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Mundusi seems very serious with whatever he does and doesn’t normally like to waste time playing with the others. This morning Ngilai seemed to want to play with him and put a smile on his face but instead Mundusi kept fighting back whenever Ngilai approached him. In the end Mundusi pushed him so hard that Ngilai walked away but this seemed to please Luggard who walked right up to him and initiated a pushing game, which they both seemed to enjoy. Kuishi is one of the only girls that hasn’t developed an attachment to Pili yet. Today she approached the little one and started pushing him, which annoyed Enkesha and she pushed Kuishi from behind. Kuishi turned to push Enkesha back but Malima was quick to intervene and block her from hurting Enkesha. A keeper was also there to help bring control to the situation. Usually Maramoja is very selfish at sharing little Pili as she likes to look after him most of the time. She will walk him away from the rest of the herd and the other females like Mbegu who might want to care for him, to care for him all by herself. Today Malkia watched her walk away from Mbegu with Pili and thought she would join them, but Maramoja drove her back to the herd as she walked away with the little one. Little Musiara thought he was very brave today when he charged at Kiko who was walking towards the orphans. When he saw him coming he ran towards him with his little ears held high, but Kiko just looked down at him and walked away.

Jotto is a lovely little boy and it is not often you will see him bullying any of the younger ones, he knows they are just little. Enkesha knows this and is happy to push him around as she knows he won’t retaliate as she is younger. It is very funny to watch, like today for example, when Jotto spent ages laboriously digging up this tasty root and Enkesha was browsing close by. She watched him digging and when he got his prize she ran over and began fighting him for it. Jotto just surrendered his tasty snack to Enkesha but she would never have dared to do this to another elephant like Ambo or Kuishi – she just knows that Jotto is a soft elephant and will give the babies what they want! Mteto has been nicknamed the laughing girl! She has a funny new habit of laughing whenever she sees a milk bottle, even when she has the milk in her mouth! If you are close to her whilst she is having a milk bottle, be prepared to be sprayed with milk in your face!

The heavy rainfall in the night filled the natural puddles and streams in the forest so that when the orphans went out in the morning, Godoma, Malima, Mteto, Jotto, Mbegu, Enkesha, Tamiyoi, Musiara, Sattao and Emoli were seen swimming in and enjoying these natural water pools. Tiny Musiara and Sattao were spotted swimming with their little trunks above the surface as snorkels, and when it felt like they were losing their balance they just grabbed Mbegu or Godoma’s tail. They spun and splashed around but their little bodies hardly displaced any water as they tried to copy what Enkesha, Tamiyoi, Malima and Emoli were doing. Orphans like Ambo, Kauro and Maisha who shied away from this early morning event stood very far away in the company of Namalok and Sapalan who were busy browsing. It is amazing how quickly Namalok and Sapalan have become attached to each other since their arrival. Sapalan was quick to introduce himself amongst the other bulls and likes pushing games with Pare, Ndotto and Lasayen; though these younger boys are slightly fearful of his long tusks! Namalok is quieter and doesn’t like to interact that way as much, preferring to concentrate on browsing instead!

It was a sad morning as we lost one of the new arrivals early this morning. Both of the new arrivals had been found in a pathetic collapsed state and had been given IV drips to try and restore their functions and enable them to fly to the Nairobi Nursery. We lost the small one and the older one is not doing very well either as it spent all night on a drip and even this morning she remains on the drip. We are doing everything we can for her and hope that she pulls through. We have called her Kigelia. The drought continues in Tsavo and is unrelenting, especially affecting elephants because of their large body mass and need to eat a lot of vegetation. During the public visit today naughty Esampu was quite mischievous. She was enjoying the mud pool with Enkesha, Maktao, Emoli, Jotto, Kuishi, Malima and Murit, rolling and bumping into each other, when she decided to run out of the mud playfully run up along the rope cordon and plaster all the visitors who were standing close to the rope with lots of mud! As they dodged backwards to avoid her she ran back into the mud pool leaving the visitors laughing at her naughty antics. Ngilai is another character at visiting as he always tries to go on the other side of the cordon and spend some time there with the visitors before the keepers bring him back to the correct side. When the keepers warn him to come back he always holds the rope in his trunk until the last second, looking for someone to play with!

The orphans walked out to the forest this morning as usual, although little Pili did not accompany them today due to poor health. The babies looked jovial, playful and happy. After the 9am milk feed the keepers walked the orphans further into the forest to look for greener pasture and Kiko followed them too, although from a distance and making several stops to feed on different trees. It was a sunny day today so most of the babies seized the opportunity to wallow in the mud bath during the public visit. Enkesha, Godoma, Maktao, Sattao and Malkia seemed to enjoy the mud the most and were splashing so vigorously it reached the visitors who shouted – some with excitement and others in complaint at having their clothes made dirty. Before their time at the mud bath area was over the keepers managed to calm the orphans down. Musiara didn’t want to play in the mud but just wanted to be with his keepers, moving from one to another to say hello. Just after lunch time, we received the sad news about Pili’s passing as he succumbed to his illness. He will be much missed as he was a lovely little elephant. Maramoja, who is showing very good motherly qualities these days, was hanging around little Makato and helping him spray himself with dust. Malkia was watching and wanted to help little Maktao as well but this annoyed Maramoja who pushed her away. Malkia did not give up though and she pushed back, but Mbegu came over to intervene and separate them.