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Tamiyoi, Ambo, Malima and Maisha are always very eager to have their Lucerne pellets in the early hours of the morning. Unlike many of the other orphans, they do not stop to greet each other but quickly head over to the store where the Lucerne pellets are kept and then squeeze their trunks through the wooden bars to grab as many of the fallen pellets as they can. It is always entertaining watching them push each other around so that one can get more pellets than the other. Maisha, however, doesn’t enjoy the pushing games and often misses out on the first few pellets so she ends up trumpeting very loudly in protest giving Tamiyoi, Ambo, and Malima a big fright causing them to jump away from the store. It is then that Maisha takes advantage and grabs as many pellets before the others come back. 

Lately, Malima has become quite the caretaker and seems to have adopted young Larro as her adopted baby. In the morning, when the orphans come out of their stables Malima can be seen looking out for Larro, waiting to escort her out into the field. Today, when the first group of orphans was getting ready to head down for their midday bottle of milk, the Keepers struggled to keep Malima back as she continuously tried to follow Larro down. 

Mapia and Mukkoka seem to have similar characters in that they are both very vocal when it comes to getting their bottles of milk. If either of them struggle to overtake their peers they begin to trumpet loudly, and if their bottles aren’t ready when they get to the milk feeding area they trumpet even louder. Due to this, they have now developed a habit of trumpeting loudly as they are running for their milk bottles, alerting the Keepers and their peers that they are on their way.

During her midday feed, Enkesha seems to always enjoy drinking water straight out the hose pipe. Today, Emoli tried to share this water with her but Enkesha protested by charging the young bull and pushing him away. Whilst Emoli and Enkesha were busy disagreeing, Maisha managed to grab the hose but only for a brief second as Enkesha quickly came charging back. 

Malima, who can often be quite naughty and playful, is still very protective and motherly over Larro. This afternoon, whilst in the forest, Larro began to trumpet loudly, as she often would without just cause. Malima immediately came rushing over to see what had happened and to protect her adopted baby by pushing and kicking any of the orphans that were around her before taking her away.  

Sattao appears to be a brave and gentle young bull who often seeks the comfort of some of the older females in the Nursery herd. He used to always be by Tagwa’s side, but more recently as Tagwa has seemed to keep her distance from him, Sattao has sought the company of Tamiyoi. He has become so protective of his female companions that today when Mukkoka approached Tamiyoi, Sattao pushed him away and made sure nobody came close to Tamiyoi. 

Malima is known to enjoy drinking her milk without assistance from the Keepers; she holds onto her milk bottle by wrapping her trunk tightly around it and tilts her head up. Kuishi on the other hand is known to be naughty and greedy as she constantly guzzles her milk down and then tries to steal extra milk from the other orphans. Today, during their midday milk feed, Kuishi downed her milk and then began to chase Malima, who was gripping onto her bottle, around the mud bath area. The Keepers tried to stop Kuishi as the two could be seen running around the muddy pool, but they were unsuccessful. By the time Kuishi got close enough to Malima, she had already finished her milk. 

Malima really loves little Larro and continues to remain protective of her, which Larro seems to be very aware of. However, being the youngest orphan in the herd Larro will orphan trumpet or get a fright for no reason at all and today was such a case. Whilst the orphans were out in the bush Larro burst into a loud trumpet whilst Malima was some meters away from her. Poor Emoli, who was standing next to Larro at the time, got charged away by Malima who came to her rescue, fearing that someone was bullying her. During their 9am milk feeding time, Kiasa was up to her usual mischievous ways and seemed to really disturb Kuishi who began to push Kiasa away. 

During their 11am feeding, Tamiyoi, Emoli, Maisha and Enkesha enjoyed a long wallow in the mud bath. Kiasa and Musiara ended up joining them towards the end of their feeding time. When it was time for the younger group of orphans to head back into the bush, Musiara did not want to get out of the mud and had to be pushed out by the Keepers. 

Mukkoka and Dololo have become close friends and are often found browsing together. They have even been known to wonder off together away from the other orphans. The Keepers believe that they are close because they arrived around the same time, from different locations, and would spend most of their days together as they became accustomed to the Nursery herd. 

Today Mukkoka and Maktao decided to browse further away from the Nursery herd. As Maktao seem to lose sight of the other orphans he began to trumpet loudly, almost as if he was calling out to the other orphans and Keepers. Tagwa and Malima ran straight to the young bulls almost as thought they were coming to his rescue. 

