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After just a few days of training, Mundusi, Mteto and Esampu woke up early this morning and walked onto the lorry with no trouble, to begin their journey to Ithumba in Tsavo East and the next chapter of their lives. It was a very smooth loading process and they were on their way in no time at all. Today some of the orphans like Ndiwa, Sana Sana and Sagala, who used to sneak away into the bushes with them, seemed to miss them. None of them wanted to walk away from the herd and they stayed with the main group all day! Once or twice Ndiwa and Sagala looked like they were about to walk away from the group, but they got scared and ran back to the herd and stuck close to the keepers. Even Shukuru who used to walk off deep into the forest during the day has not done so recently, since the other older orphans in Mbegu’s group left for Voi. She likes to stay close to the herd, although still browses to the side as she is not one to mother the babies very much.

Just days after the naughty elephants Mundusi, Mteto and Esampu left for Tsavo and already some of the characters of the other elephants have come shining through. The past couple of days Kuishi, Jotto and Emoli have all been at the forefront, having been bullied by the likes of Esampu and Mteto before, they are now trying to announce themselves in the family herd. Kuishi has been a bit of a bully towards the youngsters and Emoli has been doing the same with the other bulls. Jotto is usually a sweet little boy but even he has been initiating plenty of wrestling matches between Ambo, Mapia and Emoli, trying to show off as the strongest bull. He is enjoying this new found confidence with the bigger boys having moved to Tsavo, paving the way for him to show off his strength. There are not too many other bulls left to challenge him!

When the orphans had settled out to browse in the forest in the early morning, Ambo, Tamiyoi and Enkesha were all spotted enjoying a playful moment as Ambo chased after the two girls. The two girls were too clever for Ambo and when he was busy chasing after one, the other would run up behind him and playfully head-butt him, prompting him to turn and chase the other… and so it went on until Ambo became very confused over which one to chase, and gave up and just lay down on the ground so the other two girls could climb on him. During the public visit today it was Maisha who was acting like the little show-off today! She was running up and down the rope cordon enjoying bumping into the public and also kicking some of the bags that were placed on the ground. She trumpeted at the visitors trying to scare them and also trying to rally some of her friends into joining her, but none of them wanted to join in her game. With Esampu in Tsavo now and Jotto and Ambo in the second group (not in the first as she is) she can run frolic and run about and show off to her hearts content, as there is no one to bully her or bring her down a notch!

Shukuru’s training to enter the elephant moving lorry has been the easiest out of all the orphans that have been moved recently. Angela has decided that it is time for her to be with older orphans again, as she is looking dull and lonely without their company. She has decided that the best place for Shukuru to be is in the easy habitat of Umani Springs, where she will never have to walk far to find water and vegetation to eat. Today was to be her last day in the Nursery, as well as the last chance to familiarize her with the lorry that would take her to the Umani stockades very early tomorrow morning. For the 9am milk feed she was escorted back to the stockades to have her milk bottles in the lorry with Tagwa. It went very smoothly and since she went in so well, it was decided there was no need to familiarize her with the noon feed as well. At 3pm it was Malkia’s turn to escort her and all went okay again. It has been very cold in Nairobi over the past few days and none of the orphans have felt like mud bathing at all. Today however the three girls Sana Sana, Malkia and Tagwa decided to take advantage of the afternoon sunshine and have some fun in the mud. There is a lot of stagnant water around from the recent rains still. Tagwa was the first to go down on the ground and prepare a nice muddy patch, for the others to join her later. As they rolled in the mud, Shukuru was watching closely. The whole day she stayed with the herd and didn’t wander away as she usually does. When it was time for bed in the evening, Mapia was racing Kiasa down and the little girl managed to beat Mapia. Sagala is taking a while to get to know her new stockade that belonged to Esampu before. Since the older orphans moved to Tsavo, some of the orphans have changed rooms to keep them altogether better. Sagala is still causing trouble in the evening trying to go into her old room, but she will get used to the new one soon.

With Shukuru having gone back to Tsavo it seems Ndiwa has taken over her shoes. She likes to wander off during the day and browse on her own, and today the Keepers had a hard time following her as she chose to walk deeper into the forest. There was chaos during the public visiting time today as Kiasa, who seems to be working hard to fill Esampu’s shoes as the naughty girl in the Nursery, was trying to take an extra milk bottle from Sattao. She was bullying Sattao and in the process the keeper feeding him dropped his bottle spilling some of the milk on the ground, until another keeper came over and managed to chase the naughty girl away. Malkia wanted some extra milk too, but she did it by sucking up the extra milk in the wheelbarrow with her trunk, as Sagala tried to suck on the empty bottles. Jotto was being very funny trying to scratch his tummy on one of the water troughs, bending his legs in such a way as to reach the right spot. Sana Sana slowly got into the mud bath, spraying herself with muddy water to cool her body, and then Kuishi joined her too. Maisha was only preferred to spray herself from the side of the mud pool using her trunk, but she managed to spray some of the unsuspecting visitors behind her too!