March began with some big changes for our ‘Kaluku trio.’ Kindani, Kinyei, and Bondeni have grown up sleeping in enclosed stables, but the time has come for them to move into open-air stockades. This is an important step in their reintegration journeys, as they will be sleeping in similar bedrooms when they graduate to a Reintegration Unit. While Bondeni and Kinyei seemed excited about their upgraded spaces, Kindani had no interest in her new accommodations. She stood defiantly by her gate, making it clear that she wanted to return to her old stable. Not all orphans welcome change, but the Keepers are confident that Kindani will settle in eventually.
Roho was in a very bad mood this morning as he was let out of his stockade. As soon as he came out of his stockade he had no interest in greeting any of the other orphans and he just made his way straight out to the forest. Once in the forest, he went off browsing on his own and every time one of the other orphans would walk past him he would shove them away.
His bad mood continued until his close friend came over to visit him and this was none other than Esoit. When Esoit came over, Roho tried to shove him, but Esoit immediately responded by shoving him back and this appeared to calm him down as he then engaged Esoit in a wrestling match. Their game continued for a couple of minutes before Roho returned to his bad mood, shoving Esoit away from him and pushing him down really hard. Esoit didn’t care for this and quickly ran off back to the rest of the herd.
Down at the mud bath, as the orphans were settling down in the muddy waters Roho turned his attention to Olorien and Suguroi who were still downing their bottles of milk. Roho kept trying to steal their milk bottles and then he would chase them away from the mud pool, this really upset Olorien and Suguroi who eventually gave up on a mud bath and moved off to Barnoti, Oldepe, Kindani and Kinyei who were all enjoying a dust bath. Roho then enjoyed a long mud bath near Rama who was spraying mud all over his body.
It was another scorching day as the orphans were headed down to the mud bath for their midday bottles of milk. Unlike other days, this afternoon, Mukutan, Choka and Taabu who are not normally fans of the mud bath were the first to charge into the muddy water after downing their milk bottles. Kamili, Naleku, Kerrio, Latika, and Sagateisa were quick to join them and they were all having the best time rolling around and wallowing in the cool water. Sagateisa continues to gain her strength and as such she won’t wallow in the centre of the mud bath but rather on the edges where it is easy to get out of the muddy waters.
Kerrio was having so much fun climbing on and sliding off Naleku. They continue to share such a close friendship, and Naleku is always thrilled to enjoy playful moments with Kerrio. They were having so much fun that even Ziwadi was eager to get into the muddy water and join them all. Unlike the others, however, she did not roll around but instead stood in the pool spraying mud on her back as well as she could. The Keepers as always gave her a helping hand and threw mud over her back using a shovel and hose pipe. After a long wallow the orphans were led back to the forest by their Keepers.
This morning, Kerrio was amongst one of the last orphans to be let out of her stable and as she came running out, she noticed that the rest of the Nursery herd was already making their way out to the forest. As she saw them walking off she began to dash after them rumbling and trumpeting. This of course, caught the attention of Naleku, who came barreling back from the top of the path to look for the little girl. Surprisingly, Naleku did not find little Kerrio as she was already being accompanied out by Kindani, Kinyei, Bondeni and Olorien — and as such, Naleku did not see her walk past. As Naleku couldn’t find her within the stockade compound, she quickly did a 180 and went charging back towards the forest.
As she reached the forest, the rest of the orphans had all settled to browse behind Maxwell’s stockade and the border of the forest. She literally ran one by one to all the orphans to find little Kerrio who was standing in between Kindani and Kinyei. As soon as they found each other, they both let out these deep rumbles and trumpets in excitement to see one another. Now that the herd was all together Naleku, Kerrio, Kindani and Kinyei led the orphans further into the forest to continue browsing.
This morning as the orphans were all starting their day and coming out of their stables to greet each other, Bondeni and Esoit were busy trying to find each other within the stockade compound. Esoit first checked the big boys group of Roho, Oldepe, Barnoti, Lodo, and Rama, when he didn’t see his friend amongst them, he ran down to the girls such as Olorien, Kerrio, Kindani and Kinyei. Unbeknown to Esoit, Bondeni had run in the opposite direction to look for him and he was now standing amongst the big boys and Choka and Mukutan.
