Every orphan in our care lost their family through misfortune or tragedy, which makes it all the more poignant to see them enjoying life today. One morning, Naleku, Kindani, Kinyei, Olorien and Roho were very bubbly as they left the compound, trumpeting and rumbling in excitement. Their good cheer passed onto the rest of the herd, who also began trumpeting and rumbling. It almost sounded as if they were singing a song together as they walked into the forest.
It was a very wet morning as the orphans were waking up as Nairobi had had heavy showers throughout the evening. As always some of the orphans quite enjoy the rain whereas others are a bit more reluctant to start their day and leave their rooms. Once the orphans had settled in the forest, Olorien, Suguroi, Taabu, Kinyei, Esoit, and Bondeni all started to mud bath in some of the puddles within the National Park.
Esoit and Bondeni are always eager for a game, so as soon as they all started rolling around the two boys were on the lookout for any unsuspected victims to quickly climb on their back. Esoit was the first to make his move, and he immediately climbed on Kinyei’s back, slipping off each time as Kinyei was already submerged in the mud. As soon as Bondeni saw Esoit climbing on Kinyei, he came running over to climb on Esoit’s back.
Bondeni, unfortunately, had not luck at climbing on Esoit as he kept sliding off. He eventually grew frustrated and then pushed Esoit off Kinyei so he could have his turn. As soon as he pushed Esoit, the two boys began to engage each other in a wrestling match. Their game continued right up until it was time to have their 9 o’clock bottles of milk.
Roho, Oldepe and Neshashi are still going through the translocation training as we continue to wait for the rains in Tsavo National Park. Their training is going well and all three are happily stepping onto the lorry and enjoying their milk within the small stable compartments.
Recently, Neshashi has also been enjoying sneaking off from the herd and making her way down to the translocation lorry in between milk feeds. This morning, as the orphans were settling down in the forest, Neshashi snuck off down to the lorry to steal some of the fresh greens and Lucerne pellets that were still on the truck after her first training session. The Keepers within the stockade compound saw her happily walking in and then radioed to the Keepers in the field to come and get her. One of the Keepers came to call her and she happily followed him back out to the forest.
Rama continues to experience swelling in his hind legs and as a result the Keepers have been allowing him to spend more and more time within the forest as opposed to walking back and forth from the mud bath. Walking shorter distances seems to cause less discomfort and whilst the rest of the Nursery herd is around he has spending quite a bit of time with his old friend Ziwadi.
Naleku continues to be an unpredictable matriarch to the Nursery herd and although she is always so gentle towards Kerrio, recently she has been unnecessarily grumpy towards the young bulls in the herd. Recently she has been so pushy towards the younger bulls such as Taabu, Choka, Mukutan and Lorigon.
This morning, as the orphans were having their 9 o’clock bottles of milk Naleku was part of the first of the group and as such she finished amongst the first few. As she was making her way back to the forest to look for her favourite orphan Kerrio, she came across Choka and Taabu who were calmly standing on the border of the forest. As soon as she saw these two bulls, she ran after them and started pushing them about and shoving them away. The two unsuspected bulls immediately began to yell out and protest by rumbling loudly. The Keepers immediately came running over to see what was happening, and as soon as they saw Naleku pushing the bulls, they chased her away and stopped her from coming back.
Since Naleku has been such a bully towards these young bulls the Keepers have had to keep such a close eye on her, ensuring that she doesn’t continue her naughty behaviour. The Keepers think that as with many of the other orphans she is just going through a bad mood phase.
This morning, as the orphans were making their way out to the forest Bondeni was in such a playful mood and as soon as he was let out he was eager to start a game with one of his friends. Bondeni came barreling out of his stockade and ran straight over to his friend Esoit’s stockade who was also already standing outside and the two bulls immediately started to wrestle. Most mornings, these two bulls will look for each so that they can chase each other around the stockade compound and wrestle.
Even down at the mud bath, these two orphans are full of beans and immediately down their milk so they can once again chase each other around the muddy water. Whilst all the orphans are busy browsing or entering the mud wallow, these two are pushing each other and causing all kinds of mischief. The Keepers have to keep a close eye on both of them as they can also start running towards the visitors, egging each other on.
