Choose your region

It was a wet morning following a downpour we received overnight. Some of the orphans like Luggard, Ziwadi, Larro, Naleku, Roho, Musiara and Sattao were reluctant to come out of their rooms because they felt it was still cold and the ground was still wet. Tagwa, Kiombo, Maisha, Enkesha, Nabulu, Tamiyoi and Kiasa however were very happy to come out of their rooms and be the first to run out to the forest. Just like human babies when it is cold, some of the elephant babies do not mind it, and almost enjoy it, and others do not like the colder weather at all.

Musiara had a swollen leg but it was just a small boil and the swelling has gone right down now. Today he was very happy and playing around, even climbing on Tamiyoi and Nabulu who were rolling on the ground enjoying a dust bath. He was showing off and running around, so his leg is obviously feeling much better!

When the orphans settled out in the forest soon after leaving their stockades in the morning, it was interesting to see them divide up into their little browsing groups. Luggard and Ziwadi remained browsing close to the Keepers, Tagwa, Roho, Maisha, Enkesha, Sattao, Nabulu and Kiombo went in their own direction while the others, led by Kiasa, including Larro, Tamiyoi, Mukkoka, Naleku, Musiara, Dololo and Maktao went down a different path. The group led by Kiasa browsed far off, deep in the forest, while Tagwa’s group browsed in between Kiasa’s and Luggard and Ziwadi who stayed close to the Keepers. 

Maxwell is looking a lot better these days and very active. He loves feeding on his greens and is looking much better. 

In the early morning, as the orphans walked out to the forest, Maktao, Larro, Mukkoka, Kiasa, Kiombo and Musiara were all busy chasing after a herd of impala. Maktao and Mukkoka, who are the bravest of the bunch, chased the impala deep into the forest whereas Kiasa, Larro, Kiombo and Musiara gave up and returned to the rest of the Nursery herd. The two courageous bulls could be heard trumpeting in the forest as they were charging after the impala, but as soon as the impala disappeared it became very quiet. As they realised their fun had come to an end and they were all alone, they came barrelling back to the Nursery herd rumbling and trumpeting as they got fright at suddenly being all alone. The older girls, namely Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Maisha and even Enkesha, went running over to see what was wrong with the boys and make sure everything was okay. As they met up with them they all began to rumble and trumpet together in excitement. This lasted a couple of minutes before the orphans calmed down and went back to browsing. 

Unlike Roho, who will stick by his friends, Naleku will try and be close to all the orphans in the Nursery herd. When some of the older boys are pushing their weight around and start to push at her, instead of crying out or running to the older girls, Naleku will find her own way out and either back off or push back at them. The Keepers are amazed to watch her growing into such as confident and assertive young calf. 

Most of the time Naleku can be seen following Larro and Mukkoka, and both of them are not the best caretakers as of yet. Mukkoka can often be seen getting annoyed with the young little girl and pushing her away. This, however, does not deter little Naleku as she either ignores him or is happy to move away and walk with one of the other orphans; sometimes she will even challenge him when he starts pushing her. 

Today, however, Naleku had a very relaxing day in the company of Enkesha. The two could be seen browsing and having their milk near one another, until it was time for little Naleku to head back to her stable for the evening. 

Roho was full of energy at the midday mud bath. He decided to challenge Larro in a wrestling match and they began to push each other all round the mud bath area. Naleku appeared to get jealous and came charging over to disrupt their game and challenge Roho herself. The Keepers were surprised to see Naleku so annoyed by their game, and wondered if maybe she was getting jealous because he was playing with Larro, her old neighbour, specifically. Roho and Naleku were getting so agitated with each other that Kiasa had to rush over and intervene, separating them. Larro simply stood back watching all the commotion. Once they had all calmed they all moved off in their separate ways. 

This afternoon, whilst the orphans were browsing in the forest, Enkesha got hold of Sattao and Kiombo and the three went off in their own direction. They moved so far away that the Keepers had a hard time keeping an eye on them and had to walk quite some distance to usher them back to the rest of the Nursery herd. 

Musiara seems to have joined Enkesha and Ziwadi in their efforts to wander off and browse on their own. This morning the Keepers noticed him looking around, as if he was looking for a way to break away from the Nursery herd without being noticed. However, as he saw the Keepers watching him he quickly return to focusing on the Nursery herd. He eventually appeared to come up with a plan which involved pushing Kiombo off into the bushes and when the Keepers went looking for him, to quietly sneak off. His plan would have been successful if it weren’t for Kiombo - who began to rumble and trumpet at Musiara pushing him. As Musiara was heading off, Kiombo quickly ran back to the rest of the Nursery herd, trumpeting and rumbling as if telling them what Musiara was up to. The Keepers were quick to figure out that Musiara had wandered off, and they quickly went running after the naughty bull, ushering him back to the herd. 

Ziwadi appeared to be a little uneasy today and didn’t seem too happy to be browsing near the others and she decided to move away slightly. Naleku seemed to realize Ziwadi was not feeling her greatest today, and the little girl decided to keep her company and follow her wherever she went. The two spent the most part of today with each other and away from the Nursery herd. 

At the 3pm milk feeding time greedy Larro and Kiasa were causing a lot of trouble. The two were trying to wrestle Mukkoka and Sattao in order to get more milk and steal their bottles. This really upset the two bulls as they began to angrily rumble at the girls and push back. Eventually the Keepers had to intervene and chase the naughty girls away. The orphans then had a pleasant remainder of the afternoon browsing in the forest. 

Maisha, Enkesha, and Nabulu are all close neighbours in the stockade compound and they all seem to be quite close friends. They seemed to create this bond when they were all moved out of the smaller stables around the same time, into the open stockades. This morning, as soon as they came out of their rooms, they immediately started to wander off together and went to browse on the bushes behind the stockade compound. When it was time for the Keepers and orphans to head out to the forest, the Keepers had to head over and usher the three girls along. Tagwa and Tamiyoi also seemed to be waiting for the three girls to join them again and appeared much more comfortable once they were back with the Nursery herd. 

The orphans had a nice browsing session this morning before making their way down to the mud bath for their midday bottles of milk. When all the orphans had finished their bottles and playing around in the soil, Ziwadi was the first to lead them out back to the forest. It was great to watch the other orphans respect this little girl taking the lead and all happily follow her

Maxwell woke up in a very good mood this morning. As he came out his room, he went barrelling over to his mud bath and could be seen excitedly rolling around. He rolled around for a good 30 minutes and covered his entire body in mud by the time he had finished. When he left his mud bath, he walked straight over to his feeding point and began munching away on his morning Lucerne pellets. 

As Maxwell was eating his pellets, he appeared to notice that the orphans were browsing on some of the nearby bushes. As he heard pulling at the branches, he walked up to the fence to see what was going on. When he got to the fence, he seemed to realise that it was just the elephant orphans browsing and he went back to his pellets. Maktao, Larro, Ziwadi and Enkesha were all busy browsing right near his stockade, and none of them would budge until the Keepers came to call them and usher them back to the forest. 

Tagwa has recently been moved to a larger stockade, neighbouring Sattao and Musiara’s stockades. Sattao and Musiara, who have always been close friends, have been great neighbours to Tagwa and have made her feel part of their little group. This morning as Tagwa was let out her stockade, she was seen waiting for the two bulls to join her and when they joined her, she walked straight over to Roho’s stable with them. 

Roho was already in the company of Enkesha and Maisha, and the three of them were happy to join Tagwa and the boys as they made their way out to the forest. The orphans were walking slowly this morning, grabbing and eating branches along their way. They were taking so long that the Keepers had to speed them up a little from behind.