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Little Luggard is such a polite and gentle little elephant that he is very good company for all the little ones in the Nursery. He spends a lot of time with them out in the forest, as none of them walk as far as the rest of the herd when they go on browsing expeditions, so he is really used to their company. Sometimes they are joined by Sana Sana who likes spending time with the little ones as well. Today Luggard stayed close to the stockades and did not want to leave, once he realised that the babies were not accompanying them out. He tried to buy some time and wait for Merru, Mukkoka and Dololo to join. When he saw them finally come out of their rooms and coming his way, he playfully ran towards them to greet them. He was so happy to lead the little group out, and enjoyed sharing the soft tasty greens that are always found for the babies to feed on. The youngsters are also very happy to spend time with Luggard as well, as he is always so amiable and friendly.

Just like with humans, we have children who are not fond of washing every day and we see this with our baby elephants too! Not all of them want to go in the mud bath everyday either. We have some babies that hate the mud bath and are not fond of wallowing, and some that are always happy to go in the mud and adore swimming. As we have often witnessed, whilst some of the orphans go straight into the water after their milk bottles, Ambo and Sattao seem to do their best to avoid the mud pool. 

Today when the first group came down for their milk bottles, the whole group were observed in the mud pool at some stage, all except Sattao. Even Dololo, who you would think would hate the mud wallow considering his rescue, was not left out and was wallowing in the mud too. Maisha spotted that Sattao was not getting into the water, and it was very funny to watch her running from the mud wallow to Sattao to rub up against him to try and get him to join them in the water. Sattao was doing his very best to try and avoid Maisha! As Maisha kept missing him, she did the next best thing and ran down the rope cordon trying to bump into the visitors there and intentionally get them all muddy, just like Malima does, before running back to the mud wallow.

Before leaving the stockade compound for the forest, Jotto and Sana Sana decided to enjoy a pushing game. They were playing next to Tamiyoi who was stealing some of Maxwell’s lucerne pellets through his stockade gate. She accidentally got caught up in their game and sandwiched between them and Maxwell’s gate, which made her cry out. Sana Sana got such a fright hearing her shout, as she was not sure what had happened. She ran off while Jotto seemed to realize why Tamiyoi was upset, and moved to console her.

Dololo still likes browsing away from the other orphans in the forest. During the day he can always be spotted slightly apart from them. Sometimes he browses close to Luggard, but not always, and we are sure he is still missing his family. Sometimes he is clever and sneaks back to the stockade compound to look for extra milk as well. Sattao seems to have realized that Dololo likes to sneak off on his own, and today he decided to befriend him and also prevent this from happening. Every time Dololo made to move off away from the others, Sattao was there to block him, stopping him from wandering off. When Sattao was unable to prevent him from moving off, instead he would follow alongside him, and that way he was forcing Dololo to have some much-needed company. 

Today we noticed Sattao trying to be friends with Dololo again. When the family of orphans walked out to the forest this morning, four boys wandered off in their own direction. Musiara and Luggard have been friends a long time, and Musiara and Sattao are age-mates, so it was Musiara, Luggard, Sattao and Dololo who decided to browse away from the others on their own this morning. It was a lovely group as Luggard has been keeping Dololo company for a long time, and Sattao has been trying to befriend him recently as well. Sattao stayed by Dololo’s side so he couldn’t sneak off away from the group. Only for the 9am milk bottle did the little foursome decide to join the rest of the herd. Tagwa seems not to have noticed that they had sneaked away, as when she saw the little group approaching she raised her ears high with surprise and rumbled so loudly that all the Keepers turned to see what was concerning her. Malkia ran towards the little group and met with Musiara first, to welcome them back to the herd.

It is so lovely to watch how the older girls in the Nursery take care of the youngest, and if there is one lucky baby in the group we think it is Musiara at the moment. Musiara is loved by the majority of the older females in the family, but among them we think Malkia loves him the most. Sometimes she is a bit tough with the other youngsters, but she is always fond of Musiara, and the little boy of her too.

Today three of the older females decided to spend the day with one baby in particular. Malkia was with her beloved Musiara, and Tagwa made the strange choice of Kiasa, instead of Sattao as usual who loves her very much. This might be because over the past few days Sattao has been spending more time with Dololo, trying to help him, and Luggard as well. Sana Sana seems to be fawning over Mukkoka these days, and she will always respond to him if he rumbles or calls out. So these were the babies that Sana Sana, Malkia and Tagwa, our matriarchal figures, chose to browse with and look after for the day.

