In November there is an atmosphere of anticipation for the short rains which arrive at this time of year – just like the mixed batch of weather we have had in Nairobi this month, the orphans have had mixed feelings about it too! On some days they are eager to play and splash about in the numerous puddles that have become common place out in the forest and they are too enticing to ignore, and on the rainy days they are reluctant to leave the comfort and shelter of their comfy hay strewn bedrooms.
As the orphans were out browsing in the forest today Roho and Naleku were busy enjoying their own wrestling match. The Keepers were amused watching the two youngsters in the Nursery really challenge each other, with neither of them giving an inch. They were challenging each other to such a point that Maisha, Kiasa and Nabulu all remained close by, keeping a watchful eye on him, and making sure neither of them hurt the other.
At one point it seemed as though Naleku was about to defeat Roho as she managed to push him down to the ground. As soon as this happened however Maisha quickly stepped in and separated them. Both babies weren’t keen for their game to end though and they quickly ran around Maisha and continued to chase after one another.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t too long after this that they both upset each other, with Roho pinning Naleku down when she slipped and she retaliated by biting his tail, causing him to yell out loud and run off. As soon as Roho yelled out, Nabulu, Kiasa and Maisha came running over and Naleku was quick to flee the scene, knowing full well that she had taken it too far. Naleku knew very well that Maisha was on her way to discipline them both and she made sure to hide from the older girls for quite some time.
Once Roho and Naleku had calmed down the orphans enjoyed a relaxed afternoon of browsing.
Maxwell seemed to be in a bit of a grumpy mood this morning as he came out his bedroom. He was stomping around his stockade pushing his greens around and when he got up to his Lucerne pellets, he immediately started to kick his back feet as he seemed to smell that the warthogs were around already. As soon as the warthogs saw Maxwell kicking his back legs, they were quick to run away and give him his space. Once Max had settled to enjoy his Lucerne pellets the warthogs tried to sneak back in, but he immediately smelt them and quickly chased them away.
The warthogs now seemed to realise that Maxwell was not in a sharing mood and decided to head off back to the forest. Once Max had his fill of pellets, he lay right on top of them, making sure no one would sneak in again to steal them.
Kiasa, who is not always the most playful, this afternoon enjoyed a long wrestling game with Kiombo. They were having such fun chasing each other around the forest, before they were joined by Maktao who was also eager to wrestle. As Maktao joined in, Kiasa seemed to get a little bit tired of the games and she decided to go back to browsing with the others. Maktao and Kiombo’s strength testing game continued right up to the point that it was time for the orphans to head back to the stockade compound for the evening.
Once the orphans finished their 9am bottles of milk they all began to make their way back to the forest. As they were nearing the forest edge, Maisha, Nabulu, Kiasa, Maktao and Kiombo shared a playful moment where they all began to charge through the bushes, chasing each other around and barrelling through the forest. As the girls continued to charge around, Maktao and Kiombo decided to change things up a bit and started their own wrestling match. As the bulls seemed to be having the best time, Maisha decided to join them but instead of challenging them both, she kept trying to only challenge Kiombo which meant that Maktao was now left without a sparring partner.
As Maktao was left with no one to wrestle he quickly got bored and decided to move away when he suddenly came across some warthogs in the forest. The warthogs stood their ground and Maktao decided to chase after them in an attempt to move them away from the rest of the Nursery orphans. As the warthogs kept running off and then stopping again, Kiasa seemed eager to join Maktao in his little game and she too began to chase after the warthogs with Maktao. Eventually, they both managed to chase the warthogs far away.
Olorien seems to have adopted Naboishu’s noisy ways and occasionally she too yells loudly at everyone when it is time for her to have her milk bottle. The Keepers and other orphans don’t seem to enjoy it much when Olorien and Naboishu are both being noisy and impatient waiting for their milk as it sets everyone on edge! It is always interesting to watch as the younger orphans pick up some of these habits from the older ones.
