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Soon after the orphans had their 9am milk feed and settled back into the bushes to browse, we watched them separate into two different groups. One was comprised of Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Maisha, Kiasa, Maktao, Larro, Ziwadi and little Roho, and the other group was led by Nabulu with Kiombo (of course, her little baby), Luggard, Musiara, Mukkoka, Dololo, Sattao and Enkesha. Each group browsed close together, but in opposite directions far away from each other. Just before their 11am milk feed is when they all started to re-group and walk back towards their Keepers to be altogether again. None of the orphans are happy to miss their milk feeds so you can guarantee they will all get together again for this. Due to all the rain over the past few weeks there are so many small mud wallows out in the forest that the babies don’t often opt to wallow in the mud bath anymore after their noon milk feed. This used to be a daily occurrence and now they prefer just to have their milk bottles and browse on the greens because they can have a mud bath anytime they like during the day out in the forest!

Pushing and wrestling games to establish strength and dominance are commonplace amongst the Nursery orphans, especially the bulls. In the early morning today as the orphans were just settling down out in the forest to browse, the likes of Dololo, Sattao, Maktao, Musiara and Kiombo, instead of browsing, were all witnessed messing about in the bushes playing wrestling games and pushing each other. The two boys, Sattao and Dololo, started the game, and then Maktao joined in by pushing Dololo from behind, and finally Musiara joined in on the other side pushing Sattao from behind as well - so it looked very funny from the side to see Maktao and Musiara supporting their friends in their pushing game as reinforcements. Kiombo came running over to the boys playfully swinging his trunk from side to side hoping to join in their games, but he looked confused about which side to support! Luggard also then walked over to the boys hoping to play with Kiombo, but Kiombo took one look at his big strong tusks and turned away quickly to avoid playing with him. Luggard decided to change tactic and lay down on the ground to invite the other bulls to come and play and climb on him, which they all accepted and they had a happy time playing on the ground with Luggard for quite awhile.

Shortly before 2 o’clock in the afternoon today, the orphans were having a great time in one of the small water pools they came across in the forest. Their games were very lively and over-dramatic with Luggard Sattao, Musiara, Maktao, Larro and Kiasa all enjoying running and kicking the water as they trumpeted with glee at the noise made in the water as they charged and kicked at it. Even Luggard wasn’t left out of the fun and was also spotted splashing and kicking the water as he ran along with the others and copied what they were doing. As the game reached a climax, Maisha, Nabulu, Dololo and Kiombo ran out of the water trumpeting and went charging off into the bushes, something which frightened the others who quickly followed suit, trumpeting and bashing through the bushes for quite a few minutes! The Keepers waited for them all to calm down again before rounding them up and walking them to another area to continue browsing. Poor Ziwadi didn’t partake in the mud bath or charging around and kept to herself very quietly. She does not like to get too worked up as she might suffer a seizure and not feel well for the whole day after that.  

Tamiyoi and Tagwa are the two oldest females in the Nursery at the moment. Tagwa was the matriarch of the Nursery herd before she was moved to Tsavo. For the three months she was in Tsavo before we brought her back because of the pain where her tusk was pushing through the wrong way, Tamiyoi became the matriarch de facto being the oldest. Since we brought Tagwa back, Tamiyoi has never challenged or fought Tagwa for leadership of the herd but because of her nature, she will always be matriarchal material and is always a caring and loving member of the herd. She is willing to give up leading the herd to the oldest female, but will never stop caring for the little ones! In her mind, every member of the herd needs protecting and she doesn’t have a favourite. To some extent she understands who the most vulnerable members of the herd are and she will concentrate on them somewhat. Today out in the forest Tagwa was disciplining the naughty ones misbehaving in the group, Dololo and Mukkoka. At the same time Tamiyoi was surveying the area and weighing up the options, and decided to lead Roho away to a different area where Ziwadi and Luggard also followed because it was quieter and there was no risk of them being pushed around by Dololo and Mukkoka. 

