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The big girls Tagwa, Malkia, Sana Sana and Kuishi decided to keep their distance from the rest of the herd this morning. Jotto was the only boy browsing near them, but even he was not very close. Ndiwa, Sagala and Malima must have decided to keep Tamiyoi company and help look after the rest of the herd while the big girls were off on their own. A few meters away from the older girls, Luggard’s small little group were staying beside their Keepers.

Merru these days is becoming known to the Keepers for his yelling; for such a little chap he has such a loud, strong and high voice. Sometimes he just yells for no reason at all, but the older females seem to understand him. He started complaining when with Luggard, Dololo and Mukkoka today, but they didn’t take any notice of him.

As he carried on eventually Jotto, a very soft and caring boy, did not disappoint him and he decided to go and find out what was wrong with little Merru. As he reached where Merru was yelling away, the little one just walked up to him and settled under Jotto’s neck. Jotto showered him in affection, and this was enough to calm Merru down. 

Luggard, Maisha and Jotto had lots of fun with Maxwell in the morning before walking out to the forest. Max was in his stockade and charging, head-butting and pushing on his gate. The three elephant orphans were doing the same from the other side. When one was distracting Max with these game however, the other two were eating his Lucerne pellets! The three elephants eventually ended up in a wrestling match, with Musiara and Luggard teamed up against Jotto, before they decided to catch up with the rest of the herd.

It is lovely to see the older females, even at their young age, still acting and behaving like mature little females. It was nap time for Merru and Luggard was guarding the little baby. When the older elephants arrived back from their mud bath where they were having their 11am milk bottle, Malkia went around looking for the little ones just to check on them. When she noticed that Merru was having a nap, she began rumbling for the other females. We know she was doing this as they started arriving one after the other, Sana Sana ans Tagwa were the first, followed by Ndiwa, Tamiyoi, Kuishi and Sagala – all of them came! They all surrounded the little boy as he slept, and it took them quite a while to decide to leave for the next location to browse, but Luggard stayed until the little boy woke up.

We had a lovely visit today from our Excellency the First Lady of Kenya who was hosting the American First Lady Mrs Trump. Sagala can never be trusted to behave in situations like this, and she charged over to Mapia because of all the attention he was getting, and knocked into him which meant he almost knocked into Mrs Trump. Apart from that incident all the elephants were very well behaved and Mrs Trump was very interested in them and their stories. After the visit, the orphans walked back out to the forest with the Keepers and then it was their normal daily routine. As the orphans were all crowded together and browsing from some bushes, Kiasa decided to lead the older girls further away. Ndiwa, Malkia, Kuishi and Sagala saw Kiasa walking off and they all ran after her.

Normally Kiko will wait in the stockade compound before joining the elephants after the public visiting hour, but today he refused to wait there and ran out into the forest to find the elephants. In the end though, it was actually the elephants who helped the Keepers return Kiko to the compound, to wait for his usual time of going out to the forest. As usual it was Musiara who saw Kiko first and wanted to charge at him. He saw Kiko running towards the herd and Musiara began charging at him. Malkia, who is very fond of Musiara and never wants anything to happen to him, came charging up to support him, along with Jotto, Sana Sana and Kuishi. They all began running towards Kiko trumpeting and stamping their feet. Eventually Kiko surrendered and ran back to the stockades without needing any further convincing from the Keepers. 

Today Maktao decided to abandon Tamiyoi’s younger group for most of the day. Instead he decided to hang out with the older girls since morning. Sana Sana, Ndiwa, Sagala and Tagwa were very delighted to have the younger boy with them. 

Close to 7am this morning some of the orphans like Malkia, Sana Sana, Tagwa, Kuishi, Jotto and Mapia were all busy playing and rolling around on the ground enjoying a soil bath. Malkia and Sana Sana then stood up and started playing pushing games and knotting their trunks together in happiness, very joyful to begin a new day out in the bush. 

Their happy game gained the interest of little Maktao and Sattao and they walked over to where they were playing. They then began their own pushing game, where they tried to test each other’s strength. Maktao is always fond of climbing on his friends his own age and size, and he was trying to climb on Sattao’s back, but Sattao kept turning and preventing him from doing so, pushing him away, and thus starting the game all over again. Their pushing game was interrupted by the warthogs who like to accompany the elephants during the day, but Maktao and Sattao did not want them too close to them, and took up charging at them instead, and chasing them away. 