This afternoon, their game was lasting for quite some time and they kept disturbing Kindani who was trying to quietly browse on her own. Eventually, Kindani grew tired of them bumping her and she shoved Esoit away from her. Being in trouble now, the two bulls settled to browse.
As the orphans were starting their day and coming out of their stockades and stables, Bondeni, Esoit, Suguroi and Kinyei were all in such a playful mood running around the stockade compound. Once in the forest, Bondeni and Esoit once again engaged each other in a wrestling match but Kinyei was busy chasing after both of them trying to stop their game and engage each of them. Eventually, their wrestling match turned into a game of hide and seeks where the bulls were constantly trying to hide behind the bushes and evade Kinyei.
As the three were busy running around, Suguroi was enjoying some morning yoga poses on one of the dust mounds in the forest. She was happily rolling around and throwing dust all over the place, not only covering her but also spraying some of the other orphans.
Eventually, all the four settled down with the rest of the herd to browse.
This morning, shortly after the orphans settled in the forest to browse, Tingai led Lodo, Suguroi, Lorigon, Olorien, Sagateisa, Kamili and Latika further into the forest. Lodo and Tingai continue to enjoy going on their own adventures and browsing deep within the thickets. This morning, the Keepers had noticed them wandering off but once they were within the thickets they struggled to keep track of them. As the Keepers were busy looking for them, Tingai had already started leading his small group back to the herd as it was almost time for their 9 o’clock bottles of milk.
The Keepers were so impressed to see Tingai leading the orphans back to the feeding point that they didn’t tell him off but rather accompanied his small group back to the rest of the Nursery herd. The Keepers are confident that Tingai will be a very confident and independent bull in the wild.
Rama’s legs continue to be very swollen so the decision was made today to give him an X-ray to perhaps see what might be causing the swelling. However, with his legs being so severely bow legged, the Keepers feel as though his joints and bones in general are under a lot of strain. For the time being Rama does seem to be more comfortable hanging out within the forest and not walking long distances, accompanied by his close friend Ziwadi when she isn’t down at the mud bath.
Despite still being so quiet, Mukutan has become quite the troublemaker especially during the milk feeding times and down at the midday mud bath. The Keepers had decided that much like Kiasa he should be in the last group of orphans to run down for their milk because every time he finishes his milk, he then starts troubling all the other orphans and Keepers for more milk.
This morning, however, as the orphans were being sent down to the mud bath in their smaller groups, Mukutan snuck off with the first group of orphans. The Keepers had their hands full because as soon as he downed his milk, he started running from orphan to orphan trying to steal more milk from the other orphans and rumbling and trumpeting at his Keepers.
Eventually he was told off by Olorien who head butted him away, and as most of the orphans know Olorien is a no fuss kind of girl and when she tells them off, they often listen. As soon as Olorien pushed him away, he ran off and settled to browse on the freshly cut greens that had been placed around the mud bath.
Kerrio continues to do so well, and when you see her running and charging around you would never have known that she had limited mobility in her hind legs when she first arrived at the Nursery. Today, during the orphans midday mud bath and milk feed, Mukutan tried to bully Kerrio to steal her milk and as opposed to before when she would yell for Naleku and the older girls to help her, this morning she stood up for herself and chased him away. The Keepers were so impressed with her, and as soon as she had pushed him far enough away, she ran back to enjoy the rest of her milk. Despite being more independent, she is still Naleku’s favourite.
It was quite a sunny afternoon down at the mud bath, so some of the orphans such as Taabu, Latika, Sagateisa, Choka, and Kerrio all enjoyed a short dip in the mud bath. They were all having the best time rolling about and covering themselves in mud. Kerrio was even enjoying a playful moment of climbing on Sagateisa’s back and then sliding off. Sagateisa unlike the boisterous boys was happy to play with little Kerrio.
After a fun mud bath session, the Nursery herd enjoyed a peaceful afternoon browsing in the forest.
Throughout the day today, Kindani, Kinyei and Olorien would not leave little Kerrio’s side. Each of the older girls wanted her to themselves and they kept trying to pull the little thing in their own direction which saw Kerrio becoming very confused. First to try and sneak Kerrio off was Kindani, but as soon as she tried to usher her away, Olorien and Kinyei stood dead in front of Kerrio blocking her path. Eventually they all had to accept that they would be walking with Kerrio in each other’s company.