Eventually as the orphans were walking towards the forest did the two bulls find each other and they immediately engaged each other in a wrestling match. They chased each other along the path and through all the bushes and then would face off against each other, sizing each other up and testing each other’s strength. This morning, Esoit was the victor as he is growing into such a strong young bull.
It was another scorching afternoon down at the mud bath. As soon as the orphans finished their 3 o’clock bottles of milk, they all ran for the mud bath including Sagateisa and Ziwadi. Even though Sagateisa was having the best time rolling around with the rest of the Nursery herd, the Keepers kept a close eye on her, making sure she didn’t get stuck. When it was time for the orphans to head back to the forest, Sagateisa quickly and easily got out of the muddy water following the rest of the Nursery herd.
Kindani, Kinyei and Bondeni all recently graduated from the enclosed stables to the wide open stockades. This is an important step in their reintegration process: They need to get used to the open air stockades, as this is what they will be sleeping in at the Reintegration Units. Bondeni and Kinyei quickly adjusted to their new rooms, and were happily checking out every corner of their new rooms to see what was around them.
Kindani, on the other hand, had no interest in her new room and stood by her gate, wanting to be let out so she could return to her old stable. It is normal for some of the orphans to not immediately enjoy their new rooms; this was the case with Kiasa and many others before her, but the Keepers are confident that Kindani will eventually calm down and be comfortable.
The scorching heat continues and as a result all the orphans, including Maxwell, are enjoying daily mud baths. This afternoon, Max was enjoying a long wallow in his mud bath and as his whole body was submerged in the muddy water, he was happily resting his head on the edge of the mud bath. His peaceful moment was later interrupted by the residential warthogs that also came charging down to enjoy a mud bath. As they were running around him, Max grew more and more annoyed so he stood up and walked out of his mud pool and went over to enjoy his greens before scratching up and down his stockade wall. Once he was out the muddy pool, the warthogs were all busy rolling around.
Esoit is such a playful young bull and often he will be full of energy as the Keepers let it him out of his room. This morning was no different Esoit came barreling out of his stockade chasing after Olorien, Choka, Taabu, and Latika, who were already browsing on the greens around the back of the stockade. As he found them, he kept trying to climb on their backs, and wrestle them. Olorien and Latika were the only two brave enough to challenge the young bulls before running off to hide behind Kindani, Kinyei and Naleku.
Having failed to catch the girls, Esoit now turned his attention back to the boys Taabu and Choka. He chased the poor boys out to the forest and as they were evading him through the bushes he turned to Bondeni. Bondeni was happy to challenge Esoit and the two enjoyed a long wrestling match right up until it was time to head down for their 9 o’clock bottles of milk.
This afternoon, as the orphans had settled back down in the forest to browse, Kerrio was busy browsing next to her favourite nanny Naleku. Naleku broke off the tastiest piece of branch and as she was enjoying her tasty piece, Kerrio came over and stole a piece straight from her mouth. As soon as Kerrio tasted the branch, then became extremely greedy and kept demanding more branches from Naleku. She was behaving exactly like a naughty toddler, yelling and pushing at Naleku for more of the branch. Eventually, Naleku grew so tired of this that she dropped the branch, giving it to Kerrio.
As the orphans were settling back in the forest to browse after their 9 o’clock bottles of milk, it was great to see Ziwadi keeping up with the Nursery herd and following behind Kerrio and Naleku. Once back in the forest, the trio all settled down to browse together. Ziwadi spent almost her entire morning with Naleku and Kerrio, which was such a great sight for the Keepers. She was even oblivious to some of the more boisterous orphans such as Roho, Olorien, and Suguroi who do sometimes opt to push quieter orphans like Ziwadi.
Recently, Sagateisa has been thoroughly enjoying her mud baths during her midday and 3 o’clock milk feeds. Each time she is amongst the first to down her milk and then dash straight into the muddy water. She is more often than not accompanied by Kerrio and Naleku, who are both so gentle with her and they don’t bother her as she enjoys rolling around. The Keepers are so proud to see how far Sagateisa has come since her arrival.
