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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!

Last night at around 8.30pm the Nursery received another baby from Lake Jipe in Tsavo West. She is less than two years old and has been named Lumi but she is very thin and in very bad condition. Mbegu, Ndotto, Lasayen, Kuishi and Godoma were all very welcoming and crowded around her stockade before they left for the forest. She was upset when they all left to join their friends in the forest but she soon settled to eat the browse in her pen. She seemed to settle in very quickly in general and drank milk from a bottle at noon. Ndiwa and Mundusi were moved to a different stockade on the other side which Ndiwa took very well. She is such an easy going girl and settled into her new room very well, but Mundusi gave the keepers a hard time about going into his new room and it took awhile to get him used to it!

Today the orphans walked out in a playful mood. Kuishi, Sana Sana, Malkia, Jotto, Malima and Tamiyoi especially were seen scampering around as soon as they came out of their stockades this morning. They took their games out into the forest with them where some others like Ngilai joined them, trumpeting and charging around, which got everyone fired up! The climax of the game saw Namalok, Sapalan, Emoli and Maisha take off into the bushes to avoid the stampede of their playful friends. When Emoli and Maisha ran off yelling, the game came to an end as Mbegu, Godoma and Malkia ran off to check on the youngsters. Today we rescued two orphan female calves from Tsavo and unfortunately both are in very bad condition due to the drought.

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 poor new baby woke up this morning looking a bit better than yesterday and even took some milk from a bucket and ate some greens, which she had not managed to do previously. In the morning she was greeted warmly by Maramoja, Mbegu and Godoma where the trio enjoyed entwining trunks with the new arrival, always a sign of compassion and affection. When the three left to go out into the forest the poor girl rumbled after them as she wanted to join them, but it is still too early and she is still very weak. At 9am the orphans had their bottle feed near the stockades so that after, they could escort Sagala out to the forest for the first time. We watched as Kuishi, Godoma and Malkia walked into Sagala’s stockade to escort her out as when we first opened the gate she looked very shy and unwilling to come out, but these three convinced her to follow them. On the way out to the forest she was completely sandwiched between all the orphans. Though boys like Ngilai and Pare tried to chase her and climb on her, their plans were thwarted by the keepers. Sagala looked happy and very relaxed in the company of the others.

Poor Kigeria did not fair well during the night and collapsed at around 1am. She was put on an IV drip but her life evidently hangs in the balance at this stage. Poor little Kiangazi was put on a drip in the night as well, suffering from his injuries and compromised foot – he does not look good either. Our two new little ones aren’t looking good but we are trying our best to save them and are praying for their recovery. We love watching how Luggard and little Musiara are becoming great friends these days. Musiara is becoming even more attached to him than to his age mate Sattao. When it is milk feeding time and he realizes that Luggard is not close by he will stop and wait for him so that they can walk together. Today was the same at the public visiting time when the first group were all running down to have their milk bottles. Musiara was walking down with Sattao, Maktao, Emoli and Maisha but after a few meters he turned back after realizing that Luggard wasn’t in their group. He ran back to where Musiara was waiting with Malima, Tamiyoi, Esampu and Kuishi and the keepers tried to lead him out but he would not budge until Luggard came with him, and then the two happily walked down together to enjoy their milk bottles.

It was a chilly, rainy morning but all the orphans were in a playful mood; the majority of them were seen playfully enjoying the stream and puddles as the rain poured down all morning. Youngsters like Tamiyoi, Malima, Esampu, Jotto, Ambo, Kuishi and Malkia were playing in the running streams which they splashed in with their front legs. They charged and trumpeted around in excitement as they seemed to celebrate the start of the rains. Since they spent the whole morning bathing in these different spots, they had no interest in the mud bath at the public visiting time and preferred to browse on the greens provided there instead. Kiangazi and Kigeria have not shown any improvement and are still on a drip.

Although it was cloudy and cold this morning, the babies seemed to be in a good mood. They were having fun and engaged in play fights, as others dusted themselves and rolled on the ground. Ndotto was squaring up to Kauro despite Kauro’s much longer tusks and bigger size; this didn’t seem to faze Ndotto and he bravely tackled Kauro, pushing him against trees. Ndotto’s best friend Lasayen joined in the game, obviously trying to assist him in overpowering their bigger friend. As their game gained momentum, Murit jumped in to push Lasayen in order to help Kauro against the two boys. This prompted Ndotto to turn towards him with his ears raised and his trunk pointed, forcing poor Murit to retreat and back out of the game. In excitement, Kauro pulled down a big branch from a tree and as the leaves fell, Luggard rushed in to have a share, but Kauro blocked him. At the same time Kuishi, Pare, Sapalan, Maisha, Maramoja, Emoli and Sagala were busy dusting themselves with soil. Mbegu was far away browsing with her babies Ambo, Maktao and Musiara, as Malkia, Sattao and Malima, who didn’t show any interest in either playing or browsing, chose to relax instead. Their rest did not last long because it was interrupted by a warthog that came running out of the nearby bushes. The ever-playful Ngilai was busy in the middle of the keepers, touching each one of them with his trunk. Although they kept walking away from him, he kept following them and at last lay down in the midst of them, kicking up a lot of dust which made the keepers eventually walk away from him again!

The day began as usual with the orphans walking out to the forest with their keepers. As they moved deeper into the forest Godoma, Sana Sana, Kuishi and Emoli went slightly off course but they didn’t know that buffalos were grazing behind the bushes. When Godoma saw the buffalos she raised the alarm, which drew the attention of the other orphans; there was a lot of trumpeting and bush bashing as the four ran for safety to where the rest of the orphans and the keepers were. Malkia and Godoma ran behind Emoli, trying to protect the little one who was desperately trying to keep up with Kuishi. He cried out which Mbegu heard and in her capacity as the Nursery Matriarch it was her duty to investigate. She ran over in the direction of the cry for help with her ears raised and trumpeting very loudly. Kauro and Ngilai also joined her. Upon seeing Mbegu run through the buses, the buffalos decided to run for safety but she, Ndotto, Malima, Malkia, Godoma and others pursued them to make sure they were really gone. The keepers ran to keep up with the orphans as they crashed through the bushes and stamped around. After some time they managed to restore peace and quiet amongst the babies, although Sagalla and Sapalan took awhile longer to settle.

The orphans were evidently in a playful and happy mood this morning as they were all seen running about in the bushes, trumpeting and expressing their full joy at the beginning of a new day with lots of nice green things to eat. This mostly involved the little ones like Sattao, Musiara, Tamiyoi, Malima, Jotto, Ambo, Malkia, Tagwa, Godoma, Kuishi, Maisha, Emoli and some of the older ones like playful Ngilai, Pare, Ndotto, Lasayen, Murit and even poor Luggard! Even he was managing to play and stamp around in the bushes despite his broken leg; he doesn’t like anything to hold him back! The oldest female and matriarch Mbegu was kept very busy running amongst all the hyper babies making sure they were okay and checking that they were all playing safely. At last all the activity grew too much for Mbegu and she blew a huge loud trumpet which made everyone stop dead in their tracks. There was silence before, unfortunately for Mbegu, the games started again! Normally this kind of hyper activity is a sign to the keepers that an elephant will be rescued that day and sure enough, just after 1pm a new orphan arrived on the DSWT helicopter from Tsavo, having been spotted on its own without its mother or any other family members but walking alongside two big elephant bulls. She is a young female, about 8 months old, and is in average health condition and responded well to the milk formula. We have named her Kiasa after the area she was found.