November was a very big month for our lovely Twiggy — a whirlwind romance with a wild giraffe culminated in an extended honeymoon! (Pictured above, Twiggy and her boyfriend)
The timing was auspicious: She was whisked away almost four years to the day after she came into our life. We rescued Twiggy in November 2021, when she was just a week old. She had been reported mixed in with a group of zebras, clearly trying to pass herself off as one of the herd for security. Our rangers tracked her for the day and, when it became obvious that she was an orphan, a rescue was mounted.
Twiggy has been such a special figure in our Kaluku family. Gentle and generous, she is everyone's favourite nanny. Animals big and small gravitate towards Twiggy — she can usually be found with an odd assortment of orphans, from warthogs to kudus to buffalos to zebras, trailing her like a very tall Mother Goose. Last year, a wild dik-dik even chose to give birth in her stockade, leaving her teeny tiny baby in the giraffe's care until she was strong enough to venture out.
While she was once a clinging vine, Twiggy recently started venturing further into the bush, sometimes disappearing for hours at a time. We suspected that she was familiarising herself with the wild giraffes who live around Kaluku — and at long last, our suspicions were confirmed.
It started like any other day. Twiggy spent the morning around the stockades with her motley crew of friends, before ambling over to join the orphaned elephants for their mud bath. But then, without any preamble, she vanished. We suspected that the handsome bull giraffe we had seen in the area had something to do with it.
Sure enough, we spotted the honeymooning pair the next day, with several more sightings in subsequent weeks. We suspect that Twiggy would like to come home, but her boyfriend does not want to let her out of his sight. No doubt she will return to Kaluku in time — perhaps bringing her own baby into the fold!
Pips, Kaluku’s little giraffe, doesn’t seem to mind being the sole giraffe — she has her best friend, Bombi the zebra, to keep her company! The girls have become fast friends and spend most of the day together. They are an unlikely pair but perfectly suited.
On the topic of significant sightings: We also feel confident that we have seen some or all of the missing 'Ithumba Six!' As you may remember, Kitiak, Ahmed, Tingai, Taabu, Elerai, and Rafiki graduated from the Nursery in late 2023. Just days after they arrived, a kudu frightened the orphans and sent them running. A multi-day, ground and aerial search ensued, but they had completely evaporated.
We have had several confirmed sightings of Kitiak around Kaluku, who has long tusks for his size and a distinctive scar. He seems to have joined a small herd, led by two females — a herd that we now suspect includes some (or all) of the rest of the Ithumba Six! The herd contains an unusual number of junior elephants who are around the age of our truants, and they could not possibly all be the offspring of the herd mothers. It is a very happy, healthy little group, and we feel sure that it includes our orphans.
Our Kaluku elephants are doing very well. Toto, Mwinzi, and Natibu continued their graduation training, getting used to the moving truck that would transport them to the next step in their reintegration journey. Busybody Korbessa is not quite ready for that step, but she still tagged along to observe proceedings. She seemed a bit put out by all the attention on the boys and reclaimed centre stage in her own special way — twirling her trunk around like a propeller at top speed. Everyone, even the trainees, stopped what they were doing to admire her acrobatics!
By month's end, however, we shifted plans: Tsavo didn't receive the rain we had hoped for in November, so we decided to delay Toto, Mwinzi, and Natibu's graduation until next year. In our line of work, one must always be adaptable!
Natibu is fascinated by the orphaned hippo who is currently at Kaluku. His pool is a stone's throw from the mud bath, so Natibu has taken to slinking off at midday to sneak a peek. Depending on his mood, the hippo either observes Natibu while submerged in the pool, his round eyes and round ears peering just above the water's edge, or else he waddles over to the fence line and greets Natibu with a wide-mouthed hello. Natibu doesn't quite know what to make of the large, trundling creature!
Korbessa no longer gets her bonus bottle of milk in the morning, but she still likes to be first out of her stockade. The Keepers know that she must be let out first or risk a terrible tantrum. Easygoing Toto and Mwinzi are happy to pad in her wake, while Natibu has never met a race he didn't want to compete in.
Our little sprite Kaikai had a wonderful month. She is currently at the small stable block, where she enjoys being an 'only elephant.' She is a real princess — just like Korbessa — and likes to tell her Keepers what is right and what is not right. If you want to take her in a direction she isn't enthusiastic about, she will do an about-turn and lead everyone in a new direction.
In fact, Keeper Joseph had a remarkable moment with Kaikai this month. They were walking towards Hippo Beach, as they often do, when she suddenly stopped and lifted her tiny trunk in the air, smelling the wind and turning her head to and fro. She was warning him that something was ahead. Sure enough, Joseph heard wild elephants moving, out of sight. Because of her alert, they were able to avoid a potentially risky encounter.
Chamboi is doing very well and growing stronger and bigger every day. When grown, he is going to be a spectacular rhino — he already is! He generally keeps to himself, although we sometimes find him sharing a companionable mud bath with Mr Bean. (Like rhinos, warthogs are wallowers of note.)
One thing Chamboi cannot stand are noisy birds outside his room when he is trying to sleep. Most evenings, a cacophony of hornbills and vulturine guineafowl congregates by his stable block. We enjoy their presence, but in Chamboi's opinion, they are unforgivably disruptive. He snorts and snuffs and does his best to intimidate them, but the birds know that he cannot reach them.
Apollo had another great month at Rhino Base. His zebra friends remain a constant, and some impalas recently joined the mix — we marvel at how these not-insignificant creatures manage to get inside the multi-strand fence securing his boma! Apollo spends most of the day doing his own thing in a very rhino rotation of browsing, napping, and wallowing.
However, nothing escapes Apollo's attention. If he clocks any comings or goings, he is over in a flash. Our pilots were reminded of this one day when they landed at the nearby airstrip for some field maintenance. They heard a quiet snort and looked up to find Apollo staring at them from the other side of the fence.
Apollo is now at Rhino Base in Tsavo.