Tamiyoi has developed a habit of first thing in the morning, or after any of the milk feeds, leading a group of orphans like Sagala, Kuishi, Ndiwa, Ambo, Sana Sana, Malkia, Mapia and Malima far deep into the forest. When the Keepers search for them, it is interesting to see Tamiyoi some yards in front of the group in the lead. She seems to have usurped Ndiwa and Sagala who used to be the main leaders who would take some of the orphans off deep into the forest. We are not sure how or why she developed this new habit but she seems to have been influenced by Ndiwa and Sagala as she used to accompany them on these little forays. 

We are often reminded how clever elephants are, but we like sharing these moments with you as well! Despite being a new little orphan to the Nursery, Dololo is very clever and knows all the routes back to the stockades. Sometimes when the orphans are out in the forest browsing in the early morning, towards 8am Dololo will try to sneak back from the forest to the stockades to wait for his next bottle of milk right in his stable! He has developed this funny new little habit of sneaking back to the stockades before some of his feeding times, and even though these all take place out in the forest apart from the ones at night, the Keepers are so impressed that he can find his way back home no matter where they are in the forest, using his incredible memory.

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. 

Luggard’s friendship with Dololo is growing every day and this is for a number of reasons. First and foremost neither of them walk very deep into the forest with the others, and they both walk very slowly, which means they spend a lot of time together every day. Today when Merru and the other newcomer Mukkoka walked off with the other orphans, Luggard and his new friend decided to stay on their own in their own area, browsing from one bush to the next and taking short breaks in between. 

When it was time for the 11am public visit today, Kuishi’s love for her milk bottle was very evident when downed her share quickly and then she tried to suck the leftovers around the bottle, before moving to the wheelbarrow to do the same, as there is always spilled milk at the bottom. This ended up with her being pushed out of the way by Ndiwa however, as she moved closer and tried to have some of Ndiwa’s share. Ndiwa turned in circles to try and discourage Kuishi, and when she finished her bottle she gave Kuishi an almighty push, which even left a mark on Kuishi because of her tusks! Kuishi hurried away and began to browse on the greens, rather than get in trouble again.

It was a chilly and cloudy morning this morning as the orphans made their way out to the forest. Tagwa and Malima led as the elephants as they spread out in the bushes to begin their morning of browsing. The little ones Dololo, Mukkoka and Merru wore their blankets as usual to protect them from the morning cold. Luggard, who is always determined and lively, was still at the back of the group with Dololo, Musiara and Maktao. The bigger orphans like Sana Sana, Tagwa and Malkia pulled down some of the branches of the taller trees for the little ones standing beneath like Sattao, Kiasa and Maisha.

During the 9am milk feeding, Kuishi showed off her greedy character again as upon finishing her bottle, she was reluctant to move away from the wheelbarrow, and all of a sudden she picked up an empty one and put it in her mouth, trying to lick the last remnants of milk that might be found there. The Keepers were telling her off and to put the bottle down, which she eventually did drop but just to suck up the spilled milk she could find at the bottom of the wheelbarrow. Eventually she was moved away from the area by the Keepers instead she decided to knock the whole wheelbarrow over.

Malima and Tamiyoi seem to be quite close friends, and we have seen this bond developing recently. Although the mini-matriarch Tamiyoi likes to spend most of her time with the little ones, she also spares some time to play and browse close to her friend Malima. It is also evident that Malima is learning how to play the more ‘motherly’ role from her friend, and today she spent a lot of her day with Musiara, helping him pull branches down that were too high for him to reach. She was also seen twice defending him from the little bully boy Mapia. 

Kuishi and Sagala are both neighbours and friends, but when it comes to the milk bottles they seem to have a bit of a rift. This was evident during the 9am feeding today. Kuishi was the first one to finish her bottle and due to her love of the milk formula she tried to get an extra drop from her friend. Sagala turned in circles in protest to sacrificing any of her milk, even for her friend. 

All the babies love their milk bottles so much they will always come in running for them to be the first to reach the Keepers holding them, and Luggard doesn’t want to be left out, despite his limp. He was seen rushing in with the others and to the Keepers astonishment, and his friends, he overtook Dololo and Musiara to reach the bottles first – that earned him several cheers from the Keepers that morning!