When it was time for the first group of orphans to run down for their midday bottles of milk, the three girls wanted to follow Kerrio down to the mud bath and the Keepers were having a hard time separating them from her. Eventually, the Keepers managed to usher Kerrio to the younger group which is the group she always runs down with. As soon as Kerrio had moved off Kindani protested by rumbling at trumpeting at her Keepers, Kinyei and Olorien on the other hand listened to their Keepers and walked back to the forest. Once the Keepers had calmed down Kindani she went back to join the others and Kerrio happily run down with her younger friends.
This morning, as the orphans were settling in the forest, Neshashi and Oldepe were being naughty as they kept trying to sneak away from the herd to find their own browsing spot. As she has done before, Neshashi led Oldepe back to the stockade compound so they could finish the greens and Lucerne pellets the Keepers had set out for them. The Keepers saw them happily walking onto the translocation lorry, where they both settled eating their greens. The Keepers let them enjoy for a couple of minutes before ushering them back to the forest. Roho, Oldepe and Neshashi are all undergoing their training to get onto the translocation and they are all doing so well but Neshashi and Oldepe seem to be enjoying it a little bit more than Roho as he has not been eager to join them.
Ziwadi is growing into a strong big girl, but one thing she has not quite figured out or learnt is how to properly use her trunk to mud bath or drink water. This has, however, never held her back as she has continuously drunk water in her own unique way of dunking her head in the water trough and on the rare occasion she does want to have a mud bath, she can splash the muddy water just enough to not only cover some parts of her body but also anyone standing too close to her. Despite not fully grasping how to drink water, Ziwadi has no issue eating and grabbing her greens and she certainly loves her greens.
Unlike when he first arrived, Lorigon has now become such a calm and gentle bull with his Keepers. When he first arrived at the Nursery, he was always so nervous around his Keepers that he would chase them when they would approach and rumble at them constantly. Recently, he has been spending most of his time with Tingai, Lodo, Mukutan, Olorien and Suguroi who are all very comfortable and trusting of their Keepers. The Keepers are confident that his small group has helped him get more and more comfortable with them, especially Tingai whom he spends most of his time with.
This evening, as the orphans were running back to their stables and stockades, as Choka came running around the corner a small hyrax came sprinting out of his stockade and ran off to the nearby bush. This gave Choka such a fright that he did a complete 180 and ran straight back towards the forest. The Keepers quickly ran off to calm him down and usher him back to his stockade but once they got close to his gate he was having none of it and would not enter. The Keepers tried to entice him with his milk and all walked into his stockade to show him it was safe but none of it worked. The Keepers patiently waited for 20 minutes for Choka to calm down and enter his stockade on his own. Once he was in, all the orphans settled for the evening.
Since they started their training on the Translocation lorry, Oldepe, Neshashi and Roho have been getting close and closer and forming their own little group whilst out in the forest. As with most of our graduates, once they start their training they seem to know that they are going to be leaving the herd so they spend less and less time with the other orphans and will often keep to themselves. This also seems to help the Nursery herd adjust to when they finally graduate.
Since Roho and Oldepe have been spending more time away from the Nursery herd, Bondeni and Esoit have become the best playmates. They start most of their days by chasing each other around the stockade compound and then once in forest they enjoy a wrestling match before naughtily chasing some of the other orphans. Most days, they team up to chase after Choka, Mukutan, Lorigon, and at some point Kerrio. The older girls will often let them dash around for a short while, before intervening and chasing them off. Most of the time, Kindani and Naleku do have to intervene to discipline these two naughty boys and stop them from disturbing the others constantly.
Last night was a big evening for Ziwadi as she graduated from her stable to one of the bigger stockades. Ziwadi been in her stable since here rescue so it was a very big moment for her, but being three years old, she was certainly outgrowing her room. The Keepers had no problems with her at all as she happily walked into her new stockade without any hesitation. The Keepers have put her between Sileita and Lorigon and she seems to be really be enjoying her new neighbours. Sileita is one of the Nursery’s newer rescues and has been settling in well.
