Keepers' Diaries, October 2018

Voi Reintegration Unit



This month the Keepers found the weaver birds singing in the trees and industriously creating their nests, which is always one of the first signs that rain is on the way. Whilst we approach the end of the dry season, the elephant orphans busied themselves with browsing throughout the day so as to get enough to eat before returning to the stockades in the evening.

01 October 2018

The keepers woke up this morning to find that Tawi, the male ex-orphan eland that had gone wild more than a month ago, had come to visit. Tawi who is believed to be the father of Kore’s new born baby (Karibu) was back and the Keepers were all thrilled to see him. Tawi went to greet Kore and Karibu and their meeting was filled with joy. Karibu followed Tawi for walks around the stockade compound before settling down to feed from Kore. Ol-tukai the buffalo, Tawi’s best friend, upon seeing Tawi came out of his stockade and started jumping around full of excitement. He then engaged Tawi in a head butting game before settling with him to feed on Lucerne grass pellets.

The orphan elephants came out of their stockades for the morning milk feed. Ngilai came running out followed by Godoma and Tahri. The orphans then headed to the park for the days browsing activities under Tundani and Nelion’s leadership.

02 October 2018

The orphans woke up early in the morning, before the Keepers had even finished preparing their milk bottles. After milk feeding, Ndotto became a little greedy and took a large amount of Lucerne grass pellets, coiling his trunk to hold them so that he could have a feast. Mashariki, who was close to him, stretched her trunk over and grabbed the pellets from him, stuffing them into her mouth before Ndotto could eat any himself.  

Murit and Ngilai had a wonderful time playing a game of hide and seek before playing a game of holding and pulling one another’s trunks. Tahri enjoyed a scratching against a rock with Naipoki, Kihari and Mudanda all pretending to stand guard as they waited for her to finish so that they could take a turn.  Rorogoi and Mashariki were busy stretching their trunks up to reach the top branches of the acacia trees for green leaves, while being careful not to come into contact with the electric fence.   

Lentili led the group out towards the browsing fields with Mbegu coming in last as she was busy picking up the remains of the Lucerne grass pellets from the feeding tray. The orphan elephants had their afternoon milk feed before visiting the baobab tree water hole where they enjoyed a noon mud bath. The rest of the days browsing activities took place close to the water hole.

03 October 2018

The gates of the stockade were opened in the morning and the orphans came running out to assemble for their milk bottle which they had while Ol-tukai enjoyed playing with his best friend Tawi. Ngulia the zebra seems to still be jealous of baby Karibu and the Keepers made sure to keep Ngulia away from her.

The orphan elephants browsed their way to the northern side of the stockade turning slowly once there to make their way to the baobab tree water hole for the afternoon milk feed. It was fairly cold and the orphans didn’t wallow, choosing instead to only have a drink of water. Ndii became quite mischievous and was seen scooping a trunkful of water from the water trough to spray over her friends who all ran off.

While browsing in the afternoon a ten year old wild elephant calf came down the western side of Msinga Hill to interact with the orphans. Mbegu ran away from him when he came up to her, not wanting to interact with him.  The wild boy rejoined his group after about ten minutes of socializing with the orphan herd.  

04 October 2018

The morning began with the orphans sprinting out of their stockades to grab their morning milk bottle.  There were some brief games around the stockade compound before the orphans headed for the browsing grounds. Mashariki, Lentili and Mudanda took the lead as the orphan herd made their way up the eastern side of Msinga Hill where they settled to browse. Mbegu consolidated her six member herd and they remained half way up the Hill for their browsing session.

The weather was fairly hot and the orphans were quite thirsty by the time they began their decent to make their way to the baobab waterhole for their milk feed.  Panda kept pushing her friends to go into the water for a wallow while she stayed out of the water. Ishaq-B was targeted by Panda today who kept following her around the waterhole preventing her from coming out. Ishaq-B decided to act as if she was in no hurry to come out of the water which had the intended result of Panda walking away so that Ishaq-B could exit and join the rest of her friends who were browsing nearby.  

05 October 2018

It was another peaceful beginning to the day as the orphan elephants concentrated on their milk and supplement feeding before engaging in socializing games around the stockade compound.

