They graduated to Umani Springs together nearly a year ago, but Maktao, Kiombo, and Kiasa remain very bonded. Like all siblings, they have the occasional quarrel. Maktao usually stays above the fray, but Kiombo and Kiasa have fiery temperaments and this sometimes leads to trouble.
The early hours of this morning were calm and peaceful. The orphans were out of their stockades enjoying some Lucerne pellets. Then Ngasha and Alamaya arrived back from their night out and everything changed. Murera was unhappy to see Ngasha because she knows he is such a bully, she started to walk away, and he followed pushing her and Kiombo into the corner. The Keepers were watching this and intervened, separating Ngasha from the rest of the orphan herd. They allowed Alamaya to join, as he doesn’t cause trouble.
Sonje and Quanza called the little babies to their sides while Mwashoti joined Murera. The orphans all headed to the Umani Hills to browse. That evening Enkesha took over the leadership duties and led the orphans back home after a long day.
Zongoloni and Faraja tried to lead the orphans towards the Chyulu Hills for the day. Kiombo, Kiasa and Maktao followed, but Sonje and Lima Lima declined. Lima Lima was waiting for her boyfriend. He soon appeared and walked over to the mud bath. Lima Lima greeted the wild bull, touching his face. After a short conversation they disappeared into the bushes together. Lima Lima seems to prefer the company of the ‘boys club’. She came back much later that afternoon and kept herself busy playing with Kiasa and Quanza to avoid the questions the other orphans were bound to have.
Faraja and Jasiri arrived and immediately started sparring, trying to show off how strong they are. Jasiri has longer tusks, so he has an advantage when pushing with his tusks, but Faraja is stronger at pushing with his body. Sonje watched them for a little while then called Lima Lima to help her separate the boys. Sonje did this perfectly. The boys stopped fighting and followed Lima Lima and Quanza over to the Umani Hills to browse. Murera, Mwashoti and Alamaya stayed browsing lower on the slopes of the hills, while Kiasa stayed with the keepers under the shade.
Ngasha joined the orphans later, so Maktao and Enkesha moved away to avoid him. With the help of the Keepers, they kept him separated from Enkesha, Murera, and the little babies, leaving them to browse in peace.
The orphan herd was browsing along the Kibwezi Forest near the water pipeline when two huge bulls came through. The bulls were very thirsty and could smell the water leaking out of the pipeline One of the bulls broke a joint in the pipe to get more water, as the leak proved to be too small. Lima Lima went over to be with the bulls, as she loves walking with them, and meeting new elephants. The Keepers noted her tiny size compared to these two big bulls with very long tusks. Murera also noted the size of these bulls and did not want them to come any closer. Mwashoti started going towards the bulls to greet them, but Murera got scared and called Mwashoti away.
Ngasha came to the herd this morning. Sonje and Murera watched him for a short time then he reached his trunk out to Sonje who didn’t seem to mind, but Murera started flapping her ears and signalling her discontent. Sonje then walked away with Kiombo and all the babies followed her out to the Umani Springs.
Alamaya and Mwashoti fought over an Acacia branch. Alamaya picked up the branch to scratch his chest, then Mwashoti came and wanted to take the stick, but Alamaya didn’t want to give it up. Luckily Murera arrived in time and separated them to stop them fighting. Alamaya sensibly agreed and moved away, leaving Mwashoti with the stick. Alamaya knew he could get another stick on his way.
Kiasa, Enkesha and some of the other little boys moved to the Chyulu Hills side without the older girls, showing they could be independent. Enkesha led this little group, she had proved that she was a calm and capable leader, and she never fought with anyone.
Lima Lima and Alamaya arrived early while the orphans were having their morning milk bottles. They waited for the Keepers to open the gates and for the orphans to come out of their stockades. Murera smelt something in the bushes and started rumbling. The Keepers knew this meant Mwashoti was close by, and soon after, Mwashoti arrived at the stockades. Murera welcomed him with lots of hugs and questions of why he was so late, but he ignored the questions and focused on the lucerne. Later Ngasha arrived from another direction, but he was late and missed out on the lucerne pellets.
Sonje started walking away and all the babies followed her. Quanza stayed in the middle of the herd to make sure all the little babies were okay. Kiombo moved between Enkesha and Maktao which caused a fight between Kiombo and Maktao. Kiombo resented being pushed by Maktao but he was overpowered. Enkesha didn’t bother to stop the fight or help her best friend, Maktao; instead, she continued to walk past Sonje and pretended that nothing was happening.
This morning, when the orphans got let out of the stockades Sonje started scratching herself on the terraces outside the stockades before heading out browsing for the day.