It has been a very wet morning today. It was hard for some of the babies to even come out of their rooms this morning. Ziwadi and Roho were not allowed out into this hard rain. Larro, Maktao, Mukkoka and Dololo didn’t want to get wet so early in the morning already and stood under the shelter outside Roho’s room. Tagwa, Maisha and some of the other babies wanted to wait for the drizzle to stop but the rain just kept on pouring so they decided to proceed on out to the forest. Maisha must have looked back and realized that Roho had not yet come out of his room so she turned back running towards his room emitting a low rumble; Tagwa followed her closely behind. When she arrived at his door Roho was struggling to get out responding to Maisha’s call. Together the two big girls kept pushing and pulling on Roho’s door until it was opened, and the little boy was so excited to come out and join the others. The Keepers were reluctant to let him go as the hard rain can be dangerous without the shelter and warmth of his mother and other bigger members of his family, but sometimes the emotional trauma to an elephant can be greater, so the three left together running away into the forest leaving the others in the group behind who didn’t want to go out to the forest yet. The two big girls must have known it was wrong to take the little baby Roho out, as they went in a separate direction to the others in the herd who were out ahead of them. It didn’t take long to track them down however and as the rain continued Roho was taken back to be with Ziwadi, at least in the shelter of the stockade compound for his own safety and while the rain persisted. 

It seemed Maktao and Sattao grew bored of browsing after awhile this morning. They broke away from the herd and apparently made up their mind that they were going to play instead, not even listening to the commands of the older girls Tamiyoi and Tagwa who were trying to prevent them from wrestling and interrupting the others who were still trying to browse. After the older girls tried to stop them a couple of times, the young bulls decided to move away from the herd to have their own space to play. 

We still have to watch naughty Dololo whenever he is around the young ones. Earlier today he chased little Roho and tried to climb on his back but it was Kiombo who saved the little boy by stopping Dololo. He pushed Dololo giving Roho the chance to escape towards Nabulu who was the only other elephant around at the time, although it didn’t take Maisha long to see what was going on and run over to collect Roho. 

During the public visit today it started raining quite hard while the first group of babies were there having their milk bottles. They all ran towards their Keepers and stood with them under the acacia tree while the Keeper continued to try and do his talk. Roho, Ziwadi, Kiasa, Maktao, Larro and Mukkoka all took shelter with them to hide from the rain. 

It’s always easy to tell when the orphans are in a good mood. Sattao and Musiara have changed quite a bit over the year and we have seen their character change from when they were younger bulls to how they behave now. Sattao used to be very quiet and quite a soft chap but nowadays his mood can change very quickly and he can charge or be naughty if he wants. Musiara was just a playful chap who was always keen to put a smile on everyone’s face but these days it is hard to spot Musiara initiating a game or playing unless he is invited to. This morning we were so happy to see Sattao seriously engaging Musiara in a lengthy wrestling match. At one point Mukkoka attempted to intervene but he was sent away by Sattao. 

We are always very proud when our orphans respond to the needs of another. Roho is settling in so well to the Nursery and is gaining much more confidence. He is much happier to walk all amongst the herd now. Today he was together with Ziwadi, Dololo, Maktao and Luggard ahead of the group, and we are not sure what happened but we suspect either Dololo or Luggard pushed him. He yelled out for help and Maisha, Tagwa and Tamiyoi who were at the back of the herd rushed up to help him. When they arrived he was so relived and happy to be in their company.

It was early morning today when the orphans were let out of their rooms to go out to the forest for the day. Dololo and Mukkoka decided not to wait for their friends but instead began browsing straight away, walking off to start feeding on the nearby bushes. Ziwadi, Maktao and Larro were part of the first group that decided to make their way out to the forest and they passed Dololo and Mukkoka. For a long time both boys had been browsing quietly but they soon started having a wrestling match which attracted the attention of Maktao as he walked passed and he decided to join their game as the others continued on. After some time the three bulls decided to follow the rest of the herd who were already far off deep into the forest by the time they decided to end their game, but they stayed together for the rest of the morning, even going for their milk bottles together at 9am and again at 11am too.