It was a wet and cold morning so the Keepers decided that it would be best to keep Bondeni, Kindani, Kinyei, Olorien, and Ziwadi in the warmth of their stables until the weather cleared. They were all given some fresh greens so that they could continue to browse even though they were in their stables. Maxwell also didn’t seem too eager to come out of his bedroom this morning as he remained in his warm bed of hay, seemingly happy waiting for the day to warm up before coming out.
The rest of the Nursery orphans seemed to be enjoying the cooler weather this morning, with some of the orphans even deciding to mud bath and play in some of the pools out in the forest. Larro, Kiasa, Nabulu, Maisha, Naboishu, Kiombo, Mukkoka, Maktao, Roho and Naleku were all enjoying themselves in the mud. They all enjoyed rolling, bumping and sliding on each other as they covered their bodies in mud.
As they were all rolling around, Maisha tried to climb onto Nabulu’s back but she accidently slipped too far off Nabulu and landed on Naboishu who was busy rolling around. Maisha, being much bigger than Naboishu, was far too heavy for the young bull and he quickly began to yell out. All the orphans and Keepers quickly rushed over to help Maisha off of him and help him up. As soon as Maisha managed to get up she quickly checked to see if all the orphans were okay, especially poor Naboishu. Once Naboishu was free and standing up again, he seemed to settle and eventually walked off to browse as if nothing had happened.
Kindani seems to be the mini-matriarch of her little group with Bondeni and Kinyei and sometimes she can be quite protective of her two little friends. This morning, she seemed to be feeling particularly protective of Bondeni as all the orphans were out browsing in the forest. Ziwadi, who is always so gentle and calm, was sharing a quiet moment with Bondeni in the forest and kept nuzzling him with her trunk. This appeared to annoy Kindani who quickly came running over and pushed Ziwadi off her friend. Ziwadi, seemingly unbothered by Kindani’s sudden interruption, just walked off to continue browsing with the rest of the Nursery herd.
Ziwadi has quite a long trunk and as she continues to learn how to control this phenomenal nose and hand, it does sometimes still get in her way. Not fully aware of how long it is, she sometimes accidentally knocks her Keepers with is whilst waving it around and she has also been known to sometimes step on it as she walks. Although she still does this from time to time, she does seem to be getting the hang of things and as she grows taller her trunk will also start to be less in the way of things.
The orphans had a great day browsing in the forest.
It was another wet morning as the orphans were waking up and starting to move around their stables and stockades. Sadly as it was so cold the younger orphans had to stay in their stables again with their blankets on, until the morning finally warmed up. As the older orphans headed off into the forest they were all so full of energy that they even began to charge around and splash around in some of the muddy pools throughout the forest.
Even Maxwell was thoroughly enjoying the rainfall this morning, walking around his stockade and munching away at his greens. He even chose to mud bath at one point and covered his entire body in mud before scratching his horn along the banks of his mud bath in order to sharpen his horn. Once he was done mud bathing, he walked back to his greens and kept munching away.
The rain continued for quite some time but the orphans weren’t bothered and continued to thoroughly enjoy their mud baths. Vocal Naboishu, however, didn’t seem so keen on the wet weather and kept yelling at his Keepers in an effort to dash back to his stockade. The Keepers kept him with the rest of the Nursery herd as he is old and strong enough, and it is important for him to learn to move around and continue browsing in the rain as he would do in the wild.
Once it stopped raining later in the morning, all the younger babies were let out of their stables too and they all had a lovely day browsing in the forest with the rest of the herd.
Kiasa has been so well behaved for quite some time but today she suddenly seemed to decide to return to her old naughty ways at the 9am bottle feed. As the Keepers are always wary of Kiasa during milk feeding times they always choose to let her come down in the last group in order to avoid any dramas with the other orphans. This morning, however, she came rushing down with Naboishu and was so quick to finish her milk bottles that poor Naboishu didn’t stand a chance. As soon as she finished her second bottle she went barrelling over to Naboishu and pushed him away several times so that the poor young bull had to quickly run off to get out of her way. The Keepers all had to step in to get her to back down and this made her realise she had been very naughty. One of the Keepers walked over to Naboishu to finish giving him his milk and make sure he was okay.