When the younger group of orphans were making their way down to the mud bath area, for their midday bottle of milk, Musiara appeared to block Maktao, Mukkoka, Kiasa and Sattao from overtaking him. He seemed to want everyone to walk down at his pace. Kiasa seemingly annoyed by Musiara’s actions, began to push him once down at the mud bath area and would not stop pushing the young bull who was enjoying his branches. Emoli witnessing the commotion took it upon himself to protect Musiara and push Kiasa away from him. Musiara appeared to be unbothered by as he continued to enjoy himself at the mud bath area. 

Larro seems to know that she is the youngest of the herd and will often begin to trumpet loudly when she has finished her milk, almost as if to get the attention of the other older orphans. Today, as soon as she had finished her morning bottle, she trumpeted so loudly that Kuishi, Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Malima and Maisha all came running to her side to protect her. If one of the other orphans accidentally bumps little Larro, Kuishi will chase them away. Unfortunately, Nabulu had to learn this the hard way. The other day, whilst Nabulu was greedily looking for more milk, she accidentally bumped Larro which caused her to trumpet loudly. Kuishi, in response, came running over and pushed Nabulu away and seemed to tell her off by smacking her with her trunk. Even Sattao has become quite protective of Larro. If the larger girls are away, Sattao will often be seen standing near Larro and breaking branches off for her, especially if the branches are so high that she cannot reach them. 

Sagala and some of the other females in the herd like Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Maisha, Malima, and even Kiasa have all been so welcoming to the new orphan from the Masai Mara. They all went to his stable in the morning and accompanied him out to the bush, raising their trunks and sniffing the young bull almost as if to show that he was now part of the herd. The orphan has adapted well to Nursery life, as he is not charging the Keepers as much and as begun to thoroughly enjoy his milk feeding times. He has also been spending more and more time with Dololo, as they can be seen enjoying branches together. 

Kiko seems to be regaining his confidence with going back out into the forest. This morning, he refused to go into stockade next door to Maxwell, which is where he stays until noon. It took the Keepers a lot of manoeuvring and convincing to get Kiko into the stockade, but once he was inside he and Maxwell enjoyed sharing the greens that were hung up along the wall dividing the two stockades. At noon, Kiko was let out and he chose to browse on the trees that are around the employee parking area. 

We have noticed that when orphans arrive at the Nursery around the same time they tend to become close quite quickly. This is such a case with Nabulu and the new arrival as they have become really close, and are always trying to remain near one another whilst browsing. Later in the afternoon whilst the orphans were browsing, Mapia decided to push the new bull but much to his dismay as he was quickly told off by Malima and Tamiyoi. 

The orphans were in a very jovial mood this morning as they headed out to the forest. Enkesha kicked off all the excitement when she got a fright from a large hare that jumped out at her from his burrow. In response she kept charging backwards and forwards flapping her ears and trumpeting unsure of where the hare had gone. Ambo and Emoli quickly ran over to see what was happening and also began to charge around looking for the hare. Tagwa, Malima, Kuishi and some of the other orphans eventually joined in with all the fun and trumpeting could be heard all over the forest. 

Later in the afternoon, Sattao and his good friend Musiara began to play a game of strength testing. Luggard who was busy watching the duo eventually decided to join in and began to play a pushing game with Musiara as Sattao moved off. 

Kiasa is known for her naughty ways and even her fellow orphans are aware of this. In the evenings, she can often be seen bothering her neighbour Maktao, which often results with them getting annoyed with one another and moving away from one another in their stables. 

As of late Mukkoka has been a bit distant from Dololo, and has been spending most of his time with Tamiyoi and Sattao. This doesn’t seem to have bothered Dololo as he has been browsing in the company Nabulu and is often seen walking off with her away from the other orphans. 

Although small Larro knows to remain close to the larger girls as they offer her company and protection. This was the case this afternoon, when Emoli was told off by Malima and Tagwa as he decided to push her whilst she was busy browsing and minding her own business.

During the public visit today, Maisha and Enkesha decided to play with one of the footballs that was in the mud bath area. Enkesha was just posing with the ball, with her front foot raised and standing on the ball as she picked up the hose pipe and drank water directly from the end of it. Maisha then approached her with the intention of stealing the ball away, but Enkesha didn’t want to let it go. She finished drinking and as Maisha tried to take the ball she kept her trunk and foot on top of it. They went around running after one another for the ball until Tamiyoi intervened, kicking the ball into the mud bath and bringing an end to the game. 

None of the elephants felt like welcoming Kiko when he paid them a visit in the forest this afternoon. He had gone all the way to try and locate the elephants out in the forest, but before he could even get very close, Malima, Musiara and Jotto started warning him not to join them, by raising their ears high. The closer he got, the more they mock-charged, making him turn and make his way back to the stockade compound, in the company of his Keeper, to browse.