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The first day of the third month of the year and all the orphans walked out of their stockades in a happy mood. The big females Ukame, Mbegu, Maramoja with the young girls Godoma, Sana Sana, Tagwa, Malkia, Esampu, Kuishi, Malima and tiny Tamiyoi were all busy welcoming the three little babies Musiara, Chumvi and Enkesha with the bad trunk. Mbegu, Godoma and Ukame were all struggling between them to be the one to take little Chumvi off into the forest, but the little one was presenting a challenge to them as he kept running back to his keeper. Seeing that he was not going to follow them anytime soon, Ukame and Mbegu decided to go over to Enkesha instead, leaving Godoma still vying for Chumvi’s attention. When he kept ignoring her preferring to suckle on his keepers fingers, she walked off and yelled in protest, but soon settled next to little Musiara . These days Kiko is showing less interest in spending his day out in the forest with the elephants like he used to. Today when he came out of his stockade, he only walked as far as the end of Maxwell’s stockade and just watched the warthogs who were grazing in the bushes there. His keeper tried to lead him out with a milk bottle but he only drank it and returned back to the stockade area! From there he walked from one stockade to the next, peering inside; what he was looking for we were not sure.

During the public visit today the orphans were enjoying their mud bath when some warthogs arrived and went into the mud to cool down from the hot sun. Their presence prompted little Malima, Jotto and Esampu to run out of the mud pool in fright, although this proved tricky for little Malima and Jotto as the sides of the mud pool were sticky and wet. It was too slippery for them to get out quickly! The two young ones started yelling in protest at being unable to get out since they had watched Esampu exit with no trouble! Sana Sana and Malkia who were not shaken when the warthogs came in, attempted to charge at them, but this proved very difficult in the thick mud. They trumpeted, trying to reinforce the charge, but the warthogs were very hot and reluctant to move. This reaction now saw Godoma confidently enter the mud hole and start spinning around, splashing mud everywhere and forcing the warthogs out of the mud pool. Sana Sana and Malkia then began a chase after the warthogs, forcing them to disappear into the bushes. When the orphans went back to the mud pool, the warthogs tried to come in again but Sana Sana spotted them and ran out of the mud pool to chase them back into the bushes. She started trumpeting and bashing around, which drew the attention of the entire herd and they all ended up running off into the bushes a few minutes before it was their scheduled time to leave!

As the orphans approached the forest this morning, they were in a playful mood. Some were spotted playfully bashing down the bushes and trumpeting and bumping into one another. Little ones like Tamiyoi, Jotto, Malima, Esampu and Ambo couldn’t really trumpet as they are too small, although they were trying! After such a lovely start to the day, it turned into a long day as we had reports of two orphans that needed rescuing – one from the Tsavo Conservation area and the other from Baringo County. The calf had got stuck in a waterhole along the Mzima-Mombasa pipeline and was rescued by the Voi unit. He was under a month old and called Bahati after being so ‘lucky’ to be found! The other from Baringo was found fallen down a gulley by KWS personnel and they could not locate the mother anywhere. It was also a male under 1 month old and seemed in good health apart for some bruises. He was called Baringo. The new elephant calves both arrived at the Nairobi Nursery in relative health and responding well to the milk formula.

The two new babies spent a peaceful night in their new surroundings and were happy in the company of the keepers; their new surrogate mothers for the next few years. In the morning they woke up fine and were happy to join Musiara, Chumvi and Enkesha – though Musiara and Enkesha were jealous of them to begin with after seeing how much attention they were getting from the keepers. They kept trying to push the new arrivals, but that matter was soon sorted with some more hanging blankets which provided a motherly figure. Mbegu, Godoma, Malkia, Maramoja, Malima, Sana Sana, Tagwa and Esampu were seen milling around with Baringo and Bahati, touching and embracing them and trying to mother them as best they could. The babies were confused who to attach themselves too with so much attention, so just milled amongst the whole group. Enkesha went to her first public visiting time today in the company of Luggard who had gone for some days without attending that visit either. Upon arriving at the mud bath they immediately drank their milk and were the first ones to walk to the mud pool – they really enjoyed their mud bath, especially Luggard who loves it so much and had missed it over the past few days. Enkesha proved to love the mud as well as she only came out when it was time to leave the area – she was reluctant to leave and the keepers had to keep calling her, as she wanted to spend longer in the nice mud.