As Kiasa had been so naughty the Keepers gave her a time out and made sure she stayed away from the rest of the Nursery orphans until she learnt her lesson. After quite some time, Kiasa could be seen sheepishly trying to come back to the herd and her Keepers and they slowly allowed her too. The orphans then had a lovely day browsing in the forest, with no further dramas during the milk feeding times.
This morning as the orphans were heading out to the forest to start their day of browsing, they came across a lone male buffalo grazing just past the edge of the stockade compound. The first to see him was little Bondeni and Larro. Bondeni, being so full of personality, was not perturbed by the buffalo one bit and instead he chose to try to walk straight up to the big male. Larro was quick to react and run in front of Bondeni flapping her ears at the buffalo and protecting the little bull from the dangers he was so oblivious to. As Larro stood her ground the buffalo decided to move off but when he turned towards the forest he was greeted by Mukkoka and the rest of the orphans.
Now faced with a larger bull the buffalo decided to challenge Mukkoka and began puffing and stomping his feet. Mukkoka was quick to react and let out a deep rumble whilst aggressively holding his head up with his ears spread. The buffalo seemingly uninterested in challenging this big bull any further quickly decided to run back into the forest, leaving the orphans in peace.
After the orphans finished their 3pm bottles of milk and were settling back down in the forest, Bondeni decided to have a little game of cat and mouse with the resident warthogs. He could be seen chasing them around and around the forest; the warthogs always just too fast for the little bull. It was so funny for the Keepers to watch this little bull thoroughly enjoying himself and Maisha and Nabulu were always sure to keep a watchful eye on him. He had fun for several minutes and then eventually settled to browse with the others before all the orphans went back to the stockade compound for the evening.
Naboishu has really grown in confidence and is starting to enjoy spending more and more time with the other bulls, Mukkoka, Kiombo and Maktao. As the orphans were browsing out in the forest, Naboishu was busy wrestling Mukkoka, and after quite some time he then turned his attention to Maktao who was browsing nearby. He wrestled Maktao for a couple of minutes and then quietened down for a little to browse.
He browsed for a good hour and then seemed to decide that it was time for another game and now he chose to challenge Kiombo, who was the largest of his opponents. As Kiombo is so much bigger and stronger their game was very short and Naboishu quickly ran off to challenge Mukkoka again. He seems to prefer wrestling Mukkoka and this could be because they are more evenly matched in terms of size and tusk size; Kiombo is always showing off his phenomenal tusks.
Naleku is such a fun, independent little girl and she seems to really enjoy spending time with Larro and her first friend at the Nursery, Mukkoka. She always enjoys running around with Maktao and Kiombo whilst out in the forest and rolling around with them when they are dust and mud bathing. This afternoon, Naleku enjoyed a lengthy dust bath with Maktao, Kiombo, Maisha, Nabulu, Kiasa and Larro. They were all soon joined by the rest of the Nursery herd.
It was another wet and muddy morning as the orphans were being let out of their stables, but fortunately as it was not raining Kindani, Kinyei, Bondeni, Olorien, and Ziwadi were all let out with their blankets on. As opposed to the other day, the orphans didn’t seem too impressed with the mud in the forest this morning as they were all walking slowly together, and none of them were in a playful mood.
Mukkoka, Naleku, Larro, Nabulu, Naboishu and Kiasa, who would normally walk off on their own to find different areas to browse in, were today reluctant to do so as the forest was still so wet. In the early hours of the morning, the orphans were even slightly reluctant to browse but instead just stood around one of the clearings, as if they were waiting for the sun to show up.
Eventually mid-morning as the day started to warm up, Kiombo, Kiasa, and Maktao seemed to have a change of heart and suddenly decided to roll around in the mud. This seemed to spark interest from all the orphan as they all started to watch them and soon all the orphans were rolling around in the mud. They had a long mud wallow and afterwards they all seemed to be in better spirits and were now all spread out browsing.