In the afternoon they browsed their way in single file to the baobab tree water hole for their noon milk bottle and mud bath.  

Embu had a wonderful time playing at the wallow. She stood with her front legs in the water and leant down on the so as to poke the ground with her tusks. Ishaq-B saw her game and came over to disrupt it and get Embu to move away. Mbegu and Godoma were busy having a drink of water when Tundani came and jumped into the water trough in an effort to impress the two, who were anything but impressed and walked away.  As it was a hot day the entire herd enjoyed playing in the mud bath.

06 October 2018

The morning began with Lasayen, Murit and Ndotto holding Ngilai hostage behind them when the Keepers opened the stockade gates for the orphans come out for their milk feed. This was torture for Ngilai who is usually the fastest one to come out for his milk bottle.  

There was some light rain as the orphans left the stockade compound. They spent a brief moment playing soil bathing games on the foot of Msinga Hill before making their way to the far northern side of Msinga Hill for the morning browsing session.  

The afternoon mud bathing was amazing as the orphan elephants jumped into the water and started rolling around in the mud. Arruba was joined by Tahri and the two enjoyed a game of lying on one another.  Ndii was not happy with this game and came charging in to get her adopted baby Tahri away from Arruba who was very excited about playing with Tahri, and ran from one edge of the waterhole to the other.

In the evening the orphan herd joined a wild elephant herd that was browsing on the southern side of Msinga Hill feasting on a fallen acacia tree. They spent some time with the wild herd before making their way back to the stockades for the night.  

07 October 2018

The orphans came out of their stockades in a happy mood having their morning milk bottle before settling down for their supplement feeding. Mudanda started pushing Rorogoi away from the Lucerne grass pellet feeding tray and the Keepers had to intervene to maintain the peace. 

The orphans then enjoyed some stockade games with Araba leaving Kenia who is less playful to join Kihari, Suswa and Naipoki for some lying and rolling games on the red earth piles before the entire group left for the browsing grounds. 

Mbegu secured a green bush to browse on as it had a lot of lush green leaves which she stuffed into her mouth. Ndoria approached Mbegu and stood next to her, grabbing green leaves directly from Mbegu’s mouth instead of from the bush.  The orphans visited the baobab tree water hole in the afternoon where they had a drink of water but didn’t wallow as it was quite a cold day.

On the way back to the stockades in the evening Tundani and Nelion became engaged in a strength testing game wanting to settle some sort of score which no one knew about.  

08 October 2018

The stockade dependent orphan elephants came out of their stockades in a happy mood and headed straight to their milk bottle which they wasted no time in drinking.  Panda engaged Nelion in a play fighting game while sitting on one of the stockade terraces while Mbegu enjoyed a scratching session against a big rock in the stockade compound where she was joined by Rorogoi. Mbegu then took the lead of her friends to the browsing grounds.

The orphans browsed for about an hour on the northern foot of Msinga Hill where Arruba and Embu had a scratch against a big rock boulder.  The orphan herd visited the baobab tree water hole where they had a lot of fun playing mud bathing games following their milk feed. Ndotto lay on Murit to stop him from being the star of the wallowing games while Nelion enjoyed scratching his bottom against a big rock. The rest of the days browsing activities took place close to Msinga Hill.

09 October 2018

The milk dependent orphans came running out of the stockade assembling in a near-perfect straight line for their morning milk bottle after which they proceeded for the supplement feeding.

They then started playing games with Ndotto engaging both Kenia and Ndii in a play fighting game. The Keepers were a bit surprised as to Ndotto’s choice of play mates as both Kenia and Ndii are bigger than he is. Kenia, who usually avoids such games, seemed happy to oblige Ndotto. Lasayen was busy teasing Murit to play strength testing games while Godoma charged around the stockade perimeter fence line in an effort to keep baboons away from the stockade compound.

Later in the morning, the Voi Keepers received a report about three ex-orphans that were seen in the sisal estate sanctuary. On arriving at the sanctuary Ndara, her baby Neptune, Rombo and Taveta were found. The four were very shy and kept disappearing into some thick bush. Emily’s herd which consists of most of the other ex-orphans was not seen despite reports having been received that they had been drinking from the sanctuary water hole.  

