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In the morning the stockade gates were opened for the babies to come out but none of them wanted to, because it had been raining since dawn and everywhere was very wet and it was cold too. Even Shukuru, Mbegu, Ndotto, Ngilai, Ndiwa, Lasayen, Mundusi, Mteto and Sagala who are always basically knocking on their gates to come out in the morning, where quiet and standing at the back of their rooms with no intention of walking out into the rain anytime soon. When the keepers tried to force them out as it was becoming quite late for them to stay in their rooms, many of them like Emoli, Murit, Mapia, Sattao, Tamiyoi and Malima yelled in protest as they didn’t want to walk out into the cold water! The little ones Kiasa, Maktao, Musiara and Luggard firmly refused to come out until the rain had stopped and it was a bit warmer.

We have decided that ‘naughtiness’ is almost like an untreated disease amongst the orphans, in that if it is not addressed it can certainly get worse! Esampu’s degree of arrogance and mischievous behavior is certainly maturing with time. This was also witnessed this morning when the orphans were walking out to the forest for the day. As soon as her gate was opened, the cheeky girl rushed over to Maxwell’s gate where Sagala, Tamiyoi and Malima where enjoying some left over Lucerne pellets. Without warning Esampu pushed Malima hard into the gate to clear the way for her to have some of the pellets too. She then bit Tamiyoi’s tail which made her cry out. The trio ran off to avoid the naughty girl, leaving Esampu to enjoy the Lucerne pellets all to herself. We are wondering if perhaps she would benefit from the discipline of the older orphans in Tsavo than some of the others currently planned for the move! As the rest of the orphans made their way out to the forest, Luggard followed slowly behind them with him keeper. The poor limping boy made several stops before catching up with his friends who were dusting themselves in a clearing in the forest.

It was time for Murit, Godoma and Ngilai to begin the process of boarding the translocation lorry just after 2am this morning. They had all had ample time to become used to the vehicle and the process of feeding inside it. Murit is a very easy-going and calm boy and entered the lorry with no problem, and Ngilai was fine as he accompanied his keeper onto the lorry. Godoma however was very agitated as soon as she saw all the keepers standing around the stockades at that strange time of the morning. When her gate opened she came running out and the keepers had to work hard to persuade her to come back. After a few minutes it worked and she followed a keeper with a bottle to the lorry, at which time Ngilai and Murit were already comfortably loaded and chewing on the greens that had been placed inside. After a few minutes she was in, after seeing the other two on board and after being offered another bottle of milk inside. Just after 2:30am the journey to Tsavo begun and we heard that all the way to Voi their journey was fine. Some of the orphans in the Nursery seemed somewhat confused with the last two moves. Mteto, Mapia and Mundusi were misbehaving and bullying some of the other members of the herd. During the public visit it seemed as if Jotto, as usual, wanted to put a smile of some of the others’ faces and he engaged Tamiyoi and Malima in a ‘sizing up’ game. At least Shukuru also behaved today by staying close to the herd; at least she knew what was going on having gone through the moving process twice already herself!

The little naughty girl Kiasa was taught some manners today. She had been causing lots of trouble during the milk feeding time and went on fighting everyone in front of her, both the other orphans and the keepers too. She had finished her milk and the keepers were warning her away, but she would just shove them to the side to be allowed access to the wheelbarrow holding the milk bottles. At one point when she was fighting Emoli for his milk bottle she almost pushed a keeper into the mud pool! Emoli was standing strong in order to defend his milk from her, and she has tried without success with Malima too. Malima was moving in circles to prevent Kiasa from reaching her bottle. As soon as she had finished her bottle she went after the little girl, and unfortunately because of her character, there was no one else to protect her in the herd. She ran towards Mapia, hopefully for some relief, but Mapia just pushed her back towards Malima. Malima managed to catch her and push her down to teach her a lesson, but unfortunately it did not last long. Later she provoked Maisha by head-butting her for no reason when they were in the mud bath. It was then the quiet girl Tamiyoi’s turn to deal with her!

Musiara still loves his friend Luggard and dotes on him. Every morning when he comes out of his room, he will never leave until Luggard comes out of his door as well. This morning Musiara came out of his room somewhat earlier than usual and before most of his friends including Luggard. He then proceeded to push Luggard’s door a few times in vain, wanting him to come out and join him too. When this failed he ended up just hanging around Luggard’s stable waiting for him. The keepers nor any of the others orphans could convince him to follow them when it was time to go into the forest. When Luggard eventually came out, they embraced trunks and slowly walked out to meet the others who were already in the forest. Ambo is turning into a little boy who loves to play, even more than Malima within the young group. Malima has always been known to be a playful girl, one never to sit idle but at least start a pushing game with someone whenever she can. Ambo has been very active and playful today, wanting to play with everyone in the group. He started by inviting the little naughty girl Kiasa to a pushing game, but Tamiyoi wasn’t very pleased about that and went over to separate them so she could take him on. From a distance Malima saw Tamiyoi playing with Ambo and she then came over to push Tamiyoi away. But Ambo had chosen to play with Tamiyoi, so Malima was driven away. The game became bigger however when Jotto and Malima decided to force their way in to the game with the other two! The keepers just had to keep extra eyes on them to make sure they didn’t hurt any of the little ones.

Today was a brighter day compared to the last few days, which meant all the orphans were active and playful. Musiara and Maisha were within the first group of orphans who came down for the 11am milk feed, and they set about having a fun dust bath after finishing their milk bottles. Later after all the orphans in the first group had finished their bottles, Enkesha led them into the mud bath for a swim. Out of the eleven orphans in the group, only Sattao wasn’t interested in swimming. Tamiyoi was on vigilant guard duty, driving all the warthogs away from the area. At one point she was assisted by Maisha as well. Their vigilance however left some of the visitors uncomfortable as they drove the warthogs away through the feet of those standing nearby. Malima and Emoli have become protective of the young ones it seems. Today there was a lady touching Maktao who was standing near the rope cordon, but Malima didn’t like this and kept charging at the lady whenever she went to pet the young boy. The keeper sent her away but she threw a little back kick just to show her displeasure! There was another man holding a big camera taking photos, and Emoli didn’t seem to like this either and kept charging towards it, trying to head butt the camera whenever the man pointed it at the orphans.

Lions have been roaming around in the area over the past few days, which meant Kiko has been unable to join the elephants out in the forest. Having not seen or heard then last night and this morning, Kiko was taken out to spend some time with the elephant babies. But Kiko is very stubborn! Having been kept back in the stockade area over the last few days, now he thinks he can only be in the stockade area. When he was taken out to the forest, it didn’t take him long to come running back. When he arrived back he decided to walk around the elephant rooms, eating their leftover lucerne pellets. Malima has her own way of approaching the keepers to have her milk bottle. Sometimes she is spotted going down on her front knees to request her milk! When she has had her first bottle she walks backwards, then forwards and then down on her knees for the second one.