Young Enkesha is doing so well and as soon as she comes out of her stockade she looks for a finger to suckle on, or another milk bottle to enjoy! She is very greedy over her milk and will always yell and remain restless until she has had it. Today as she came out of her stockade, yelling for her milk as usual as she was following along behind Esampu, naughty Esampu turned around and pushed her, though she was quickly reprimanded by the keepers and ran away. Godoma heard the shouting and came back to investigate what was going on. During the public visit Enkesha walked in yelling as Jotto, Tamiyoi and Malima ran past her speeding towards their milk bottles. She took her milk bottle whilst she was still yelling! As the last group arrived for their milk bottles she was walking around looking restless and looking for more milk bottles. She was still shouting which annoyed Esampu who drove her into the mud pool; once in the mud amazingly she settled down and was quite happy playing in the mud!

As the orphans were heading out deeper into the forest today, Ukame, Kelelari, Karisa, Maramoja, Galla and Wanjala encountered a herd of giraffes and their young. When the young giraffes turned and ran back towards their mothers, the orphan elephants also got a fright and turned to run back towards their keepers. The noise they made caused the giraffes to all take off at once and this promoted the entire orphan herd to run into the bushes bellowing for the little ones to come to them. We watched as Godoma took the smaller group into the bushes near the stockade whilst Mbegu and the older, big individuals held themselves next to the keepers. Godoma was wise enough to take her group to near where the little babies were and upon arriving there she, Sana Sana and Esampu rumbled to the little ones. Their rumbling and greeting caused Mbegu, Ukame, Dupotto, Maramoja and Kelelari to come running over, trumpeting and stamping their feet. The big females were busy checking over the little babies but baby Baringo took a shine to Pare and was running after him, and it was funny to watch Pare running away from him, yelling, not wanting the baby to follow him! His reaction made Malkia come over and keep Baringo from following Pare. Thus Pare was able to walk away and avoid interacting with the little babies which he doesn’t seem to be interested in. Karisa, Galla, Wanjala and Kelelari also walked away and avoided the baby interaction!

During the public visit today, soon after the first group of orphans had finished their milk bottles, some were drinking water from the water troughs and others were standing together wondering what to do next. Esampu and Ambo were tussling with each other over who could suck the milk from the empty bottles lying on the ground. Esampu got hold of Ambo’s tail and pulled him away from the wheelbarrow where the empty bottles were. Ambo turned to head butt her Esampu grabbed his forelegs with her trunk leaving him unable to do so – he yelled in protest and the keepers came over to intervene and separate them. They ran back to each other ready to start pushing each other again when Esampu saw the wheelbarrow being wheeled away and quickly ran after it. She was unlucky though as by the time she reach it, the keeper has already taken it to the other side of the rope cordon. Esampu was so annoyed she turned and took her frustration out on Malima by pushing her, but when she was cautioned she settled in the mud wallow where she then started playing spinning games and scratching herself on the sides of the mud bath, forgetting all about the lost milk!

Out of all of the babies, the older girls seem to like Musiara the most. Whenever he screams or complains about something, Esampu, Malkia, the little Malima and Mbegu all run over to him to find out what is troubling him. Musiara is known to hang at the back of the baby group when they head out in the morning and today as well he was left a few paces behind Chumvi, Bahati and Baringo. He came around a corner and couldn’t see his friends and the keepers who were a few paces in front in the bushes. He started yelling and looking for the path that his friends had taken. Mbegu heard him from a distance and together with a team of young girls including Esampu, Malima and Malkia she came running and calling trying to find where Musiara was and why he was shouting. Along their way they came across a warthog and her piglets and Esampu drove them away into the bushes. The other three went directly to Musiara and Mbegu pulled the little boy under her neck to comfort him, as Malkia and Malima stood on both sides. They later led him to where the other little ones were and spent some time with the babies, before re-joining the main herd.

The playful boy Ngilai must have been dreaming about Maxwell the rhino over night as when he came out in the morning he ran straight over to his stockade gate. He wanted to have some fun with him, but Max was still sleeping beside his gate. Ngilai did not give up though and started pushing and pulling on the gate, making a lot of noise. Max got up and started playing the game, knocking on the gate with his horn – he then got really excited and started running up and down and around in circles as well, encouraging Ngilai to do the same. The game didn’t last too long though as Ngilai saw Enkesha coming out of her stockade and rumbling as she always does, to alert everyone she is out and on her way to the forest. Ngilai went running over to her and put his trunk on her back, ready to try and climb on her. Luckily however, Godoma was waiting for Enkesha nearby and she chased after Ngilai, sending him back in the direction he had come from. Ngilai managed to dodge Godoma’s charge though and made his own way into the forest. Little baby Musiara always falls asleep under the trees when he is avoiding the scorching sun. Today it seems he had a bad dream as he woke up suddenly yelling out, and it was Godoma and Ndotto who came to his rescue. They both charged over with the trunks and ears held high but when they arrived, Musiara has already made his way to his keepers. Godoma seems to know and understand each baby’s voice as she led Ndotto straight to Musiara, and after finding that he was okay, they walked back to join the rest of their group. Last night we rescued a new baby from Voi area in Tsavo called Satao. With the arrival of this baby Esampu was moved to a bigger stockade to make room for the new baby, but when it came time to return home in the evening to the night stockades, Esampu did not want to go into her new room. She fought hard to get back into her usual room which forced the keepers to swap her with Godoma.