10 October 2018

The day began with the orphan’s usual routine of milk and supplement feeding followed by games around the stockade compound. Ngilai engaged his best friend Lasayen head on in a wonderful play fighting encounter. Nelion lay on the ground and watched Ndotto’s scratching session against an outcropping rock boulder. Nelion then got up and went to join Ndotto but was prevented from doing so by Rorogoi who had been patiently waiting her turn and would not allow Nelion to jump the queue.   

The orphan elephants left the stockade for the Park under the leadership of Mbegu and Lentili.

At noon they had a lot of fun at the mud bath before resuming with their browsing activities on the northern side of the baobab water hole under Lasayen’s leadership. They encountered a big wild herd of water bucks which they stopped to admire before continuing to browse.

11 October 2018

It was a very bright morning as the sun rose and the orphans exited their stockades. They enjoyed their milk and supplement feeding before playing games around the stockade compound.   

Once out in the Park, Lasayen went to seek shelter from the scorching sun under a very big rock boulder on the eastern foot of Msinga Hill. He was able to browse on some green vegetation that he found there at the same time. Ngilai enjoyed a scratching session against a tree after which he engaged Murit in a strength testing pushing game. It was not long before the rest of the orphans sought shelter from the sun, stopping under the shade of the trees as they browsed their way to the baobab water hole where they took their time mud bathing in an effort to cool off.  

The afternoon was spent browsing on the southern side of the waterhole. Tundani and Nelion ended their day with a tough wrestling match which the rest of the orphans watched. When the game was over the orphan herd made their way back to the safety of the stockades for the night.

12 October 2018

This morning the birds were singing loudly in the trees as the milk dependent orphan elephants lined up for their milk bottles. This means that the rains might soon be on the way. After milk feeding, Ngilai ran to the water trough for a drink, cleaning his mouth so that it would appear that he hadn’t been given his share, and came back to beg for more but was prevented from doing so by Ndoria who realized his intentions and chased him away.  

Mudanda and Mashariki chose separate rocks for a scratching session while Kihari and Suswa stretched their trunks as high as they could to harvest green branches from the acacia tree. The orphans browsed in single file, moving slowly so that they could get as much vegetation as they could as it is quickly drying out as the dry season continues.   

After the noon milk feed, Godoma had some wonderful games of running in and out of water hole. Her game attracted the attention of the rest of the orphans who were happy to join her and they all had a fantastic time playing in the mud bath.

13 October 2018

The morning began with baby eland Karibu jumping up and running around the stockade compound after milk feeding from her mother. Ngulia, who was in one of the stockades, charged and produced a hissing sound, but due to her aggressiveness has not yet been allowed to interact with baby Karibu.  Ngulia and Kore are great friends, and it seems her aggressiveness towards the Karibu is due to jealousy over losing her friends attention. Ol-tukai was busy feeding on Lucerne pellets with his best friend Tawi who has not gone back to the wild since he returned to the stockades earlier this month.  

The orphan elephants had a wonderful time browsing together, with Kenia and Ndii deciding to browse closely with their adopted babies Araba and Tahri. Ishaq-B attempted to take Tahri away during the visit to the mud bath, but Ndii came in like a bulldozer separating Ishaq-B from Tahri and taking her adopted baby back under her wing.  

14 October 2018

The morning began as usual with the orphan elephants running out of their stockade to gulp down their milk. Mudanda was in a naughty mood and chased Rorogoi, Araba and Murit away from the Lucerne pellet feeding tray which resulted in the Keepers having to intervene to restore the peace. Mbegu noticed Lentili and Suswa ready to take the lead and gathered her six member herd together, overtaking the two to assume the leadership role.  

It was a very hot and sunny day which resulted in the orphans visiting the baobab tree water hole at 10am in order to cool off. They wallowed and had their milk at the usual time before resuming with their browsing activities on the western side of the waterhole.  

The afternoon was hotter than the morning which had the orphans returning to the mud bath for a second wallow at 4pm. Lasayen rolled around in the water until Murit, Godoma and Ngilai trapped him and lay on his stomach which had him screaming loudly for help. Mbegu, Kihari and Ishaq-B rushed to his rescue bringing an end to the bathing activities. A wild elephant herd visited the waterhole a few minutes later but found that the orphans were already leaving for the day’s final browsing session, before they would have to return to the stockades for the night.

