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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!

After Jotto, Ambo and Mapia were moved to be in the older group with the big girls like Shukuru, Ndiwa, Sana Sana, Sagala, Malkia, Tagwa and Kuishi, the first group seems to be very peaceful and there is no one to bully the youngsters, especially during the public visit. Maisha and Malima are now all happy and playful and able to run about without the worry of one of the bullish older orphans to stop them. Today during the public visit Malima was especially playful, rolling around in the loose soil and striking all sorts of poses. Suddenly she got up and started running along the rope cordon, playfully bumping into the visitors with her ears spread wide, with the keepers running after her. When she noticed the keepers coming after her she did a u-turn and went back to playing on the soil, but when she saw the keepers moving away again she quickly got up and went back to running along the cordon! She was very funny and seemed to steal the visiting public’s attention today.

When Kiko walked out to the forest to catch up with the elephants, none of the elephant babies were interested in his company and they all started walking away from him; all a part from Musiara who kept trying to charge at Kiko whenever he walked towards him. Kiko seems to have noticed the absence of the older orphans who used to charge and chase him away. He is not very concerned with what tiny Musiara tries to do, so he is trying to spend more time with the elephants now that the older orphans have gone. Shukuru was accompanied by Ndiwa, Sagala and Kuishi today. At one stage Shukuru felt the need to discipline Kuishi however, when she tried to take Sagala’s vegetation she was eating. During the public visit today it seemed as if Emoli and Maktao were on guard duty. They pretended to be having a pushing game when in fact they were keeping an eye on the warthogs close by. Any warthog that wandered too close was charged at and driven away from the area.

The loading and journey for Shukuru to Umani went smoothly this morning and was a success. It started around 2am with the preparation of everything inside the lorry for the journey; extra milk, extra lucerne pellets the elephants love so much and extra vegetation for her to browse on the way as well. Despite all her familiarization with the lorry, Shukuru was a little hesitant at first, but then she was fine and on the lorry within 15 minutes. By 2.30am the lorry was on the road and Shukuru had left the Nursery once more, destined for a ‘third’ attempt of returning to the wild once more. Tamiyoi seemed a little unsettled as Shukuru was being loaded and kept yelling out. Jotto, Tagwa and Malkia rumbled in response and tried to reassure her but Tamiyoi remained uncomfortable. Kuishi also realized Shukuru’s absence when the lorry left, and was so upset until it was time for them to go out into the forest in the morning. Out in the forest though the orphans calmed down and seemed to relax in the presence of their keepers. They went back to browsing and playing, and, one day too they will all understand in turn why the older orphans leave eventually one day.

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!

The two ‘big boys’ in the Nursery at the moment, Jotto and Ambo, were playing a pushing game after the 9am milk feed. Ambo was determined to win the game, and pushed Jotto hard against a nearby tree. In revenge, Jotto grabbed Ambo’s leg with his trunk, almost causing his opponent to fall over. Malima decided to join the game by biting Jotto’s tail! Jotto yelled his complaint and turned to face his female opponent for revenge. Tamiyoi now intervened to assist Jotto, her long-time friend, before Kuishi interrupted the entire game by lying on the ground in the middle of the sparring babies to dust herself. Malima decided to exit the game and dust herself as well, as Jotto and Tamiyoi lay next to Kuishi to join in too. Sattao and Maktao came running over to enjoy the dusting session, as Kiasa scratched her belly against a tree that was nearby.

As the sun rose slowly warming the ground after a long night it also slowly warmed the elephant babies as they made their way through the forest slowly browsing. Kuishi took the opportunity to warm herself, lying on some open ground next to where the keepers were seated enjoying their breakfast. At one stage she threw a whole chunk of soil over herself so vigorously that some went into the keepers tea cups, so they moved so the little girl could enjoy her dusting game, and their breakfast would not get ruined either. Musiara then joined Kuishi who had spread her legs out with her tummy in the air so she could fully enjoy the morning sun. The little boy copied her and lay down on the warm ground with his trunk curled and his eyes closed. Little boy Luggard decided to join them too, and by that stage Musiara was resting his tiny trunk on Kuishi’s head. Maktao and Kiasa joined the sleeping group, taking up position next to Musiara. Their peaceful slumber in the sun was brought to an abrupt end however when baboons came running through making a lot of noise, waking the sleeping babies up with a start. They got up to run to the keepers and the other orphans for safety, and then the whole group moved off to browse again.