The rains returned in the evening again and lasted well into the morning so the Keepers decided to keep Kinyei, Kindani, Olorien, Bondeni, and Ziwadi in the warmth of their stables and as they were all still fast asleep they didn’t seem to mind too much either. Some of the orphans even had very broken sleep as they were scared from the heavy rainfall. Roho was amongst the first to wake up from a loud thud on his roof, and he quickly shot up and let out a loud trumpet in fear. Maisha, whose stockade is right near Roho’s, was up as well and she seemed to be trying to console Roho by letting out these deep low rumbles as if to let all the orphans know everything was okay. As the rain continued the Keepers decided to let the older orphans out of their stables and they slowly made their way out to the forest to browse.
This afternoon, the weather finally cleared and Ziwadi and the others were let out to join the older orphans in the forest. They all seemed to be full of energy as they all charged out to the forest in excitement, including Ziwadi who isn’t always so eager to rush around and will often take her time. Once in the forest Ziwadi’s playful mood seemed to continue as she began to chase the resident warthogs through the bushes and trumpeting at them as they ran away. The Keepers so enjoyed watching her running around and her game continued for several minutes before the warthogs moved off.
Naboishu got into trouble this afternoon as he was pushing Olorien around and was being a bit too rough. Kiasa, who was nearby, quickly stepped in and told him off for annoying the little girl.
The orphans all have their own personalities and little quirks and we can see this in every orphan that arrives at the Nairobi Nursery. This couldn’t be truer for the three new arrivals Bondeni, Kindani, and Kineyi, as they all have such individual personalities and likes and dislikes. Bondeni is so full of personality and character and is loved by all the orphans in the Nursery for his playful nature. Kinyei, on the other hand, is the quietest of them all and she, much like Ziwadi, likes to take her time in the forest and isn’t in any rush.
Kindani is very outgoing as well but different to Bondeni in that she is a very confident young girl who doesn’t get pushed around by the others and always likes to do her own thing. Sometimes Kindani will even object to following the Nursery herd as she will want to go her own way. This afternoon, Kindani decided to head off in the opposite direction to Maisha and wandered off some hundred metres away from the others. The Keepers kept a watchful eye on her, as she is so small and can often disappear behind the bushes. She eventually joined back with the Nursery herd to continue browsing.
Kinyei, unlike other days, was extremely playful today and was having a great time engaging Naleku and Bondeni in short strength-testing matches. The three spent most of their day together.
In the evenings, Mukkoka is normally the one to lead the orphans back to the stockade compound but today he was being challenged by Naleku and Olorien who also wanted to lead. As they are younger Mukkoka seemed happy to let them take the lead and Naleku was first to arrive at the compound closely followed by Olorien.
Maisha continues to excel as the matriarch of the Nursery herd and she is always so vigilant at watching over the little members of the Nursery herd. With all the rain we have had in Nairobi there are so many muddy pools in the forest now and the orphans are constantly mud bathing and splashing around, especially characters like little Bondeni. Bondeni was having so much fun today rolling around, that he accidentally got himself a little stuck in this muddy puddle. As he was stuck, he began to yell out to the others for help. Maktao was the first to rush over, closely followed by Larro and Kiasa. Unfortunately, the three of them were having no success lifting the young bull out with their trunks.
As Maisha could see they were not having any success, she quickly rushed over followed by Roho, and swiftly the others moved out of the way. It was amazing to watch Maisha push Bondeni with her foot and lift him with her trunk to slowly manoeuvre him out. She eventually managed to get him out without any help from the Keepers, which is a skill she may very well require when leading her own herd in the wild and faced with such an emergency. Once Bondeni was out, Maisha spent some time cuddling him and making sure he was okay before letting him run off to play.
Later in the day some of the older orphans enjoyed a long mud bath. Nabulu, Maisha, Kiombo and Mukkoka were amongst the first to enter the muddy pool and roll around. They were soon joined by the rest of the Nursery orphans. After their mud bath, they all enjoyed browsing near one another. The bulls Maktao, Mukkoka, Kiombo, and Naboishu very rarely go through a day without a wrestling match and today was no different, as they randomly sparred throughout the day.