15 October 2018

The orphan elephants woke up early as usual looking forward to their day of browsing in the Park, and they were eager to begin. Ngilai ran very fast to the front drinking his milk bottles in a matter of seconds. Godoma came second but unfortunately Ngilai came over and started demanding her milk bottle too, and a Keeper had to come over and intervene. After eating their supplement food, Murit went to wrestle with Tahri under Ndii’s watchful eye. Mashariki was busy feasting on the green lush branches from an acacia tree, as Mbegu stretched her trunk to reach the branches without any meaningful success.

Lentili found the perfect opportunity to lead the others and took her chance, with the others deciding to follow closely behind her denying Mbegu the leadership opportunity.  Soon after the midday milk feed, the orphan elephants all went for a mud bath, with Embu, Murit and Rorogoi plunging in first. Arruba and Suswa came into the water in their own unique style, rolling on top of one another whilst happily trumpeting.

The rest of the browsing went on close to that baobab tree water hole after mud bathing.

16 October 2018

The milk dependent orphan elephants walked out of their respective stockades for their morning milk feed before joining their older friends in Kenia’s herd who were enjoying the supplements. Nguvu and Rorogoi had a little play fight after having some lucerne. Bada decided to take the lead of everyone towards the browsing grounds after all the stockade games were over. Mbegu, Ndotto and Panda, who were still finishing up the remains of the Lucerne grass pellets, charged out to join their friends once they were done gobbling up the remains of the pellets.

The morning’s browsing went very well as Godoma played a game of hide and seek with Murit and Ngilai. Ndotto later joined the three and tried to climb on their backs, as he has always been fond of climbing, and Godoma decided then to stop the game and follow their friends who were already leaving towards the baobab water hole.   After a wonderful noon mud bath, the orphan elephants could not stand the scorching sun, so Ndoria and Mashariki led them to seek shelter under an acacia tree. They spent the afternoon browsing peacefully, before returning to the stockades that evening.

17 October 2018

The stockade dependent orphan elephants had their wonderful milk bottles and supplement feeding, followed by brief games around the stockade compound before heading to the field for the beginning of a long day of browsing. Ngilai and Murit had a play fighting game, after browsing for an hour. Arruba was very preoccupied in keeping Araba away from Kenia, and trying to keep her company instead. Lentili, Kihari and Mbegu then all took the lead, and took everyone in a different direction to browse.

It was a very hot day and the orphans teamed up in small groups to take refuge from the scorching sun under some small trees. They later visited the baobab water hole and had a lot of fun playing mud bathing games. Godoma lay down and rolled around in the middle of the water surrounded by the others, thus becoming the center of attention. Mbegu felt jealous of Godoma and went to lie and roll in the dust instead, but was later driven away by Ndii who wanted to take up that same dusting position to play.

18 October 2018

The gates of the stockade were opened in the morning and the youngest six orphan elephants of Mbegu’s herd came running out to grab their delicious milk bottles and down them in a matter of seconds. The juniors then joined their older friends at the Lucerne pellet feeding area. The orphans played briefly around the stockade compound before leaving to go out and browse for the day. They browsed in single file, visiting the baobab water hole that afternoon.

After their noon milk bottles, the orphans headed to drink water from the baobab tree water hole, where they encountered a big herd of wild buffalo that had nearly finished all the water in both the trough and the main water hole. Ndotto, who was at the front, stopped to watch and sniff out the hundreds of buffalos surrounding the water hole. Nelion and Bada got to the front of their friends and chased away the buffalo to give the orphans a chance to drink water. The buffalos stood at a distance watching the elephants who were not very comfortable playing in the water under the watchful eye of those buffalos. They later left the water hole browsing their way towards the Mzima-Mombasa water pipeline side for the afternoon browsing session.

19 October 2018

The stockade dependent orphan elephants came out early in the morning ready to take off to the bush after the milk and supplement feeding. Ngilai, Godoma and Tahri enjoyed a fun hide and seek game but were very vigilant when crossing the stockade terraces to avoid any potential accidents. Murit had a play fight with Lasayen, before Ndotto intervened trying to separate the two from their wonderful game. Nelion scratched his itchy bottom on a rock in the stockade compound, while Naipoki, Kihari and Ishaq-B were busy rolling on the red earth piles of soil and obviously having a lot of fun.