Quanza and Zongoloni teamed up with the big boys today. Lima Lima saw that Quanza didn’t know where she was being taken, and that she was just following the others, so Lima Lima filled her in and explained that they were going to meet up with some wild bulls. Quanza was not happy about this and moved back to where Kiasa and Enkesha were scratching on a tree. Quanza started ignoring Zongoloni because she didn’t tell Quanza where they were going, and Lima Lima remains an honest informer.
Murera went swimming with the babies. She is very gentle and patient with them, allowing Kiasa, Maktao, and Kiombo to climb all over her when they are playing.
Alamaya and Mwashoti were annoying some baboons. Mwashoti stood by the tree, stopping the baboons from jumping down. Sonje got scared and stood there, waving her trunk. The baboons were too clever and they all managed to jump from tree to tree and get away. The orphans were left charging at the bushes to make sure no baboons were still hiding.
As this was going on, a dik dik crossed in front of Lima Lima and Quanza. They trumpeted loudly and flattened the bushes, running to where Murera and Sonje were cooling off in the pool.
It was so hot today. A wild herd of females with tiny babies came looking for water. Lima Lima and Quanza moved closer to get a better look at the babies, but both the mothers and their babies were sceptical. One of the tiny babies got confident and walked under Quanza. Quanza loved this and started cuddling the baby, who got scared and started trumpeting. The mother got angry and came to rescue her baby. Luckily, Lima Lima gave Quanza some back up and they ran away from the mother. Mwashoti and Alamaya also started running away from the wild herd.
Sonje and the other orphans walked into the Kibwezi Forest, towards the waterholes, because they needed a swim to cool off from the heat.
There were some crane birds in a big tree above Murera, who was resting in the shade. One opened its wings to fly off, and the unique noise it made gave Murera a fright. She looked up to see what was going on, but couldn’t work it out, so ran over to where Mwashoti and Faraja were having a dust bath.
All the orphans followed Sonje and Murera because they have the majority vote. They walked to the top of the Chyulu Hills today, where they met up with Faraja and Ziwa. Faraja saw Ngasha was with the herd and was not happy, as he still has a grudge against Ngasha. Faraja went to consult Murera and they moved away from the rest of the herd, as they are both peace-loving while Ngasha always likes to pick fights.
Mwashoti was trumpeting loudly at a dik dik. This confused the dik dik because it didn’t know what the fuss was about. Unfortunately, it panicked and ran straight into Alamaya’s feet. Then, all the orphans started trumpeting and chasing the dik dik away from the herd.
This morning was much cooler. The orphans were enjoying lucerne at the stockades. A baby baboon was being naughty and ran away from its mother and right into the orphans. Kiasa and Kiombo spotted the baboon. Kiombo decided that it should not be with the elephants, so he started chasing it. Kiasa and Mwashoti joined in. The baby baboon ran back to its mother, but the elephants kept trumpeting and trying to chase the whole troop of baboons away. Once the baboons had moved off, Sonje intervened and stopped the babies from going too far away from her. Kiombo and Enkesha came back, but the naughty Ngasha led Mwashoti astray and they continued chasing the baboons.
As the day got hotter, Murera and Quanza moved under the shade of some trees. A big bull appeared from the bushes and started interacting with Sonje. Kiombo got scared and ran away leaving Sonje and the bull alone. The bull smelt Sonje for a while then left her and followed Lima Lima and Zongoloni to the Chyulu Hills.
It was so hot today. The orphans went to cool off in the mud bath, but they encountered a herd of wild elephants already wallowing there. They must have startled the wild elephants because a wild bull started chasing the orphans. The little babies ran away in fear, but Sonje and Murera stood up to the bull and protected the little ones.
The wild elephant then moved off; all the orphans were so happy that the older girls had protected them. They all cooled off in the mud bath. Enkesha and her little friend Maktao indulged in a gentle friendly pushing game after their mud bath.
Quanza led the orphans to an open grassy plain where they rested and played for some time before heading to the mud bath.
Mwashoti is big boy now. He spent the night out with a wild herd and our independent orphans, the ‘nightclubbers.’ However, he is still very attached to Murera, who looked after him when he was still young. He keeps trying to convince her to join a wild herd with him. In the afternoons, before the orphans go back to the stockades, Mwashoti talks to Murera, trying to get her to go with him. Murera always goes back to the stockades, leaving Mwashoti to go out and find his nightclubber friends.
Early in the morning, Lima Lima and Mwashoti come back after spending the night out with the ‘nightclubbers.’ They start trumpeting at the stockade gate, calling to the other orphans and telling the Keepers to open the gates. The rest of the orphans were so happy to hear their trumpets. The Keepers gave the orphans their milk as usual then opened the gates and gave the orphans lucerne. Everyone was very happy to see their friends back, especially Sonje and Quanza, who were following Lima Lima and getting all her stories from her night out. That evening, Lima Lima tried to get them to join her and spend the night out, but they refused and returned to the stockades for the night.