The orphans all seemed to be in a playful mood this morning as they were let out of their stables and stockades, including little Kinyei. Kinyei has been far more excitable that past few days and seems to be settling into life with the Nursery herd more and more. This morning she even rushed over to Maxwell’s gate to greet Max who was already standing at his lower stockade door. It wasn’t long before she was joined by Maisha, Larro, Kiombo and Kiasa who were also eager to greet the large rhino.
Maisha, Larro and Kiasa were playing a game with Max of running up and down with him between his two gates. A game which Max seemed to thoroughly enjoy and one he was always eager to play. Their game continued for a couple of minutes before Naboishu walked by and Kiombo decided to push him unnecessarily. As Naboishu let out a loud yell Kiasa was quick to run over and tell Kiombo off for being a bully. Kiombo quickly ran off to the forest to get away from the angry girls. He was soon joined by the rest of the Nursery herd.
The orphans had a lovely day browsing.
The Keepers have seemed to notice that when Ziwadi is having one of her quieter days she will not stand still and will always want to keep moving and find new spots to browse. Today, she was in such a mood and she kept the Keepers on their toes all day as one of them had to always be walking around following her and checking where she was. She eventually settled to browse near little Olorien and one of the Keepers.
In the Nursery we not only have a matriarch, but we also have a patriarchal figure, who is none other than Maktao. He is such a gentle bull and he seems to love to take care of all the younger orphans around the Nursery. This afternoon, before the orphans had their afternoon bottles of milk, Maktao took Kinyei and Olorien under his wing and would not leave their side and even walked them down for their milk bottles. All the younger orphans seem to also love spending time with their gentle uncle.
It is very common for impala to hide their calves in thick bushes and shrubs whilst they go off browsing and then to return later to look after them through the night. This is effective in hiding their little ones from any predators. This morning, as the orphans were walking through the forest, Bondeni and Naleku came across a group of baby impalas sleeping in some of the dense bushes in the forest. Bondeni and Naleku, both being such charismatic personalities, seemed to become overwhelmed in excitement as they started running after the little calves. The young impala seemed also be having a great time with Bondeni and Naleku, as they were bouncing and jumping around to get away from the little elephants.
As their game continued for quite a long time all the other orphans decided to join in. Naleku let out an excited little trumpet which caught the attention of Maisha, Kiasa, and Nabulu. As the three older girls arrived to join them, the rest of the Nursery herd also seemed keen to join in. However, as the impala calves saw all the older orphans arriving they seemed to get scared, and quickly ran away looking for their mothers.
Later in the afternoon Roho was browsing in the forest near the other orphans when he suddenly came across a tortoise in the long grass. As the tortoise hissed at Roho the little bull got such a fright and he quickly ran back to the rest of the orphans and hid behind Nabulu and Kiasa. The orphans continued to browse until it was time to head back for the evening.
A new rescue was brought in from Tsavo National Park a couple of days ago, who we named Shaka and we will divulge more about his rescue soon. As he was a new rescue the Keepers left him inside the stockade compound with fresh greens, water and a Keeper to keep him company – he had to get used to his surroundings and slowly gather his strength before being able to join the others for their days walking out in the forest, as poor Shaka arrived very thin and had a lot of internal worms. Today, however, the Keepers felt he was now strong enough to join the other orphans out in the forest. As he got to the forest he was swiftly greeted by all the orphans and Maisha, Larro, Maktao and Naleku all wanted to keep him company. Shaka, being a little shy, kept trying to walk away from the Nursery herd and go off on his own but Maisha and the others kept following him.
Roho, as he often does when there is a new rescue, suddenly became quite jealous and didn’t want to share Maisha’s attention with the new arrival. This afternoon he kept trying to block Maisha if she was standing near Shaka or trying to push Shaka but Maisha is so used to this behaviour now that she quickly tells Roho off with a deep rumble and then continues looking after the new arrival.
As the orphans were enjoying a lengthy dust bath in the forest, Ziwadi and Shaka were peacefully browsing near one another, uninterested in joining the others. As Kinyei and Roho were rolling around on the dust mound, Nabulu, Maisha and Kiombo were loosening the soil with their tusks and feet. They had a lengthy dust bath before continuing to browse.