Today, Suguroi and Olorien were in a playful mood as they came out of their stockades. As the orphans were setting off, Suguroi and Olorien stayed back browsing along the border of the stockade compound. When they chose to make their way to the forest, they did not follow Kindani, Kinyei and Naleku. They tried to head off in their own direction but were quickly stopped by the Keepers. The duo kept trying to walk off, rumbling and trumpeting, before running back to the herd that refused to follow them. They really want to be leaders!
The big boys, Oldepe, Barnoti, Lodo and Rama have all been keeping each other company when out in the forest. The bulls all seem to be of similar temperaments and are all quite calm with the rest of the hers, especially some of the younger orphans. Although Rama also spends time with his longtime friend Ziwadi, he does spend most of his days with his new friends.
Since Naboishu’s graduation — and even long before that — Bondeni remains the naughtiest character in the Nursery herd. Fortunately, as of yet, none of the other orphans have picked up on his naughty antics. It is so funny to watch Bondeni, because every time he is naughty and his Keepers tell him off, he foretells their reaction and will walk himself to the naughty corner. Once in the naughty corner, Bondeni will stay there until it is time to head back to the forest.
Tingai continues to be a little sneaky orphan, wandering off whenever he has the chance to go and browse on his own. As soon as he wanders off, the Keepers start to look for him. Recently, he has started quite a funny habit when he is found. Once the Keepers have spotted him, he will immediately stop what he is doing, put his trunk in his mouth and then dash off, trying to run away from his Keepers. He is still quite a shy orphan and spends a lot of time with Suguroi, who also likes to wander off from time to time.
It is amazing to see how far Kerrio has come since her arrival at the Nursery. When she first arrived she had very little motion in her hind legs, whereas now she is confidently walking and running around. Not only is she able to keep up with the rest of the Nursery herd, but she can now confidently mud and dust bath with the Nursery herd.
Despite her newfound confidence, Kerrio is still very aware of her movements and she knows when she is too tired to walk further into the forest, especially in the heat of the day. When she doesn’t want to walk any further, she will let out a deep rumble and trumpet, which makes Naleku, Kindani, Kinyei, Olorien and Suguroi stop dead in the their tracks to check on her. Once the herd comes to a standstill, they all settle to browse in their immediate surroundings.
Ziwadi continues her funny habit of taking herself home in the afternoons. Especially after finishing her 3 o’clock bottle of milk, Ziwadi will start to wander off from the herd so that she can take herself home for the evening. The Keepers don’t even need to tell her where to go, as she knows the route so well. Once back, she walks straight into her stable. Sometimes the Keepers will usher her back out, but they are also happy to follow her and let her settle down for the evening.
Nashashi is still adjusting to her new life at the Nursery. Being the biggest orphan at the Nursery, the Keepers are really focusing on helping her grow used to them, before they let her out into the forest. Slowly, slowly, she is calming down, and the Keepers are confident she will be okay, especially as her friendships with the other orphans such as Lorigon, Kamili, Latika, Roho, Naleku and Kindani continue to flourish. Naleku, Roho and Kindani often go and share Nashashi’s greens with her in the mornings before heading out to the forest.
Choka and Taabu continue to be such gentle bulls in the Nursery herd. Unlike Esoit and Bondeni, they are not as playful but this could also just be that they are still a bit shy with all the much bigger elephants around them. Taabu especially has a very gentle nature and he has always been so gentle with his Keepers and the rest of the Nursery orphans. They do enjoy spending time together during the day and being of similar temperaments they can often be seen browsing with one another.
Mukutan continues to behave like the youngest in the Nursery herd, often rumbling and trumpeting. Probably because of his traumatic rescue, Mukutan scares easily and has always been very shy towards the other orphans. However, his appetite has grown and he is now behaving exactly like Naboishu, yelling out when it is time for him to run down for his milk. He will often run down amongst Kerrio, Kinyei, Ziwadi, Taabu, and Kamili, making such a racket that they often end up ignoring him.
Down at the mud bath, Mukutan, Choka, Taabu, and even Kamili and Latika avoid little Kerrio, because they know she can be so mischievous. Kerrio often chases after them. This makes them run off in a hurry, as they do not want to get into trouble with Naleku, Kindani, or Kinyei, who are fiercely protective of Kerrio. Mukutan is often the target of Kerrio’s mischief, because he really yells out when she chases after him, which only eggs her on even more. The Keepers always step in, chasing Kerrio back to Naleku, Kindani, and Kinyei.