Nguvu was the leader today and directed his friends out of the stockade towards the bush which was very unusual as he has never taken the leading role before! Mudanda and Mashariki followed Nguvu from behind, curiously watching his leading role that was indeed more perfect than they all expected.

The orphan elephants remained busy browsing throughout the rest of the morning before heading off to enjoy themselves in a mud bath following their noon milk feed. As they were busy swimming, a big buffalo herd arrived to drink. There was a little bit of a drama as Mbegu’s herd was scared by the buffalo. The buffalos ignored the orphans’ attempts to chase them away from the water hole, but Tundani persisted and succeeded in driving them away for some time. The elephants were then kind enough to leave the water hole for the thirsty buffalo to come in for a drink as well.  

20 October 2018

The orphan elephants assembled for their delicious milk bottle and then proceeded to feast on the Lucerne pellet supplements provided by the Keepers. Mudanda stood tall dominating the whole Lucerne pellet feeding area, becoming a little greedy and pushing and shoving her friends. Ndii went around and handled the situation, threatening to push Mudanda away. She then started behaved herself, allowing the other orphans to have their peaceful feeding moment. Arruba and Rorogoi enjoyed a play fighting encounter with Lentili and Mashariki standing close to effectively cheer them on. 

Bada and Nelion lost patience waiting to head to the park and started leading their friends out to begin their routine browsing day. The day became too hot resulting in the orphan elephants choosing to stay under trees to seek shade. They had a lot of fun playing mud bathing games after the afternoon milk feed, coming out and staying close to the baobab tree water hole for the rest of the day.

21 October 2018

The day began well with the orphan elephants coming out of their stockades early enough to catch up with the first light of day. Godoma was walking with a slight limp, and the Keepers wondered what she could have done to hurt it during the night. Ngilai and Murit had their usual morning play, testing their strength in competition with each other. Soon after the orphans arrived out in the bush to browse, Mudanda charged at Arruba and chased her around, with Aruba running as fast as she could, keeping away from Mudanda who wanted to fight her. We are not sure what Arruba did to annoy Mudanda so much, but she seems to be in a bad mood.

The sun was very hot and the orphans were having a difficult time browsing. They were flapping their ears continuously to cool themselves down. The ground is becoming so hard and dry as we come to the end of the dry season, and we hope that the rains will come soon as the orphans have to walk very far to find enough vegetation to eat, but at least the supplements set them up well for the day. At 11am the orphans visited the baobab water hole, where they enjoyed the cooling effect of the thick soupy mud. Godoma’s limp continued a little bit but otherwise she looks bright and okay.

22 October 2018

It was a wonderful morning with the stockade dependent orphan elephants coming out amid light rain. They all enjoyed a game of hide and seek around the stockade compound, maneuvering around the stockade terraces carefully in order to avoid any accidents and injuries.

Murit then lay down on the ground to play, but Ngilai came and climbed on his back enjoying a ride. Murit wriggled to get Ngilai off him so he could get back to his feet.  Murit then turned to engage Ngilai in a head on wrestling match.

Once out in the browsing fields the orphan elephants enjoyed feeding on the moist grass stopping to take their noon milk bottle on the northern foot of Msinga Hill. They didn’t visit the water hole today as it was a rather cold day.

At about 4:15 a wild elephant herd came to join the orphans and Embu was the first one to move forward to greet them. It was a brief interaction as it was nearly time for the orphans to make their way back to the stockades for the night.

23 October 2018

Godoma’s limp has improved and was much better today but she chose to remain at the stockade together with her close friend Mbegu rather than go out to the browsing fields with the rest of the orphans. Godoma and Mbegu enjoyed plenty of lush green browse blended with Lucerne grass pellets and by evening her limp had improved even more.  

On arriving on the northern side of Msinga Hill, Ndotto, Lasayen and Murit hung back as if expecting Mbegu and Godoma to be lagging and coming to join them. When they saw that the rest of the group had moved quite far ahead they ran to catch up, kicking up a great cloud of dust while doing so.  