Bondeni is so full of life and character and despite his difficult start in life, he is still so eager to charge around and play with his Keepers and his many friends; no one would ever guess the trauma he had been through before he was rescued. Bondeni is always full of energy after he finishes his milk and will always start charging around, causing mischief and excitement wherever he goes. This afternoon he decided that he was going to challenge one of the plastic water troughs at the mud bath. He was trying his hardest to push the trough around but as it was so full of water he didn’t get very far. He eventually found one of the empty water troughs and this filled him with excitement as this he could push and kick around! Once he rolled it over, he was chasing the water trough around the whole mud bath, causing excitement amongst the other orphans.
Olorien has become quite a tough little girl compared to the others and much like Naleku she doesn’t put up with any bullying from the other orphans. This afternoon, as Bondeni continued his game, Olorien and Naleku were busy drinking from one of the full water troughs. Without any notice, Kindani suddenly came barrelling over and started chasing Olorien and Bondeni away from the water trough. Naleku, seemingly unimpressed by Kindani, just walked off but Olorien decided to challenge Kindani. Unfortunately, as Olorien is much smaller she didn’t manage to chase Kindani away and also had to move away.
The orphans had a calm remainder of the afternoon browsing in the forest.
Maisha continues to try and win over the trust of new rescue Shaka. Shaka, who is still adjusting to his life at the Nursery, is not always so eager to spend time with the other orphans and will often go and do his own thing. This morning as the orphans were browsing, Shaka walked over to one of the waterholes and began to splash water over his body. Maisha was quick to spot him and she quickly came walking over to join him and spend some quality time with him. She even started helping him to spray mud on his body, which he seemed not to mind at all.
As Maisha was with Shaka Roho and some of the other orphans decided to join them and splash around in the water too. This didn’t seem to please Shaka too much as he decided to walk away. Still being slightly weaker, Shaka knows he cannot fully indulge in these playful moments which is why he will often stick to the side-lines with orphans such as Ziwadi, as opposed to taking part in the more boisterous activities.
Maisha, Roho, Naleku, Larro, Kiombo, Maktao and Nabulu all stayed at the waterhole and began wallowing in the muddy waters. They had a long mud bath before getting up and joining the others who were all busy browsing.
Later this afternoon, Maisha decided to take the orphans along some new paths in the forest. Unfortunately for the younger orphans these paths were through some very dense bush and they couldn’t follow so they stayed behind with their Keepers. As Maisha was leading the older orphans, she suddenly seemed to realise that the younger orphans were no longer following, and she immediately stopped dead in her tracks. She quickly turned the herd around, and they went rushing back to the younger orphans who were happily browsing with their Keepers.
There were very heavy showers this morning which started around 5am and seemed to disturb all the orphans. Maktao, Naboishu, Nabulu, Larro and Mukkoka all seemed to be unhappy with the rain as they were huddling to the back of their stockades rumbling as if in protest. The Keepers were trying to wait for the rain to stop but by 6am it had still not subsided. Eventually the Keepers decided to open all the stockades and see which orphans were happy to head to the forest and which were happy to stay in their rooms.
Mukkoka, Maktao, and Naboishu were the first to come out of their rooms; they seemed to prefer being outside rather than being in their rooms in the rain. As many of the other orphans were still reluctant to come out, the three bulls stayed within the stockade compound browsing on the greens inside the compound. The rain eventually calmed down around 7am, which is when the rest of the older orphans came out of their stables and stockades.
Later in the morning, as the sun came out, Maisha, Roho, Kiombo, Maktao, Kiasa and Nabulu all began having a mud bath in one of the muddy pools outside in the forest. They wallowed for so long and were happy to continue wallowing if it weren’t for their 11am bottles of milk. After their 11am bottles of milk, the orphans all happily browsed in the forest.
This evening there was a new race down to the stockades and this was between Roho, Naleku, Olorien and Kindani. Naleku was once again triumphant.