During the midday milk feeding time, Suguroi was in an extremely naughty mood, trying to push and shove the other orphans around, disturbing everyone in the process. This afternoon, however, she chose the wrong target, because she went after none other than Barnoti. Although Barnoti is one of the gentle uncles of the Nursery herd, he didn’t take too kindly to her antics. As Suguroi tried to steal his greens, he let out a very deep rumble as if to warn her off — and it worked, because Suguroi quickly ran off.
Barnoti, Oldepe and Lodo spend a lot of time together throughout the day. They have also been spending time with Roho, who is also one of their neighbours, but they do not spend as much time with him as they do Rama. The three bulls are all very similar and as such enjoy walking and browsing together. Although they occasionally enjoy some wrestling matches, these are not a big part of their day. The Keepers wonder if perhaps they will start to wrestle more and more as they get older, as it is such an important skill for them to learn once they are fully reintegrated back into the wild.
The orphans had a wonderful and peaceful afternoon browsing in the forest.
Sagateisa has come such a long way since her arrival at the Nursery and the Keepers are so happy with her progress. When she first arrived, she was so weak and fragile that she had barely any energy to do anything. She looked so emaciated that the Keepers would worry about her eating enough greens throughout the day. Today, she has gained weight and has so much more energy to take part in the daily activities of the Nursery herd. Sagateisa is probably closest to Kamili, as Kamili has always been such a gentle friend and keeps her company whilst in the forest. They continue to spend their days together, browsing and following each other around.
Bondeni, Kindani, and Kinyei continue to be the best of friends, following each other around during the day and browsing together. They have recently added a new member to their little group: Choka! They are always so happy to allow Choka to follow them on their daily adventures, and it has been good to see Choka spending time with some of the older members of the Nursery herd.
Maxwell has not been as active recently, as Nairobi continues to be so hot throughout the day. In the early hours of the morning, Max comes bouncing out of his room to enjoy some of his leftover greens, especially the acacia branches. Then, he makes his way up to his fresh lucerne pellets, which his Keepers have just laid out. As he munches away on his pellets, the sun rises, and it is not long before Max heads over to one of his shaded corners to enjoy a mid-morning nap.
After a short nap, Max heads down to his mud bath, where he enjoys a long mud wallow, spending a good couple of hours submerged in his pool. Once he is fully covered in mud, he heads back to the shaded side of his stockade and rolls around in the dust before settling down for the afternoon. In the evenings, as the orphans are running back to the stockade compound for the evening, Max is already busy enjoying his newly cut fresh greens from the Keepers. As always, he is busy sorting his favourite branches from his least favourite.
As Rama continues to grow into a strong young bull, we continue to monitor the use of his legs. Being bow-legged, his comfort is of such importance. Despite being bow legged, Rama does not let this hinder his personality. He is always happy to challenge the other orphans, such as Roho and Bondeni, to a wrestling match. Although he doesn’t recline in the mud, he is the master of the mud bath, covering his entire body by splashing mud everywhere.
Since his arrival at the Nursery, Rama has grown in both strength and confidence. When he was younger, he would get pushed around by smaller orphans, such as Olorien and even Suguroi when she first arrived. Today, he is able to stand his ground and does not let any of the other orphans push him around. Aside from when he is rightfully standing up for himself, Rama is generally a very calm bull, spending time browsing with his friends.
One of his closest friends has always been Ziwadi, as she was so welcoming to him when he first arrived at the Nursery. Although he does not spend every day with her like when he first arrived, he continues to check in on her and often waits for her as she carries out her morning routine of drinking from the water troughs. These two will always have a special relationship.
Although he is still the naughtiest member of the Nursery herd, Bondeni has calmed down quite a bit recently. Perhaps since his graduation into his bigger room, he now feels part of the older boys. During his midday mud bath, he no longer tries to charge at the crowd and instead just focuses on his milk and mud bath. Of course, he still has his naughty days, but they are less frequent. This has made things a bit easier for the Keepers at the mud bath.