This evening, Ziwadi started a new habit of stealing greens from her neighbours especially Lorigon. The Keepers were so surprised to see her stealing greens from Lorigon because this is not something they had ever seen her do. Ziwadi loves her greens so the Keepers had to be sure to move Lorigon’s greens out of her reach as she would end up eating all of them. However, as Ziwadi is such a gentle girl with all the orphans, Lorigon was more than happy to share his greens with her.
Most evenings, as the orphans are settling down within their stables and stockades, Maxwell is busy enjoying his fresh greens that the Keepers have set out for him. As he comes down into his bottom paddock, he will head straight over to his greens and will knock them around sorting them out and placing his least favourite greens at the back and then his favourites the front. His favourite continues to be the acacia branches which are in no short supply, and throughout the early hours of the evening he can be heard crunching down on the branches. Once he has had his fill he will disappear into his room for the rest of the evening.
Recently, Tingai has been gaining more and more confidence amongst the Nursery boys and he has been spending more and more time with the naughty boys Esoit and Bondeni. This morning, once the orphans were settled in the forest, Tingai enjoyed rolling around on the dust mound with Esoit and Bondeni. The Keepers are so happy to see him settling in with the bigger boys as he was so shy when he first arrived and would often keep to himself. Socialising with the other orphans is such an important part of his growth as he will be interacting with lots of different elephants in the wild.
Kinyei continues to enjoy her playful moments with the boys in the Nursery herd. She used to also enjoy wrestling with Roho but now she is quite happy to challenge Esoit and Bondeni when in the forest. Today, she even joined them and Tingai whilst they were dust bathing.
In the late afternoon, as the orphans were getting ready to run back to the stable and stockade compound Choka and Taabu started their own game of hide and seek. The two bulls have a growing friendship so it was so funny to see them chasing each other around the forest, bush bashing and trumpeting as they spotted each other. At one point, they even came across a herd of impala and they had the best time chasing after them right up until the Keepers called them to head home.
When Sagateisa and Kamili arrived at the Nursery, they were both so emaciated and skinny that the Keepers were so concerned for them both. Since their arrival, they have gained so much condition and they are both looking so healthy and well these days and the Keepers are so happy with their progress. Both girls have very gentle personalities and will often come bouncing out of their rooms and down to the milk feeding points, excited to have their milk and be in the forest.
Recently they have also been spending more and more time with some of the other orphans such as Lorigon, Tingai, Choka, Taabu, and Lodo. Both girls are loving and gentle, the younger orphans really enjoy spending time with them and they are not worried about them picking on them. On top of being gentle towards the other orphans, they are also so gentle with their Keepers and will happily browse close to their Keepers.
Maxwell has been in such a great mood lately, and has been less moody towards the resident warthogs. Much like the elephant orphans, Max also enjoys time with his Keepers when they are bringing in his greens and Lucerne pellets. Often, he will stand at his gate waiting for the Keepers to come over and give him a scratch under his chin or on his ears. Since Max was younger he has always loved his scratches and he can even fall asleep whilst standing near his Keepers.
Once again this morning, as the orphans were settling down in the forest to browse, Bondeni, Esoit and this time Taabu were all busy chasing each other around the forest and engaging one another in a wrestling match. Bondeni quickly grew tired of their game and walked over to the others to start browsing whereas Esoit and Taabu engaged each other for quite some time. It is great to see Taabu wrestling with the older boys as he is learning the important skills he will need in the wild, especially when challenging other bulls.
Older bulls such as Bondeni, Esoit, Lodo, Oldepe, Roho and others have the important role of teaching these younger bulls like Taabu, Choka, Tingai, Mukutan how to defend themselves and gain strength when they are going to head to head with another bull. All these games will also help them gain confidence amongst the herd, and to one day take over when the bigger boys graduate to the Reintegration Units. All these skills are passed from generation to generation.
More and more, Kindani appears to be the disciplinarian of the Nursery herd. This morning, as the orphans were getting ready to run down for their 9 o’clock bottles of milk, Bondeni and Esoit were becoming restless and started pushing at the rest of the Nursery herd. They kept pushing at Choka, Mukutan, Latika, Kerrio, and Lorigon and this was agitating Kindani who was watching their every move. Eventually, she got so annoyed with them that she ran over and shoved them away, chasing them from the group.