Olorien and Ziwadi who are very close friends and neighbours, decided to spend their day together. They both seem to enjoy each other’s company and will often browse near one another. Olorien is also doted upon by Nabulu and if not with Ziwadi she will go and be near Nabulu, as Nabulu will often watch over her when she naps.
Nabulu spent most of her day looking after the younger orphans such as Kindani, Kinyei, Bondeni and Olorien. She seemed to be escorting them all around as she would take them down for their afternoon bottles of milk and then walk them back to the forest to then settle and browse near them. She even continued to walk them back to the stockade compound in the evening.
Naleku and Mukkoka have remained close since the little girl arrived at the Nursery and always enjoy browsing near each other. This afternoon as they were browsing together they came across a buffalo lying down in some of the long grass. As the buffalo saw them, he quickly stood up and let out a deep breath. Mukkoka and Naleku were quick to rumble and trumpet as if to alert the others.
As the Keepers heard them, they quickly darted over to see what was going on and as they saw the huge buffalo, they quickly called Mukkoka and Naleku back and directed the orphans away from the buffalo. Once the buffalo was left alone, he slowly went on his way.
The orphans had a quiet afternoon browsing.
Since their arrival Kinyei, Kindani and Bondeni have always been a bit hesitant of the older larger orphans. This is mainly because none of them had ever seen such big elephants before and they were not too sure about them. As they have settled into life at the Nursery, they have slowly warmed to the other orphans and now happily spending time together. Kinyei, however, remains the shyest as she always seems unsure of the others. Much like Ziwadi, Kinyei will often move off on her own and browse just away from the other orphans and the Keepers think that for the time being she still prefers to do her own thing.
Bondeni and Kindani are spending more and more time with the other orphans, namely Kiasa, Maisha, Naleku, Roho and Ziwadi. They spend time with the rest of the Nursery herd too but they can sometimes be hesitant around the larger bulls who are always wrestling each other.
The Keepers are confident that the three of them will soon figure out their place in the Nursery herd and will start to hold their own.
Lately Ziwadi, Kinyei, Bondeni, Olorien and Kindani have been forming their own little group and hanging out a lot together. This is primarily because of all the rain around the moment and this little herd need to be protected from the cold and wet weather slightly more than the other as they are still vulnerable. So on very cold and wet mornings they stay behind in a stockade and Ziwadi finds herself as the oldest in the group of youngsters. Instead of being caring towards the others she can tend to be a bit boisterous and knocks into them and doesn’t really care for them that much! This might be because she is annoyed at being kept behind in the compound when she would rather be out browsing, but it is for her own safety that she is kept back with the others in the bad weather as baby elephants are susceptible to pneumonia and with Ziwadi’s history of seizures we don’t want to risk her becoming unwell.
When the weather clears, which is always does after not very long, Ziwadi and the others leave the shelter of the stockade compound and head out to join the other older orphans in the forest. Ziwadi will always immediately wander off in her own direction, looking for her favourite browse, but the other youngsters will always go to join where the older orphans like Maisha and Kiasa are feeding. They know the older females will be very happy to see them and will want to care for them while they are all browsing out together.
Maktao is like a friendly uncle in the Nursery. Despite being one of the older bulls, he is always kind to the other young orphans in the Nursery and is a wonderful role model for little Roho. He is always very caring towards him and sometimes to Olorien in particular as well. Sometimes Maktao can be spotted escorting Roho for a morning of browsing, with Olorien too occasionally, and Maktao even knows who to avoid while they browse too – like Naboishu if he is in a fighting mood, or Kiasa at milk feeding times.
Out in the bush we always find that Maktao has an eye out for little Roho and we can spot him moving towards him to watch over and browse with him. When Maktao approaches Roho you can hear them softly rumbling to each other in warm greetings.
Others like Larro and Naleku always seem to like browsing close to the likes of Maisha who they know very well as the matriarch of the Nursery herd and they always feel comfortable in her company.