Often Bondeni has fun mud bathing with the likes of Sagateisa, Roho, Olorien, Kindani, Kamili, and Naleku. Perhaps this is also part of the reason that he has been calmer during his milk feeding times, because it has been so hot the orphans have been spending a lot of their time mud bathing as opposed to running around. The Keepers do wonder if he might return to his antics once the cooler weather returns. For now, however, it is great to see the Nursery herd getting along so well.
Kerrio was so amusing today. As the little girl is in the first group to run down for her midday bottle of milk, she is always amongst the first to finish and head away from the milk wheelbarrow. Today, she went and enjoyed a very short mud bath, covering most of her body in mud. Then, she walked over to one of the water troughs. She enjoyed a quick sip of water before deciding to spread her belly over the top of the water trough to enjoy a long belly scratch. The young girl was so happy scratching her body on the water trough, something that was amusing to both the Keepers and the visitors.
Later in the afternoon, however, Kerrio was being very naughty as she kept trying to shove her Keepers for more milk. Naleku was nearby but she did not condone this naughty behaviour and instead walked away from Kerrio. The Keepers had to usher the little girl away, leaving both them and the orphans running down for their milk in peace. Kerrio then made her way back to Naleku, Kindani and Kinyei. Being the youngest and smallest in the Nursery Kerrio will often try and get away with being naughty, but she is not always successful.
Choka, Taabu, Sagateisa, and Mukutan are all becoming the best of friends. In the mornings, they will walk out to the forest together and then settle side by side. They all seem to enjoy greeting each other as they wake up and then settling down together. Unlike other times, Mukutan is always very peaceful in the mornings. He peacefully follows his friends out to the forest and then happily settles to browse with them. He only starts shouting again when it is time for his milk feed. All five of them can also often be seen browsing near Ziwadi as she is always so welcoming to them.
None of the younger newcomers spend a lot of time with Kerrio, since she used to get them into so much trouble before. Naleku is also always by Kerrio’s side, protecting her, so Taabu and others are wary of getting too close to her. Perhaps as Kerrio gets older, she will be more independent and spend more time with some of the other younger orphans.
Esoit and Kinyei are still good friends, despite not playing as much as before. Kinyei has taken on the new role of being one of the nannies of the Nursery herd so she is not always free to wrestle with her old friends and as such she does not spend as much time with Esoit. Today, however, they spent most of their morning together, keeping each other company in the forest and browsing near one another. From the moment they got up, they were side by side.
Later in the day, once back in the forest, they even engaged each other in a wrestling match. Esoit loves to wrestle and most days he will look for an opponent. Today, he was so happy to be able to challenge his old friend. Their game continued for a couple of minutes before it was abruptly interrupted by Olorien who came over to separate them both. As Olorien was now standing in their way, Esoit went off to challenge Roho and Bondeni who were wrestling nearby.
Once all the games finished, the orphans enjoyed a wonderful, quiet afternoon browsing in the forest.
Early this morning, as the orphans were settling down in the forest to browse, they came across a herd of impala that were still busy sleeping and resting. All the young impala could be seen lying on the ground between their parents, who had now picked up on the orphans arriving. As soon as Taabu, Bondeni, Kinyei and Suguroi saw the impala, they became to chase after them. This trait is so true to Taabu; he always enjoys chasing after the impala and resident warthogs when they are too close to the herd.
Taabu and others caused a big scene, because they chased the impala straight towards the Nursery herd. Choka, Mukutan, Kerrio, Latika and Kamili got such a fright that they went charging back to the stockade compound. The Keepers even had to stand still as all the impala ran past. Once the coast was clear, they ran back down to calm the others down and escort them back to the Nursery herd.
The rest of the day was quite peaceful and the orphans had a lovely time in the forest before heading back to the stockade compound for the evening.
This morning, Bondeni went dashing over to Maxwell’s gate to greet the friendly giant. Max was busy munching his greens when he heard Bondeni pushing at his lower gate, trying to get his attention. As soon as Max heard Bondeni, he went walking over and the two shared a quick interaction before Bondeni ran off to the other orphans. It is always so sweet watching Bondeni with Max because he will gently tap his ears and back to get his attention and then Max will huff and push at his gate in response.