Jotto was in a very funny mood at visiting time and we wondered if Mapia had done something to annoy him. He is never usually naughty, but today when he finished his milk bottle he charged over to the water trough and head-butted Mapia away. Sana Sana saw what he did and was not very pleased; she came over to push him away from the water as well and Jotto had to leave the area and walk away from her and Mapia.

The morning was fairly quiet with none of the orphans really playing or messing around and concentrating on browsing. During the milk feeding time in the forest however, Kiasa was being her old greedy character. She arrived at the feeding point with Maktao, Musiara and Sattao. She drinks her milk so fast, so she finished way before the other two and she turned her greedy habits first towards Maktao. She started picking on him and trying to snatch the bottle he was drinking, until Malkia walked over to control her. 

Before the feeding session was over it started drizzling, and this was Dololo and Mukkoka’s cue to head back to the stockades to seek shelter. Sana Sana was standing under a big tree with Dololo. When the Keepers went over to separate Dololo from her to take him back to the stockades, she tried to block them and raised her ears high as a warning. She had not noticed that Mukkoka was also being taken by the Keepers back to the stockades, and when she turned and saw him walking away too, she became confused as to who to stop. Her momentary pause gave the Keeper a chance to walk away with Dololo as well. They waited out the rain in the safety of their rooms until later in the morning.

Tamiyoi had a fun time in the rain. Tagwa, Malkia and Ndiwa made use of the fact the rain had softened all the soil and began digging and loosening the soil with their tusks. When they had finished, before they could lie down and play in the fruits of their labour, Tamiyoi got down and started rolling around and showing off different poses which were so funny to watch.

Just after midday today, the weather changed from sunny to a heavy downpour. Water was running everywhere in little streams. As the rain poured, Maxwell moved from his bedroom to run up and down his stockade. Everywhere, except for his bedroom, was soon wet and muddy which is just how Maxwell likes it and he was running around with excitement. At the peak of his enthusiasm, he got down on the ground and rolled around, covering his huge body with red, muddy soil. His frequent yet uninvited guests, the warthogs, were also enjoying a mud bath, but on the other side of his stockade, as they know that he can get excited and strike at any moment. 

The baby elephants out in the forest were also enjoying the rain in different styles. Mapia and Ambo rolled in the mud, while Enkesha and Tamiyoi sprayed themselves with running water. Sattao and his friend Musiara were engaged in a play fight which went on for some time. Due to the weather Luggard, Dololo and Mukkoka were taken to the stockades as they are not yet strong enough to withstand heavy rain.

We have been receiving a lot of rain here in Nairobi and so the orphans have been experiencing different weather. This morning it was chilly because the weather was very cloudy. Our latest arrivals Mukkoka and Dololo wore blankets to keep them warm. Other youngsters like Kiasa, Maktao and Musiara sought refuge from the cold amongst the older ones. Maktao made sure he was always close to Tagwa, Musiara stayed close to Sana Sana and Kiasa, despite her naughty character, accompanied Malkia. Although Ndiwa is old enough to be a matriarch, she has always shown signs of independence and often chooses to browse away from the others. 

With the change to heavy rain, most of the orphans gathered under big leafy trees to protect themselves from the downpour, all except Jotto and Mapia who chose to defy the weather and continued to browse as though nothing was happening. At times they were seen digging at the now softened soil with their tusks too.

Sometimes we see hints of Kiasa’s old naughty character. She really loves her milk bottle and sometimes will do all she can to get every last drop. After she downed her own 3 pints of milk at the 9am milk feed, she rushed to where Dololo was also quietly drinking his own share. She pretended to walk by but at the last moment she showed her hidden agenda and turned to push Dololo. Poor Dololo is still weak and was set off balance, and her head butt also caught the Keeper off guard who lost his grip of the milk bottle too, spilling some of its contents. Fortunately he recovered the situation as poor Dololo struggled to regain his balance, and sent Kiasa away so he could finish Dololo. That was not the end however, and the youngest but naughtiest girl in the Nursery walked off to try her luck elsewhere. She dared to even try with Tagwa, but Tagwa was wise to her ways and used the advantage of her height to hold her bottle out of Kiasa’s reach. 

Kiasa gave up and walked off into the nearby bushes, where found Maktao busy browsing. In her final act of defiance, Kiasa proceeded to bite Maktao’s tail, which started off another fight!