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Actions sometimes speak louder than words and because our orphans obviously can’t speak, they often tell us how they are feeling with their body language, or actions. Maxwell know how to tell visitors to move away from his stockade if he doesn’t want them there, he just sprays that area and very swiftly anyone who is standing there will move away!

Enkesha was also very funny today during the public visit. She is a very quiet and gentle girl, and there were a lot of people who touched her back as she chose to stand close to the rope cordon. It seemed at some stage she had enough however, as she turned with her hind facing towards them a released a stinky fart (having just finished her milk) and they all moved away pretty swiftly. Emoli was misbehaving at the public visit and pushed Dololo so he fell over, but the Keepers were very quick to move towards Emoli and send him away for his bad behaviour. 

The elephant babies were very happy today when they came running down to the mud bath area for their milk at 11am, and found lots of freshly heaped loose soil for them to play on. They had lots of fun, especially Dololo and Maktao who seemed to appreciate the soil the most. Dololo was much more active than usual, and went rolling on one heap of soil to the next, running away and then back again to roll on the next pile. Maktao had fun trying to climb on top of anyone else who tried to roll on the ground.

Emoli is still being a naughty boy and this might mean he is moved to Tsavo sooner than expected if he keeps up that kind of behaviour, just like Esampu and Mteto! He doesn’t seem to like poor little Larro very much, he keeps head-butting and pushing her, and is so bullish with the others. When he pushed Larro today it was Enkesha and Larro who ran to help the little girl.

Today the rain came out of nowhere and it rained quite hard for a short time. Larro decided to go and play in a stream away from the others later on, but Sagala walked away from the herd and came to stand by her side. Kuishi followed her and for a while the duo watched over the little one until she was done with her bath, and then they escorted her back to the stockades, as the others had already gone.

It has been one month since Ziwadi was rescued, and she is slowly adapting to Nursery life and can still be quite shy when greeting the other orphans. This morning as the all the orphans were getting ready to head out to the forest Maktao and Kiasa, her neighbours, were trying to greet her but she kept shying away and running to the front of the group. 

Whilst in the field, the Keepers and orphans saw two lionesses chasing a warthog. This caused a huge stir as one of the warthogs ran towards the orphans, and they all ran off in fear, Ziwadi included. The poor young calf ran off so far that it took the Keepers some time to find her. The Keepers eventually found her, lying on the ground as she appeared to have a sore tummy and was bloated. She was given some medication that helped with her tummy and she appears to have perked up since. 

During their midday mud bath, as the older group made their way down to the water hole, they came across two wild geese on the path. The geese have been around the last few days as they seem to have found some food near the water hole. Ambo and Kuishi came across the geese first and started to trumpet and ran back towards the forest. Meanwhile, Enkesha, seemingly worried about Ambo and Kuishi, came barreling up towards the geese scaring them off and clearing the way for the second group to come down. 

Mapia and Kuishi have never been particularly close or shown much interest in each other, but now that they have begun their training together to enter the relocation lorry this seems to have changed somewhat. Now you will find that Mapia, Kuishi and even Malima sometimes can all be browsing separately from the others, and Mapia and Kuishi are spending more and more time together. Mapia used to preoccupy himself with wrestling with Ambo, but now he prefers to spend his time in the company of these two girls.

Enkesha has always been a predictable baby, and we mean that in a good way. She has never caused any trouble and is a gentle little girl. Sometimes she can be happy and playful and interactive with the others, like today and how she was playing with Maktao, and sometimes she prefers to be on her own and browses quietly away from the herd.