Once Bondeni was back with the herd, Naleku led all the orphans out to the forest. Bondeni and Roho walked together and they were close to Barnoti, Oldepe and Lodo. The older girls such as Kindani, Kinyei and Olorien all tried to get close to Kerrio but she was already right up at the top with Naleku.
Once out in the forest, Ziwadi settled to browse with Latika, Kamili, Mukutan, Choka and Taabu. Esoit was dashing around trying to find someone who would wrestle. Sadly this morning everyone was interested in browsing. The orphans had a wonderful day in the forest together.
It was another beautiful day this morning as the orphans were waking up and being let out of their stables and stockades. Mukutan and Choka were amongst the first to exit their rooms and head on up towards the top of the stockade compound where Barnoti, Oldepe, Lodo, Esoit, Roho, Rama and Naleku all have their rooms. They were all busy browsing on the greens at the top of the stockade compound when Lorigon came bouncing over to join them.
Lorigon is still one of the newer rescues in the herd and he is still getting used to his new life, especially his Keepers. In the beginning, he would often charge his Keepers, as he was a bit scared. Olorien and the other orphans would step in to protect the Keepers. Lately, however, Lorigon is charging less and less, but the Keepers are still cautious as they continue to earn his trust.
This afternoon, after the orphans finished their midday bottles of milk and were making their way back to the forest, they all walked happily together, following Naleku and their Keepers. Once back in the forest, the orphans had a wonderful time browsing together.
Roho was in another bad mood this morning as the Keepers let him out of his stockade. As soon as he was out in the forest, he began to bully the younger orphans. He was being so rough that the Keepers had to send him to the naughty corner until it was time for the orphans to have their 9 o’clock bottles of milk. Even then, his bad mood continued as he didn’t want to let any of the other orphans run down for their milk. He kept shoving them aside and chasing after them when they would try to run down.
It wasn’t until he knocked over Olorien that he realised that he was now in big trouble. As soon as Olorien fell over, she stood straight back up and shoved Roho away, almost knocking him down to the ground. Roho protested as she kept pushing him but she was so annoyed with him for knocking her over. Once Roho managed to get to his feet, he ran away to the back of the herd where Olorien couldn’t get to him. After that he didn’t dare bother any of the orphans and the Keepers didn’t have to worry about him anymore.
Once Roho stopped being so naughty, the orphans had a wonderful day out in the forest. Kerrio once again spent most of her day with Naleku.
In the early hours of the morning, Olorien and Suguroi engaged each other in a wrestling match. These two girls have become such close friends and have been spending more and more time together. Suguroi isn’t fully used to the game yet, so she isn’t quite sure how much to engage Olorien and often flaps her ears at Olorien before running off, but today she gave it a great effort. They chased each other around the forest for several minutes before settling down to browse.
Kindani had a wonderful moment with Ziwadi this afternoon, which is very rare as Kindani is not the most affectionate of orphans and she doesn’t often spend time with Ziwadi. This afternoon, as Ziwadi was browsing on her favourite greens, Kindani went over to her and rested her trunk on Ziwadi’s back. Ziwadi happily stood there for a couple of minutes before moving off to find more greens and Kindani followed her for the most part of the afternoon.
It was another scorching day, so the orphans all enjoyed a long mud wallow before heading back to the forest for a short browsing session.
Tingai continues to be quite a shy boy and as a result he continues to wander off on his own, giving the Keepers a hard time when they have to look for him. This morning, something frightened him as the orphans got to the forest and he immediately ran off further into the forest. One of the Keepers followed behind him to keep an eye on where he was going. As soon as Tingai spotted his Keeper, he did his usual routine of suckling his trunk and then running away again. Fortunately, he ran straight back to Rama and Lodo, who were both browsing nearby.
Once with Barnoti, Lodo and Rama, Tingai calmed down completely and spent most of his day with these two big bulls. Perhaps since they were so much bigger, Tingai felt safe around them. The Keepers were happy to see him all settled down for the day. Lodo is very much a friendly uncle to the younger orphans as he never pushes them around or tries to cause any fights.