The day started off well this morning when the orphans left their night stockades to begin their day of browsing out in the forest. As usual Ziwadi lagged behind to drink water from the water troughs that are located outside each of the older orphans’ rooms. She has a habit of stopping to drink water from each of these water troughs and plays with the water using her trunk as well, before walking to join the other orphans who have already started to walk out to the forest. Today the orphans had stopped quite close to the stockade compound and were feeding on the bushes there, and Ziwadi, who always likes to go her own way, just walked right past them to carry on out to the forest where she could find the vegetation that she prefers to feed on! The Keepers had to go and walk with her and encourage her in the direction the others were taking so she wouldn’t get lost.
Larro and Naleku took their time following their adopted big sister Maisha who was leading the way and browsing slowly this morning. Olorien, Bondeni and Kindani were also browsing not far from Maisha while Naboishu and Kiombo started to wander off in their own direction to continue browsing. They stayed in their own little groups until it was time for their 9am milk bottles and then the orphans all came back together to go for their milk feed.
A short while before the 9am milk feeding time today all the elephant babies came together as they knew exactly what time it was, and slowly they started to make their way towards the milk feeding area as a group. They started to walk a little too quickly however and then the Keepers had to call them back as it wasn’t quite time yet for their bottles and the Keepers were still on the way bringing them out to the forest! Ziwadi didn’t listen however, as she always likes to do what’s right for her, and she carried on walking right up to the milk feeding point.
The orphans have to be encouraged and allowed down to the feeding area in small groups according to the number of Keepers that are ready and waiting for them there to feed them their bottles – they couldn’t go all at once otherwise it would be mayhem! When it was time for the Keepers to allow some of the orphans down to where they have their milk feed it was Maisha, Naleku, Mukkoka and Larro who were the first group and they sprinted to the feeding area as fast as they could, only to be surprised to find that Ziwadi was already there waiting for them, having already finished her milk bottle and eager to continue browsing! When Maisha, Naleku, Mukkoka and Larro were done with their bottles too they escorted Ziwadi back out to continue browsing, and to make way for the next group of orphans to come down for their 9am feed.
It was a sunny morning today when Maxwell came striding out of his warm bedroom of hay, looking forward to the warm day ahead. He seemed very happy this morning and he strode up to where the Keepers had already laid out some fresh green branches for him that they had cut from inside the National Park. He didn’t stay at his green branches for long though and he walked up to the top half of his stockade to have some fresh Lucerne pellets as well. When Maxwell had his fill of Lucerne he went and found a nice area next to a mound of soil and had a lovely nap on the warm ground in the morning sun.
A bit later in the morning Maxwell was awoken from his nap by the sound of some of the baby elephants trumpeting. It was such a sweet sound coming from the little elephants here at the Nursery, as they got excited after their 11am milk feed and ran about in the forest!
Larro has been bonding with Kinyei as of late. Like today after their mud bath at 3pm she was spotted sharing a tasty branch with the young girl – which is quite a big thing for a baby elephant to share such a tasty snack with another! Often they might want to keep it for themselves, but Larro is such a caring girl and we know she will be a good matriarch in the Nursery here one day. It was lovely to watch her being so kind and generous with the other little girl. After finishing with the branch both girls walked to join up with the rest of the herd as they walked out to continue browsing for the rest of the afternoon, before returning to the stockade compound later in the day.
This morning the weather looked as if it was going to rain today but the baby elephants came out of their night stockades as usual ready to begin their day and eager to browse. It remained cloudy all morning but never actually started raining so the orphans continued with their browsing activities as usual. To contend with the chilly weather Kiasa and Maktao decided to start a pushing game – both holding their trunks in the air and advancing and retreating in a funny kind of wrestling match. Eventually they got so excited with their game that one, and then the other, blew a loud trumpet which startled the rest of the herd but little Bondeni and Naleku in particular, who were browsing not far away from them.
This had the effect of encouraging Bondeni and Naleku to come over and investigate what fun the two older orphans were having, and eventually they decided to start a game of their own. Bondeni and Naleku started running about in the bushes, sometimes stopping to push one another, and they probably enjoyed the fact that it warmed them up on this cold morning as well. When they were done with their game they joined the rest of the herd who had started to group together ready to go for the next milk feed.