot of dust! Today Esampu was in a better mood and with the presence of so many school children she behaved well. Most of the orphans still tried to avoid her whenever she approached them. It seems to be the norm though that whenever she is about to cause problems, she will engage Ambo first. Apart from Luggard who tried to push her back when she went to him, Ambo and the others walked away from her. She stayed calm throughout the entire visit today, walking along the rope cordon paying no attention to the crowd. At one point she even assisted Tamiyoi in babysitting the little ones Musiara and Sattao.