Lima Lima and Mwashoti returned with Ngasha. Ngasha was trying to show Murera and Sonje that he is the king of the group by chasing the other orphans and generally being too rough. Most of the orphans don’t like him being around because of this. Realising that he was not very welcome, Ngasha left. The orphans continued browsing peacefully under the calm leadership of Sonje and Murera.
Later in the day the orphans spent a long time cooling off and playing in the waterhole and in the mud bath. The younger orphans, Kiasa, Kiombo and Maktao, especially enjoyed the water today.
Ngasha came back early in the morning with a girlfriend. She was very cautious of the Keepers and kept her distance from them. The other orphans took a liking to her and were following her around. Sonje and Quanza were especially fascinated by her and spent the whole day with her. In the evening, they even tried to bring her back to the stockades, but she refused to come in the gate. She joined Ngasha and they went back into the bush.
Quanza and Enkesha took turns leading Maktao. Quanza has become a very good matriarch for Maktao, she really looks after him and he follows her everywhere. Enkesha is still young, and she is still only learning, but the Keepers think she will be a very good leader, because she is calm and fair with the younger orphans.
Murera really enjoyed playing by herself in the mud today.
Lima Lima is a very intelligent girl. While the orphans were browsing, she kept walking to the swamp then back to the orphans. The Keepers thought something must be wrong, so they followed her and found a buffalo had gotten stuck in the swamp. They called one of our mobile vet units and they managed to get the buffalo out. Thank goodness for Lima Lima’s observant nature.
Kiasa spent the day browsing with Enkesha. Enkesha is really starting to act like a matriarch, looking after the babies.
Alamaya joined the orphan herd at the mud bath.
Ngasha came back looking very sad without his girlfriend. The Keepers think she was taken in by wild bulls. Ngasha stayed with the orphans for a couple of hours. He was being very kind and gentle with Sonje, breaking high branches for her to eat. That evening he tried to get her to follow him out for the night. The younger orphans noticed Ngasha’s attempts and started trumpeting, afraid Sonje would leave them, but she wouldn’t leave her babies.
Quanza, Murera and Zongoloni all decided that the highest branches of the Acacia trees looked the tastiest. They were stretching up with their trunks to reach the branches they wanted, and Murera’s head was covered in Acacia flowers by the time she was finished.
Quanza is a very good ‘mother figure’ for the younger orphans. She played in the mud bath with Kiombo today, but she has a favourite baby in Kiasa. She has really taken Kiasa under her wing now that Lima Lima is spending more time in the wild. Quanza and Kiasa sleep in the same stockade, and Quanza is very protective over Kiasa. She disciplines the other orphans if they disturb her little friend. However, the Keepers have noticed that Quanza gets very jealous at feeding times and doesn’t like it when Kiasa gets fed before her.
Sonje is much better at sharing. She is very good at patiently teaching the younger orphans all the tricks of surviving at the Umani Springs.
This morning, the orphans were drinking from the Umani Springs, with a herd of bushbuck drinking from the opposite side of the springs. The bushbuck started making lots of noise, as one of them had been taken by a crocodile. The orphans heard all the commotion and started trumpeting. They wanted to help the bushbuck, but the water is too deep to walk across. Brave Lima Lima swam across the spring to chase the crocodile away and save the bushbuck, but unfortunately it was too late, as the crocodile had already gotten the poor creature.
As the leader of the ‘nightclubbers,’ as the Keepers have nicknamed our independent orphans, Zongoloni stays away for longer periods of time. When she was with the orphan herd, she was close with Kiombo. Perhaps the little bull harbours a grudge, because when Zongoloni returned to the orphan herd after some time away, she tried to hug Kiombo, but he refused. Maybe he feels she left him; he has now been adopted by Sonje. This made Zongoloni sad, and she turned back to the bush.
Murera is the oldest of the Umani orphan herd. She is 12 years old now and she is one of the matriarchs of the herd. She is proud to be a matriarch, acting more and more like the queen bee, so the Keepers have nicknamed her ‘Head Girl’. Murera used to follow the orphan herd, not really caring where they went to browse, but now she likes to have the final say on where they go. She will not follow if she doesn’t agree on the direction in which everyone is heading.
The Keepers think that Zongoloni went to lead the ‘nightclubber’ orphans because she wanted to be a matriarch as well, but she knew Murera would not allow her to lead the dependent herd.
A wild bull joined the orphan herd while they were browsing. Ngasha was not happy about this, especially as the wild bull was roughly the same age as Ngasha. The wild bull stayed with the orphan herd for a couple of hours and started to get friendly with Sonje, hugging her. Ngasha got very jealous and started a fight with the wild bull; he likes to be the king of the orphans and he did not appreciate the competition. The two boys fought for about 20 minutes then Ngasha ran off to find back up. He returned with Mwashoti and Alamaya. Together the three boys chased the wild bull away.
