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Tamiyoi, Malima, Emoli, Ambo, Mapia, Kuishi, Sagala and Ndiwa seem to have formed their own group in the morning, and as soon as all of them are out they head out to the forest under the leadership of Tamiyoi, who knows all the routes and ways out to the Park. Today we watched as they all followed Tamiyoi, with Ndiwa second behind and within a few minutes they had disappeared into the thicket to browse, right up until the 9am feed. The Keepers found them all busy browsing with Tamiyoi in the lead, and without any concern that it was nearly their milk bottle time. This little group seem more wild and independent than the others in the Nursery, although it contains some young members too.

During our public visit today down by the mud bath, the weather was not very conducive for a swim and many of the orphans shied away from the cold water. Musiara and little Kiasa however decided to brave the weather and went wallowing in the mud pool. As they enjoyed their mud bath, Sattao, Maktao and Emoli just stood along the edge of the mud wallow, watching and deciding whether or not to join in. At one point Maktao put his front feet into the mud, but when he felt the temperature he quickly backed out again.

Today Ambo woke up in a bad mood, but we were not sure why. As the orphans were grouping together to go out to the forest, Ambo was witnessed bullying little Mukkoka, who only walked up to him to say hello, not realising that Ambo was not in a happy mood today. Lucky for Mukkoka the Keepers were standing there and were quick to reprimand the naughty Ambo. As Ambo ran away from the Keepers, he encountered Maktao and Musiara who were happily enjoying a pushing game. Still in his bad mood, he forced himself in between them and pushed his tusks into their backs, forcing them to yell out. Out in the forest today he didn’t want to be around any of the youngsters or those his own age. Malima and Maisha walked over to join him in browsing on a bush he was eating from but he only pushed them away, which quickly saw the two girls retreating away. Elephants clearly have good and bad moods just like humans, just like Ambo today, although we must admit that most of the time we find elephants behaving much better than humans.  

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.

Ndiwa is very capable of plucking and breaking branches from the top of many trees and she is getting better and better at it. Her closeness to Ambo is also growing with time as well. Today as all the orphans browsed in the forest, Ndiwa played her trade, breaking greens and branches to bring them down for her friend Ambo to feed on. It was lovely to watch as the little boy picked and chomped on the delicious leaves. This rambunctious young bull Ambo is having attention lavished on him by Ndiwa who is growing so close to him. 

Malima, who is coming in with the second group for the midday feeding time, made her way down for the feeding earlier than expected today. None of the Keepers expected to see her there for the first group’s feeding time, and had to give her a bottle!

Ndiwa is now used to her new routine of having her 9am milk bottle at the lorry. She remembers that she and the other two girls Malkia and Sana Sana have their milk first at the lorry to practice walking on to it, before the others have theirs out in the forest. Today she was standing at the front of the herd, waiting to be allowed to go down to the stockade to have her milk bottles. She was adamant that was the way she wanted to go, but today the Keepers were actually trying to lead her down to have her milk in the mud bath area. She was walking with Malima and Malkia and even when Malima was leading the way to the mud bath, Ndiwa turned off towards the stockades with Malkia following her, leaving Malima to walk to the mud bath alone. The Keepers working in the stockade compound had to walk them back to where the others were waiting in the forest still to go down to the mud bath for their milk bottles. In the end Ndiwa and Malkia came in last, escorted by some Keepers. Ndiwa is so clever for learning her new routine so well!

As it has been cold and drizzly, the orphans decided to have fun on the loose piles of soil in the mud bath area which had become quite thick and clumpy. Emoli and Mapia decided to turn one of the water troughs into a football by over turning it and spilling all the water out, before kicking it with their feet. Jotto and Malima started a pushing game. Ambo tried to interrupt their game but he was sent away by Jotto.

There was a bit on confusion over the 9am milk bottle this morning, especially for Tamiyoi. Some of the babies who love their milk the most are the hardest to try and direct! Tamiyoi, Malkia, Ambo, Malima, Ndiwa and not forgetting our greedy girl Kiasa are some of the hardest to coordinate. This morning Tamiyoi was trying to leave with the big girls who are undergoing training of entering the translocation lorry for their move in December. She thought it was general milk feeding time and she was not going to be held back! She sped off with Malkia and the Keepers tried to call her back but she wouldn’t stop. Malkia was also called back and she listened, but Tamiyoi made it all the way to the forest milk feeding area where they are normally fed, and obviously found no one there as it was not time yet. She decided to carry on running towards the mud bath feeding area and again found no one there. In the meantime Malkia had caught up with Ndiwa and Sana Sana who were going for their milk bottles on the lorry. Finally Sana Sana is joining the other two on the lorry without any concern. Tamiyoi meanwhile heard Malkia yelling at the translocation lorry as she went for her milk, and decided to run and join those three there. All four babies, at least three satisfied with milk, joined the others in the forest again, who were all still waiting for their milk feed to commence. 

Emoli has developed a strong love for his milk bottle, and so today decided to follow the trio of older girls who are practicing to enter the translocation lorry. It seemed he wanted to try his luck in getting an extra milk bottle if he followed them to where he knows they have theirs these days. Although the Keepers decided not to stop him and let him accompany the girls, they were sure that he would not get any extra bottles! As the three girls were having their bottles on the lorry, Emoli moved from one Keeper to the next to try and get just a drop of milk, but of course he was denied. When the exercise was over and Sana Sana, Ndiwa and Malkia had finished their milk, Emoli was the first one back to the forest, racing back out into the bush to where he knows his own feeding still takes place. When he got there he was surprised to find that there was no Keeper there and no milk wheelbarrow. This annoyed Emoli and he trumpeted loudly before running to where the others were standing. His reaction gave some members of the herd a fright as they did not understand why he was trumpeting and being so hyperactive. Malima, Jotto, Tamiyoi and Ambo also trumpeted but others like Kuishi, Sagala and Tagwa charged at him, unhappy with the way he was causing a commotion!