Kindani is still adjusting to her new room — and, being such a stubborn girl, she is certainly complaining to her Keepers about it. In the evenings, she spends a few minutes protesting before settling down for the night. She is getting better and better each day, so the Keepers are confident she will be fine, they just have to help her through this part. Bondeni and Kinyei are oblivious to her complaining, as they are both enjoying their larger, new stockades. In the evenings, whilst she is pacing about, Bondeni and Kinyei are busy enjoying their greens and even sharing greens with one another.
This afternoon, down at the mud bath, Kindani was enjoying a mud bath when Bondeni and Kinyei walked over to join her. Bondeni was the first to join at the centre of the mud bath, but when Esoit came barreling over to climb on his back, Kinyei decided to forgo the mud bath. She just stood on the edge near Rama, getting splashed with some of his mud. Once the orphans finished wallowing, they made their way back to the forest for the remainder of the afternoon.
Maxwell was in a naughty mood in the early hours of the morning today. As the orphans were still tucked away in their stables and stockades, he was banging around the pillars in his enclosure. Perhaps he was behaving so boisterously because there was another rhino around, but the Keepers couldn’t be certain. When the Keepers came out in the morning, they noticed he had knocked over one of his big pillars, so they immediately had to get this repaired.
Despite being blind, Max is still an extremely strong rhino. He occasionally demonstrates his strength by knocking things over in his stockade. Throughout the day, the Keepers had to distract him with fresh greens and lucerne pellets down in his lower stockade so that they could carry out some of the repairs. Max was enjoying the freshly cut greens, but he would stop to listen to all the work going on from time to time. In the afternoon, he even enjoyed a long mud wallow in his mud bath.
It was another scorching afternoon at the Nursery. All the orphans quickly downed their milk bottles and then walked straight over to the mud bath, where they began to splash around. Olorien and Suguroi were being very indecisive about getting in, and walked around the whole mud bath deciding whether or not they would want to get in.
Eventually, they both decided to get in and Olorien even enjoyed a playful moment with Bondeni. As she was rolling around, Bondeni tried to climb on her back and then slid off, making a big splash in the water. His game seemed to excite some of the other orphans, such as Esoit, who also wanted to jump on a friend’s back and slide off. He chose Roho. The four orphans had a wonderful playful moment before getting out of the mud bath and enjoying a long dust bath. The dust helps stop the itching from the mud, so the orphans often cover themselves in dust straight after a mud bath.
It was a beautiful morning as the orphans left their stockades and stables. As the sun was shining, they did not waste any time heading off to the forest to start their morning browsing. Ziwadi, as usual, continued her morning routine of drinking from every water trough before heading out. This morning, Rama was happily waiting for his friend at the top of the stockade compound. As she slowly made her way up, he kept busy by feasting on the greens surrounding the stockade compound.
Ziwadi was taking a long time, so the Keepers did have to usher her along a little bit. Once in the forest, Rama went off to join Oldepe, Lodo and Barnoti, and Ziwadi joined Sagateisa, Choka, Taabu, Latika and Kamili. All the youngsters loved to spend time with Ziwadi, as she always finds the most delicious greens.
As he hasn’t pulled any disappearing acts in a long time, Oldepe is no longer the Houdini of the Nursery herd — now, Tingai deserves that nickname! Oldepe enjoys spending his days with the Nursery herd, and in the evenings he is always excited to run back with his big friends for milk. The Keepers are convinced that he stopped running off because they no longer chased after him, meaning that his game wasn’t fun anymore.
During the midday mud bath, Roho, Kindani, Kinyei, and Olorien downed their milk bottles and then rushed over to the mud bath. They all submerged themselves in the muddy waters, covering every inch of their bodies and leaving only one side of their faces and their trunks above the surface. Roho, who is one of the biggest bulls in the Nursery, was splashing about so much that he was throwing mud everywhere, splattering everyone.
As usual, Rama stood on the edge of the mud bath, splashing mud on every inch of his body. He too was splashing mud all over the place. Some of the younger orphans stood behind him, getting a full mud bath from his splashing. Ziwadi, who prefers not to submerge herself, was able to enjoy her greens while her friend Rama gave her a secondhand mud bath.
Once all the orphans were sufficiently cooled off and covered in mud and soil, the Keepers led them back to the forest where they had a lovely afternoon browsing.