As usual, Lima Lima reunited with the dependent herd this morning. She is really growing up She is no longer milk dependent and spends the nights out in the forest, although she still comes to check in every morning and say hello to all the other orphans. Lima Lima is known as a very clever girl. She alerts the Keepers if there is anything dangerous close by and she has a very good internal GPS. She can always lead the herd back to the stockades. There was one time that the Keepers were chased by some wild elephants and Lima Lima protected the Keepers. However, in general she is very friendly and loves meeting new elephants and spending time with wild herds, especially the boys. The Keepers have also noted that she is very fast, much faster than the other orphans. If there were Olympic games for elephants, she would surely win many medals.
Mwashoti has recently joined the wild. He spends nights out in the forest with the ‘nightclubbers.’ Murera used to look after him and they used to share a stockade. When the new babies, Kiasa, Maktao, and Kiombo, graduated from the Nairobi Nursery and came to Umani Springs, Murera was fascinated by them and gave Mwashoti less attention. As a result, Mwashoti started spending more time with the ‘nightclubber’ boys. However, he still remembers his friend and comes to give Murera a hug and an update every morning.
The orphans browsed through some grassy plains before spending time playing in the mud bath. Kiasa was enjoying Enkesha’s company and followed her everywhere. Enkesha is really enjoying having younger orphans to look after.
At 3 o’clock in the morning, the Keepers heard Mwashoti and the ‘nightclubber’ boys trumpeting excitedly around the stockade compound. It was completely dark, so they couldn’t see what was happening. When the Keepers opened the gates in the morning, Mwashoti came to share his story with the other orphans. He got Sonje to walk with him, so he could show her what had happened: a baboon had been attacked by a leopard. Sonje and Mwashoti ran back from the site to get the other orphans, and soon the whole orphan herd was inspecting the area, as Mwashoti explained that night’s drama. The Keepers followed the elephants and they finally understood what all the trumpeting was about. They moved the orphan herd away from the area, in case the leopard was hiding in the trees above and waiting for the elephants to move on.
The milk dependent orphans were getting their usual 11am milk feed. Kiasa has already mastered holding her own milk bottle. Now, she has a new mischievous trick in which she drinks her milk quickly, then steals Kiombo’s bottle. This makes Kiombo understandable upset, and he makes his anger known by trumpeting loudly in Kiasa’s face. This morning, as usual, Sonje came running over to protect Kiombo. When Sonje saw that Kiasa had taken his milk, she chased Kiasa until she dropped the milk bottle. The Keepers gave Kiombo another bottle of milk once everything had calmed down.
Lima Lima came to join the orphan herd at the mud bath, bringing a wild bull with her. Sonje and Quanza have started feeling jealous of Lima Lima. These two older girls also want to be friends with wild bulls. The Keepers had a bit of a hard time today because Sonje, Quanza, and Lima Lima were not getting along. They were distracted by the bull, so they were not being very good about leading the smaller orphans. Lima Lima decided she wasn’t happy and left with her boyfriend. Sonje and Quanza chased her towards the Umani Springs before they eventually returned to the young babies.
Today, a wild bull came to join the orphan herd. He was calm and quiet, following the orphans to the Umani Springs, but he kept trying to sneak away with Sonje. She eventually disappeared with the bull. Kiombo was very unhappy about this and started trumpeting, which sent Sonje running back to be with him.
Then, it was time to bring the dependent herd back to the stockade compound. The wild bull came back to get Sonje, only to find that she and the other orphans were already in their bedrooms. Instead, he had a nice time with the other ex-orphans who were hanging outside the compound.
This morning, the Keepers opened the gates and gave the orphans lucerne pellets outside the stockades. Kiasa and Kiombo started fighting over the pellets. Quanza came over and pushed Kiombo away in an attempt to protect her little friend, Kiasa. This sent Sonje running over to defend Kiombo. Then the two older girls then started fighting, each defending their friend. Murera was not happy to see Quanza and Sonje fighting, so she came over to separate them. They stop quarrelling but remained upset with each other, so they walked in opposite directions with their own favourite baby.
In the afternoon, the orphans browsed along the Umani Springs. Lima Lima heard a noise and went to investigate. She discovered that a leopard was attacking a bushbuck, so she immediately circled back to warn the other orphans. She was especially concerned about the little babies, Maktao, Kiombo, and Kiasa. Everyone went running back to the stockades, with Murera and Sonje bringing up the rear because of their bad legs. The Keepers split into two groups, some going with Lima Lima and the other orphans, while others remained to look after Murera and Sonje.
Once the whole group had been reunited, Murera went to have a stern chat with Lima Lima. She was not happy that Lima Lima had taken all the young orphans and wanted to put her in her place. Murera chased Lima Lima away, sending her off with Alamaya and Mwashoti.