As Kindani had now reacted, all the older girls, Olorien, Kinyei and Naleku came to stand round the younger group, protecting them from these naughty bulls. Whenever Esoit and Bondeni would try to come back, the girls would rumble at them, warning them away from the group and they were forced to stay away from the herd.
Kindani and Bondeni were raised together and came to the Nursery at the same time so they have always been such close friends and Kindani continues to enjoy his company but she does know he can be naughty. Even though she had been disciplining him, she is still happy to see him being with the other bulls like Esoit, Roho, Oldepe, Lodo and Tingai. Lodo and Tingai, however, remain the gentlest and calmest of the bulls.
Out of all the orphans training for their graduation, Neshashi seems to be the most ready to commence the next step in her journey back to the wild. Recently she has becoming even more independent and has been quite pushy towards the younger orphans, a sign that she would benefit around orphans of a similar age and older than her. This morning, as the orphans were settling down in the forest, she kept trying to chase after little Kerrio whenever she would come near her. Several times, Naleku had to intervene and chase Neshashi away from Kerrio and at other times Kinyei was the one intervening. Both Naleku and Kinyei are no fuss girls and they were easily able to stand their ground against Neshashi despite her being much bigger in size.
As she couldn’t get close to Kerrio, she was now focusing her attention on Sileita. As soon as she tried to now push the newest member of the Nursery herd, once again Kinyei came running over to her defence and immediately warned Neshahi off. At one point, she was becoming such a nuisance that even the Keepers intervened and chased her off to the naughty corner where she remained for a couple of minutes.
As Neshashi, Oldepe, and Roho were being led back to the stockade compound for their midday bottles of milk, the Keepers didn’t notice that they were being followed by Esoit, Suguroi, and Lempua another new rescue in the herd. As Neshahi saw them following, she trumpeted and immediately started running to the stockade compound. All the orphans apart from Lempua managed to keep up but luckily the Keepers now knew that they were all following and one of them remained with the newest bull in the Nursery. Once the training was finished all six orphans were led back to the forest for a quiet afternoon of browsing.
Most days, there is always a bit of drama at the milk feeding times, especially with greedy orphans such as Mukutan constantly trying to steal everyone else’s milk. Although Mukutan is such a soft and gentle bull but when it is time for his milk he turns into a completely different character.
This morning, during the orphans’ 9 o’clock milk feed, he was causing so much trouble and going after all the orphans. At one point he charged towards Choka whilst he was trying to finish his milk. Eventually, Choka got so annoyed that he stopped drinking his milk and then chased after Mukutan, which resulted in Mukutan yelling and running off. As soon as he yelled out, he caught the attention of Kerrio who always enjoyed chasing him.
Now as Kerrio was chasing Mukutan, Bondeni was already running down for his milk and he ran straight in front of Kerrio who lost her balance and slipped. As she slipped she then yelled out in protest which in turn saw Naleku and Kindani now running down to her rescue. As Bondeni saw the two girls running in his direction, he then did a 180 and ran back towards the forest so he didn’t get into any trouble. With the Keepers focusing on all this commotion, Taabu saw his opportunity to steal milk from the wheelbarrow but he was blocked and chased away by Suguroi which gave the Keepers time to get back and finish the milk feed.
After such an eventful mild feed, the orphans had a very quiet day browsing together.
Bondeni continues with his odd routines down at the mud bath. Recently, as soon as he finishes his milk bottle he tries to head out to the nearby bushes to start browsing and this in turn keeps the Keepers busy as they have to stop him running towards the visitors. The Keepers used to send him off to the naughty corner hoping that this would teach him not to do that but it has all been in vain. Today, when the Keepers tried to stop he was so persistent that he eventually just forced his way through so the Keepers just let him be.
After a couple of minutes Bondeni came charging back rumbling and trumpeting as he had been frightened by some giraffe. Roho, Naleku, Suguroi and Kinyei were all busy enjoying a mud bath when they heard his commotion and came bouncing out of the mud bath to see what may have scared him. The Keepers quickly calmed them all down before leading the orphans back to the forest for the afternoon.
