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It wasn’t a good start to the day for Kiko. As the baby elephants walked out into the forest this morning, in the distance the Keepers spotted a pride of eight lions on a mission. The elephants either had not seen them or did not seem to mind them, but there were no warthogs with them this morning, which means they at least must have sensed their presence. This meant that Kiko had to spend the whole day in the stockade compound area for his own safety.

Sana Sana was proving to be a good little mini matriarch today. The orphans had their 9am milk bottles around the mud bath area this morning, and some delicious vegetation was put out for them. Sagala turned into a bit of a bully though and was not being very nice to the little ones Maktao, Mapia, Kiasa and Enkesha. Sana Sana kept watching and biding her time for the right moment. She was very close to Sagala when she decided to poke Enkesha in the back with her tusks, and Sana Sana thought this was the best time to discipline the naughty girl. She too poked Sagala with her tusks and drove her away from the group. Ndiwa, who is friends with Sagala, later went over to console her and spend some time with her, to check she was okay, despite her being so naughty this morning. 

Enkesha’s funny little morning routine has become the norm for her, no matter how much the Keepers try to keep an eye on her. At one stage in the morning before she goes out to the forest, she manages to dodge the Keepers and go and hide behind the stockades in a particular place. There she will start playing with the warthogs and try to chase them away. This is her funny little habit, but today when she was finished hiding she started running all over the place shouting and looking for the others. It was lovely to see Sattao, who came running from the forest to meet Enkesha and calm her down. He hugged her and exchanged trunks, entwining them together.

Ndiwa was in a very different mood today, and the whole day she has been browsing away from the others, and even Sagala did not accompany her.

Tamiyoi is always the first home in the evening from the forest, or she is always trying to be the first! Today she was accompanied by Kiasa and Maktao who were running behind her. Maktao is very possessive of the Keepers so as soon as he spotted the Keepers in the compound waiting to feed them he ran towards the first Keeper. When Kiasa tried to run towards the same Keeper, he charged at her and pushed her back, and ran into his room ahead of the Keeper so the Keeper would follow him, rather than wait for the Keeper to go ahead and lead him in!

Merru received such a lovely welcome from Enkesha on his first day at the mud bath during the public visiting hour, which was lovely to see. Kiasa knows now that she has to arrive at the milk feeding point last because of her greedy, pushing behaviour around the milk wheelbarrow. So after weeks of being blocked by the Keepers and only allowed down to the feeding area at the very last minute, Kiasa has become accustomed to this routine now! 

Today she was the one, together with Maktao, who escorted Merru to his first milk bottle feeding time. Merru likes to shout after he has had his milk bottle, even with the milk bottle still in his mouth, as if he is unhappy that the milk is finished and he wants more. When Enkesha heard him shout she ran over to him and comforted him by walking around the mud bath area with him. It was as if she was showing him where to go and what to do, like browsing on greens or taking a mud bath if he felt like it. After consoling him by wrapping her trunk around him, she walked him to a water trough. They spent some time there enjoying the water, before walking over to some green branches and enjoying the browse, before opting to go over to the mud bath. The Keepers did not want him to go inside today as he is still little and they did not want him to get stuck, so they used a shovel to shower him with nice cool mud.

Malima enjoyed some charging games with Maxwell the rhino this morning before heading out to the forest. She was trumpeting and pushing Maxwell’s gate from the outside, as Maxwell charged and ran in circles, pushing from the inside of his gate too. The warthogs interrupted the game however as a large number of them decided to enter Maxwell’s stockade to steal his Lucerne pellets, and Max decided to chase them all over the place. Malima tried to convince Maxwell to come back and play but he was too preoccupied, so she left for the forest to join her friends. 

Mukkoka joined Tamiyoi’s young group for the mud bath visiting hour for the first time today. He was very calm and very well behaved during the visit. He arrived with Tamiyoi, Kiasa and Merru from the forest, and no one would have been able to tell it was his first time. Tamiyoi was going to push Mukkoka at one point for taking some greens that Merru was eating, but Enkesha came over to protect Mukkoka from Tamiyoi. Sattao and Maktao were very happily engaged in a pushing game, but this was eventually brought to an end by Emoli who separated the two with the interest of playing with Maktao himself. 