Despite the hot weather, it was only Malima and Tamiyoi in the first young group that decided to go into the mud wallow, the others kept themselves bust browsing on the greens. When Malima was finished mud bathing, she decided to keep messing around and engaged Jotto in a pushing and wrestling game. It went on for some time and only ended with Ngilai came over to join them. Malima tried to avoid the rough boy who was quite strong, and was the first one to walk away, followed by Jotto. Whilst she was being fed today, Esampu kept raising her ears and trying to push and charge at the keeper that was attending to her. Sana Sana was just standing nearby, watching her bad behaviour. When Esampu had finished her last bottle of milk, Sana Sana came over to push her away – she took ger right away into the mud bath and forced her to wallow there, even if she was not yet prepared for one! She wanted to keep her out of trouble. When the second group arrived for mud bath, again there were only two that decided to go into mud and that was Mbegu and Rapa. They stayed in the mud from the beginning up until the end of their feeding time there. Ndotto and his friend Lasayen enjoyed a wrestling game from start to finish as well! In the afternoon we received a call that there was an orphan found all alone in the Irima area near Voi in Tsavo. A team of keepers prepared for the rescue mission and left as soon as possible, and by 6pm they were back at the nursery with a little girl that was nearly 1 year old. She was names Ndiwa and the poor girl was very skinny and dehydrated, proving that she had been without her mother for some time. It took her some time to settle and she was charging around, but in the night she took some milk from a bucket placed in front of her stockade. With lots of fresh vegetation provided for her in her stockade, she fed very well throughout the night and Kuishi, who was her naighbour, helped her settle down as well.

The little boy who arrived yesterday who we have named Takaywa, has already attached himself to his new human family. When babies Bahati and Baringo came out of their stables this morning to welcome him, he didn’t seem to pay any attention to them, though they are still too young to understand. Baringo seems to have realised however that Takaywa is new in the Nursery and tried to approach him, but the new baby didn’t want anything to do with him and looked to his Keepers, following them wherever they went. This afternoon Enkesha was running all over the forest to and fro and we were not quite sure why. Suddenly she just ran off and the keepers thought she was still there, but when they looked behind the bushes she was not there and she had truly run off. She must have wanted a mud bath! As within a few minute she was found down at the mud hole enjoying wallowing with Mteto and Malima. Malima was in the mud pool too, whilst Mteto was standing on the edge of the mud bath watching them. They were escorted back to the forest until the 3pm private visit when they returned for the proper mud bathing session. After the 3pm visit Malkia and Esampu were taken to meet baby Takaywa for the first time and they didn’t want to leave his side until they were escorted back to their herd to return home later in the afternoon.

We has quite a surprise today when one of the big elephants was seen running all over the place, ears high and alert, stomping and flattening all the grass and bushes and trumpeting in real excitement. No one was really interested in joining her game as they were all crowded together in the same thicket enjoying some browse, and when she came close to the keepers they realized it was Ukame! It was a real surprise to find Ukame in this kind of mood as she is not usually this excitable. Perhaps every once in a while but she is never the one to initiate this kind of game, normally she is following someone else. Ambo was the first one to join her and assisted her in driving away the warthogs that had come close too close to the herd. Rapa and Wanjala quickly followed suit! This happy moment really reach its momentum when the professor of trumpeting, Esampu, joined the choir however. Her trumpeting is so loud. It was only those that had gone to see the little babies, Mbegu, Pare, Mteto, Sana Sana and Malkia who were left out of the game. All the rest enjoyed the trumpeting and game at length –with today’s architect being the unlikely Ukame! After all the noise and running around, Galla with his friend Wanjala joined engaged Ndotto in a wrestling game. The experienced Ndotto tackled both of them with all of his pushing knowledge, shoving one away and then the other. They took lots of time playing, before settling back to feed. With all the poor new babies we have received recently, there have been lots of changes to the orphans night rooms. When Takaywa came in Malima gave up her stable to him and she was promoted to a bigger stockade. Her first and second night were fine, but this evening she fought so hard, wanting to get into her old stable. Wanjala and Ukame were also moved rooms to the other side of Maxwell’s stockade, and they have been giving the keepers a hard time about entering those as well. Ngilai and Pare have had no complaints about their new rooms – which belonged to Ukame and Wanjala before!