This evening, Ziwadi was very reluctant to go into her new room and she wanted to go back to her stable. The Keepers wondered if something might have frightened her because she had been perfectly fine with her new room before this. The Keepers remained very calm with her, trying to calm her down and after a couple of minutes she settled down once more.
Rama continues to spend his days within the forest and he does not accompany the Nursery herd down to the mud bath for the different milk feeding times. In the mornings, he will always walk out with them and in his own time he will wander off in his own direction with his Keeper. Sometimes Roho, Naleku, Suguroi and Kinyei will accompany him to a certain point and then head back to the rest of the herd. Ziwadi will also keep him company at different points during the day as she too sometimes doesn’t want to walk further into the forest.
This afternoon, as the orphans were coming up from the mud bath after their midday bottle of milk, Rama heard them and he let out a very deep rumble before running after them. As soon as the herd and Keepers heard him, they all stopped and waited for him. Rama joined them for a little bit but when they started to head further into the Park he settled back in the forest.
This evening, Bondeni was being a real nuisance as he kept stealing Taabu’s greens. Taabu tried to pull them back but all in vain as Bondeni was stronger and bigger. At one point Taabu was left with nothing so the Keeper had to get up and move it all back over from Bondeni’s stockade. The Keeper placed the greens out of his reach, and both bulls settled down for the remainder of the evening.
As in the past, stress seems to be the trigger to Ziwadi’s seizures and the last couple of nights she has been complaining about her new room and fighting her Keepers to get out. This evening, she worked herself up into such a fit that she had a seizure, which she has not had in a very long time. Although the Keepers do not like her being stressed, this is an important part of her graduation process because in order for Ziwadi to be comfortable at the Reintegration Unit, she needs to be used to these bigger rooms so the Keepers are really trying to keep her as calm as possible.
In the morning, she was still a little wobbly and was walking much slower than the rest of the Nursery herd. The Keepers decided to let her walk out and browse with her friend Rama until she was feeling better. She spent most of her morning with him and even stayed with him during the midday feeding time because the Keepers didn’t want to bother her. By the afternoon she was looking a lot more settled.
This afternoon, in the forest, Taabu was enjoying a wonderful playful moment with Oldepe and Roho whom were busy wrestling each other. As the two big boys were pushing each other around the forest, testing their strength against one another, Taabu would charge up towards them flaring his ears and shaking his head. Although he didn’t actually challenge either of them, it was great to see him showing such confidence with the bigger boys.
Choka was being such a bully this afternoon that he was sent to the naughty corner. Every time, the Keepers would turn away he would charge after Lempua, trying to knock him to the ground and chase him around the forest. The Keepers quickly sent him away and stood by Lempua, making sure he didn’t sneak back.
The orphans were all so excited this morning as they were walking out to the forest. Naleku, Kindani, Kinyei, Olorien and Roho were all so bubbly, trumpeting and rumbling in excitement as they were walking out to the forest. Their excitement past onto the rest of the herd who also began trumpeting and rumbling as if they were singing a song together whilst they walked off to the forest. The baboon troop and resident warthogs heard the orphans coming and they all scampered off. All the excitement continued right up until Neshashi, Oldepe and Roho were led back to the translocation lorry for their training.
Naleku continues to have her favourites within the Nursery herd and she has always been a temperamental matriarch. For some reason she has never warmed to Choka and Taabu, perhaps because both boys haven’t ever spent much time with her but instead enjoyed the company of the other orphans in the Nursery herd. Down at the mud bath this afternoon, she was suddenly being unfriendly towards Lorigon whom was just quietly browsing on his own. She just stopped what she was doing to run and push him for no reason. The Keepers were most unimpressed with her and this afternoon they moved her to the naughty corner.
It was a boiling day today, and by the midday mud bath all the orphans and Keepers were boiling. As soon as the first group of orphans finished downing their milk bottles, Taabu led them straight into the mud bath. As Taabu was happily rolling around and cooling off, Kerrio watched him for a little bit before finally deciding to jump in as well. As Kerrio runs down for this milk feed without the older girls, she is always cautious when she jumps into the mud bath but once she was in, she settled right in the middle with her friends. Even Mukutan who is that fond of mud baths decided to get in today.