Ambo can be quite a bully when it comes to sharing food of any kind, greens, pellets or anything. Today when the orphans came out of their stockades, many ran straight to the outside of Maxwell’s gate, where they could pick up some of his leftover spilled Lucerne pellets before heading out to the forest for the day. Ambo was the first one to arrive there, and he was later joined by Sattao, Emoli, Kiasa and Enkesha. Ambo really gave them all a rude welcome when they arrived, bullying them and trying to prevent them from joining him and sharing the few Lucerne pellets that could be found there. He remained unfriendly to the others until they gave up and walked away, leaving Ambo to enjoy them on their own. His victory was short lived however, as Ndiwa, Sagala and Malkia arrived and Ambo immediately gave way to the older girls.

This morning the orphans were very calm and settled, busy browsing without showing off in any playful games. However just as the orphans were walking deep into the forest, Sana Sana realized that none of the little ones like Merru, Dololo and Mukokka were with them. She took control of the herd leading them, and all of a sudden reeled around and began trumpeting and charging back towards the stockades because she did not want to go any further without the little babies. When the other orphans saw Sana Sana running back towards the stockades they all turned and started following her trumpets, following the lead of Ndiwa and Sagala. Sana Sana looked much more relaxed and happy when she met up with Merru. The Keepers watched her happy and slowly leading them out into the forest to browse on the bushes where the others were, along with what seem to be the nannies Kiasa and Enkesha, merrily guarding Merru. Sana Sana slowly walked out rumbling her content and calling Merru and the others to follow her, as Kiasa and Enkesha walked along on either side. 

Before the orphans went for their 11am milk bottle, they were enjoying themselves and rolling around in the natural muddy puddles that had formed overnight from the rain. When it was time for them to go for their bottles, some of the babies like Tamiyoi, Kiasa, Emoli and Enkesha were so reluctant to leave their new-found mud wallow, as they felt so relaxed and happy swimming around in the water, not feeling ready for their bottles yet. They were acting like children who do not want to get out of the swimming pool to come for their lunch! One of the Keepers was even forced to go into the water to get them out, as they knew that once the orphans saw their bottles it would remind them how hungry they were. When they arrived at the mud bath feeding area, they had their bottles and then none of the orphans felt like mud wallowing, as they had had their fun out in the forest! Instead they concentrated on the greens out there by the Keepers. The orphans were very happy to have discovered this new mud bath, and are quite excited that this might be the start of the rainy season! Sagala, Ndiwa, Malkia and Kuishi all wanted to go back to the same fun muddy wallow they had found straight after the visiting time, just showing how much they enjoyed it. 

The three big girls Sagala, Malkia and Ndiwa are really showing signs of being quite independent babies. Soon after their 11am milk bottle and spending time at the mud bath, the three girls in the company of Emoli, Maisha, Enkesha and Jotto moved off deep into the forest. The Keepers and other orphans including Tagwa did not notice, but as this small little group made their way out, they scared a herd of impala who were grazing nearby. Their running and jumping in the air notified the Keepers that those elephants were walking off in a different direction. The Keepers did a head count and realized who was missing, so some of them started to walk off in the direction they had seen the impalas jumping, to keep an eye on those elephant orphans. Some monkeys were spotted playing in the trees ahead, when one slipped and fell, landing on the floor with a cry which gave Ndiwa and her group a fright. They came running out of the bushes running and trumpeting towards the Keepers to seek their help and safety.

Last night’s food feud between the neighbours Ndiwa and Malkia spilled over into this morning. The two girls pushed at the posts partitioning their stockades as they fought over the leftover branches. Malkia provoked her neighbor first by stealing one of her leftover branches. As soon as the gates to their stockades were opened, they both came out and within second they had begun tussling with each other, Ndiwa probably wanting to take revenge for Malkia stealing her branch. A push and pull fight ensued as they followed the rest of the group who were walking slowly out to the forest. Ndiwa looked a bit stronger, and pushed Malkia so hard that she stumbled and fell into Maktao, knocking him to the ground. This prompted the matriarch Tagwa to step in, who wanted no harm to befall one of her precious babies, and she came between the warring girls to separate them. Ndiwa tried to turn her anger on Tagwa as Malkia walked away, but Sana Sana then came over to back Tagwa and in the end Ndiwa left in the company of Malima and Enkesha to walk off deep into the forest.