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Sokotei has eventually settled down and adapted to his new environment. He knows and understands feeding time, home time and where to go for milk. He likes to hang out with Orwa and Sonje which doesn’t always go down too well with Oltaiyoni, who considers Sonje to be her her adoptive mum. Barsilinga, who was Oltaiyoni’s original friend, is doing his best to broker a friendship between Sokotei and Oltaiyoni. In the evening Oltaiyoni went back to his old stockade, now occupied by Sokotei. It took the keepers some time to convince her to go to her new quarters as, even at her young age, she has not forgotten where used to be home.

All the baby elephants check on their best friends as they leave their stockades for a day out. Kithaka checks on Lemoyian while Barsilinga picks up his new friend Sokotei. Together they are joined by Oltaiyoni at Maxwell’s upper gate for a bit of Lucerne before they go into the park.. Today is a special day as the relocation training begins for Orwa, Bomani and Teleki who will soon be moving to Ithumba to start the next stage of their rehabilation to the wild. At 11am, Orwa and Bomani entered the elephant moving truck to have their milk without any problem but Teleki didn’t want anything to do with it. The keepers tried to use milk to convince him that the truck was safe but he decided it was better to have no milk rather than get into the truck. At 6pm Bomani and Orwa again fearlessly entered the truck and had their milk but Teleki still declined to enter.

A big group of baboons ran past and scared the orphans as they were going out into the park. Even more scary were the two lionesses they were running from. On seeing that the orphans were surrounded by the keepers the lionesses moved off in another direction. The orphans were obviously scared though as they stuck close to the keepers until the 11am public visiting time. Training continued Orwa, Bomani and Teleki for their move to Ithumba. Orwa and Bomani are doing very well and are entering the truck without any problems. Teleki is still suspicious and hasn’t gone close to the truck yet. It was an exciting evening for Maxwell as Solio paid a visit. She arrived just before 6pm, coming through the elephant stockades. Then she went to Max’s gate where the lucerne is stocked. The foster parents who had come for their 5pm visit were very happy to see her. She left just after 7pm.

Lima lima and Vuria are still the most greedy babies. Whilst the keepers were distracted feeding the other orphans they managed to steal another bottle of milk each from the wheelbarrow of full bottles and run away to drink it. More milk had to be quickly prepared so no-one was left short. The elephant move training is continuing but Teleki still hasn’t got into the truck yet. Orwa and Bomani love it because they always get an extra bottle whenever they enter the truck.

As soon as the orphans approached the browsing field this morning, Garzi and Ngasha encountered a herd of impalas that were enjoying the morning sun. The two energetic boys charged the impalas chasing them through the bushes. The impalas sprinted off, heading deep into the dense bushes leaving Ngasha and Garzi protesting on the outside of the ticket. This didn’t deter the two who started up a game of bush bashing and trumpeting, attracting the attention of Zongoloni, Orwa, Quanza and Teleki who joined in the fun adding to the loud trumpeting and more bush bashing! The game lasted for a few minutes but ended when they decided to follow the keepers into the field.

The translocation rehearsals are progressing with the respective individual orphans showing up and taking part in the exercises. Orwa and Bomani are doing very well indeed, enjoying the experience of entering and exiting the truck, they seem totally unperturbed. Teleki’s attempts, however, are not so encouraging! He seems a little unsure about the whole experience and is yet to fully enter the vehicle. So far, his forehead is the only part of his body to enter the truck. Due to his reaction, it is presumed that a great deal of persuasion will be needed on the day, to load him fully onto the truck for the journey to Ithumba.

The translocation process of Orwa, Bomani and Teleki started early today at 4am. Orwa set a good example by being the first onto the truck, followed by an unperturbed Bomani, last up was Teleki, who needed a bit of persuasion. So the long journey to the Ithumba Stockade in Northern East Tsavo began. As they departed Jasiri, Faraja and Tundani protested noisily, not wanting the three boys to leave. The new male elephant calf from Lualenyi Ranch is yet to be named. He did not have a good night and at 8 am collapsed. An IV drip was quickly administered which restored the calves energy levels. He managed to stand and fed on greens right up until midday where he finally accepted some milk formula, giving everyone hope for his survival.