Ziwadi and Sileita were the only two that showed no interest in mud bathing so they were splashed with mud and water by the Keepers. Both of them seemed to enjoy the pampering from their Keepers and cooling off but neither had any interest of going anywhere near the mud bath. Wallowing in the mud plays an important part in protecting an elephant’s skin from the sun as well as the bugs around the park, so the Keepers are always happy to see the orphans enjoying the mud bath.
This afternoon, the Nursery received a new rescue from Laikipia, this young girl was placed in the stockade between Latika and Kinyei who were both so welcoming to her. Latika kept trying to stretch her trunk out to her, to greet and comfort her and Kinyei was pacing up and down her stockade as if she wanted to climb over. The new girl was a bit shy at first but the girls helped her settle down for the evening.
Latika has always been such a welcoming, calm and gentle girl and she was so sweet with the newest arrival to the Nursery herd yesterday. Throughout the evening, she kept on checking on her and rumbling to comfort her. She even changed her sleeping spot and lay right near the wall between their stockades so that the new girl would have company throughout the evening.
As they were all busy greeting each other, Neshashi and Oldepe were having a tussle at the translocation lorry as they were each trying to get to the leftover Lucerne pellets. Neshashi got into the habit of coming over to the lorry and recently Oldepe has been following her so now she has to share her little treats which isn’t always so happy about.
As the Keepers were walking around letting the orphans out of their stables and stockades they herd some commotion going on between Kerrio and Choka. They were charging at each other through their bars so the Keepers quickly let them out, and they both came barreling out. Once out in the forest, their fun continued as they chased each other around the forest and then ran after the resident warthogs before settling down to browse with the rest of the herd.
The orphans have had such a busy morning so full of excitement since they were let out of their stables and stockades. All the excitement started with Taabu and Choka engaging each other in a wrestling match as soon as they woke up. Although these two bulls get along really well, it is very rare to see them starting off their day with a wrestling match. It all started when Choka ran out of his stable to greet Maxwell who was already standing at his lower gate. As they were greeting each other, they were both pushing at Max’s lower gate, enjoying a short interaction.
As they were greeting one another, Taabu spotted them and came running over but he was purely focused on Choka and not much on Max as Max was already walking off. Choka then blocked Taabu from getting closer to Max’s gate and this then saw the two starting to engage each other. Then Taabu dashed off and the two started a game of hide and seek around the stockade compound.
With all this excitement, Olorien then excitedly started trumpeting and running off towards the forest. She was then followed by Oldepe, Neshashi, Kindani, Kerrio and the two boys Taabu and Choka. Their games continued in the forest and all the orphans enjoyed running around and bush bashing. Throughout the day the orphans remained energetic and excited and they enjoyed several games throughout.
Bondeni was in another one of his naughty moods today; down at the mud bath for his midday bottle of milk he was once again causing trouble with the visitors. As soon as he finished his milk, he was running towards the visitors and kept trying to bump them along the line. Every time the Keepers would chase him off, he would pretend to engage Esoit in a wrestling match and Esoit seemed to know that this is exactly what was going on so he helped his friend out. Once the Keepers would once again focus somewhere else, Bondeni would charge at the visitors.
With all the back and forth, the Keepers grew very tired of his games so two of them went over and firmly pointed their finger at him directing him away from the line of visitors. Bondeni who now knew he was in deep trouble was protesting the Keepers by constantly back kicking towards them. The Keepers had no choice but to once again direct him to the naughty corner where he remained for the rest of the feeding session.
Lempua has settled in very well and is now always one of the first orphans in the mud bath. As he continues to gain condition, the Keepers are so happy to see him gaining confidence amongst the Nursery herd and entering the mud bath. All the orphans are also getting along well with him and happily join him in the mud bath.
It was a very long evening for Choka, Lorigon, Kerrio and Maxwell as there were heavy showers throughout the night. Kerrio started off with being fun but as soon as Choka started rumbling and moving around she became more restless. Choka was climbing up and down her wall, trying to get over and this made her worry for him so she went and stood near the wall and then she too started pacing around her stable.
Lorigon all the way over in his stockade was also restless throughout the evening. He too was pacing up and down his stockade, climbing the walls and knocking at his gate trying to get out. His Keeper was close by trying to calm him down and keep him company as none of the other orphans were reacting or paying attention to him. Maxwell on the other hand loves the rain so he was pacing up and down his stockade in excitement and at one point he was even enjoying a mud bath in his pool. Max spent the whole evening enjoying the rain and scratching up and down his stockade wall and rolling around, there was mud everywhere. In the morning as the orphans were heading out to the forest, Max was on his way to bed.
Down at the mud bath, this afternoon, Naleku and Roho enjoyed a brief wrestling match on the dust mound and they were having so much chasing each other around the mud bath. Sileita, on the other hand, was challenging Olorien as Olorien kept trying to push her over and she was having none of it. Eventually Olorien gave up as she was getting nowhere.
This morning, as the orphans were heading off to the forest to start their day Roho and Esoit did not want to head out to the forest just yet as they wanted to browse within the small bushy parts around the stockade compound. Every time the Keepers tried to usher them out to the forest, they would run in the opposite direction and then hide, making it very difficult for the Keepers to catch up with them. After a couple of minutes, the Keepers eventually gave up and escorted the rest of the herd out to the forest. After several minutes the two boys finally showed up to join the herd.
They weren’t the only two that had their own ideas, as Kindani was also in a naughty mood today. Later in the morning, Kindani snuck off with her pals Kinyei and Bondeni, and tried to hide from the Keepers. She was also trying to entice some of the younger orphans away from the Nursery herd and all her rumbling eventually worked as Taabu came running over to join them. The Keepers kept a close eye on them, making sure they didn’t walk off too far away.
This evening, Kindani, Naleku, Bondeni and Suguroi all raced each other home to get their evening bottles first. Like before, Suguroi quickly took the lead overtaking the others and getting to her stockade first. She was followed by Naleku, then Kindani, and last in was Bondeni.
There were more heavy showers throughout the evening and as a result all of the resident warthogs little holes into Maxwell’s stockade were filled up. So they had to squeeze through some of the bars to get inside. They first went to check out the Lucerne point but as no fresh Lucerne had been laid out yet, they had nothing to feast on. It was so early that Max wasn’t even awake yet and he was still warmly tucked away in his bedroom. After walking around his stockade, the warthogs then came down to find Max and they joined him in his warm bed.
At first Max didn’t pay much attention to them but eventually he started to grow tired of them huddling around him. After about ten minutes, he finally stood up and chased them away and then went back to bed. Having been up most of the evening again, he remained in his bedroom until mid-morning.
Twice today, Neshashi led a number of the orphans back to the translocation lorry, something which confused all the orphans who weren’t going through any training. In the morning, she led Suguroi, Oldepe, and Lempua back to the truck and in the afternoon she led a big group of Esoit, Suguroi, Oldepe, Tingai, Taabu, and Mukutan. The Keepers had to usher them all back to the forest, where all of them apart from Neshashi were happy to return to so they continue browsing.
Unlike other mornings, the orphans were quite quiet and none of them were charging around as they walked out to the forest. Apart from Oldepe and Roho slightly sizing each other up in the forest, none of the other orphans had any interest in anything other than their browsing activities. It was another cold morning, so perhaps the orphans just wanted to stay huddled together to keep warm.
This morning Rama stayed with the herd as they weren’t walking off deeper into the forest. It was great to see him huddled up next to Ziwadi, Lodo and Tingai, with Kamili and Latika not too far behind. As the morning started to warm up, some of the orphans such as Neshashi and Oldepe started to wander further afield and eventually the herd followed. Rama followed for a short while with Ziwadi but then he turned back and stayed in some of his favourite areas.
The midday mud bath was once again action packed, as Bondeni kept chasing after some of the resident warthogs who were nearby. Bondeni kept charging towards the warthogs whom then ran towards the visitors so the Keepers had to quickly intervene to ensure that no one would got hurt. Like most days, Bondeni was not paying attention and he kept charging the warthogs. Eventually, the large female warthog challenged Bondeni and this frightened him so he ran back towards the herd. This then alerted Naleku who chased the warthogs far away.