On joining their friends they turned the whole scenario into a game as they ran around bashing through small bushes, hitting them with their trunks.  Their tails were curled up over their backs, heads held high up with their noses sticking out. The orphans played for five minutes before everyone settling down to begin the days browsing activities.

The stockade dependent orphan elephants visited the baobab tree water hole in the afternoon and enjoyed drinking their delicious milk bottle. They then had a drink of clean water from the trough before leaving to resume with their browsing activities as it was too cold a day for a mud bath.  

24 October 2018

The gates of the stockade were flung open early in the morning, with the orphan elephants bursting out grabbing their bottles and downing the milk in them. After supplement feeding there were games with Ndotto climbing up a flat rock in the stockade. Murit saw him and went to engage him in a play fight, forcing Ndotto to come down the rock to join Murit in a playful sparring match. The two were nearly left behind by their friends who left for the fields and they had to run to catch up as the group made their way to the browsing grounds.  

Godoma and Mbegu again remained in the stockade so that Godoma could receive treatment for her limp which we suspect to be due to an injured hind leg.  

The orphans had a wonderful morning browsing before visiting the baobab tree water hole to drink milk and water. None of them entered the mud bath as it was a chilly day. The afternoon browsing session took place half way up the eastern side of Msinga Hill where Mashariki sat on the loose soil on the hillside sliding down the hill on her bottom.  Tundani ambushed Naipoki, ramming her with his forehead, with Naipoki staggering away for a few steps, before she regained her footing, spinning around and facing Tundani for a real fight. Kenia and Ndii intervened to stop the two from fighting as it was time to begin the trip back to the safety of the stockades for the night.

25 October 2018

It was a wonderful beginning to the day with the milk dependant orphans of Mbegu’s herd running out full of excitement for their morning milk bottle after which they settling with their older friends from Kenia’s herd to feed on the supplements that had been put out for them by the Keepers.

The second herd of milk feeding orphan elephants followed closely them, with Ndoria who was believed to have a score to settle with Nguvu coming past the milk bottle to chase Nguvu who was ahead of her, but was unable to catch him. Nelion was busy rubbing his big bottom against a rock while inviting Ndotto to come join him.

Lentili tried to lead her friends to the browsing fields but was premature in wanting to leave as the rest of the group was not done playing and as such were reluctant to follow her. She took a few steps forward, swinging her right front foot back and forth in a characteristic elephant gesture of indecision. She later picked up some dust and threw it onto her back while waiting for the rest.  She later enjoyed leading her friends to the fields where they browsed in single file.

There was some light rain during the day which was welcomed by everyone, both two and four footed.  Mbegu continued to keep Godoma company at the stockades.

26 October 2018

It was a nice beginning to the day as the orphan elephants gulped down their milk before settling down for their routine supplement feeding amid some light rain. Lasayen ran up and down the stockade compound getting very excited about the coming of the rainy season. Murit engaged his friend Ngilai in a one to one play fight, while steering clear of Ndotto who wanted to join them.  

Godoma today was doing very well and was able to accompany her friends to the browsing fields. The rain continued throughout the day with the orphans choosing to browse nearby before slowly making their way back to the stockades for their afternoon milk bottle and a drink of water.  Ndii stayed bumper to bumper with her adopted baby Tahri, while Panda and Kihari had a soft spot for Kenia’s adopted baby Araba.

The rest of the days browsing activities took place half way up the southern side of Msinga Hill.

27 October 2018

It was a bright sunny morning as the orphans walked out of their stockade and headed for their milk and supplement feeding. Godoma’s limp is complete gone and she was one of the first to come out to grab her delicious milk bottle.  Ndoria has become a little bully to Nguvu. Today she came and stood by the door preventing Nguvu from coming out. This lasted a few minutes before she gave up and the two went for their milk feed.   

The orphans played around the stockade compound for a while before following Naipoki, Suswa and Arruba to the browsing fields. Their browsing pace was deliberately slow as they wanted to grab as much vegetation as they could. While browsing they met up with Dabassa and Layoni who have not been seen for a while. Dabassa noticed that Nelion’s tusks were almost bigger than his and happily engaged Nelion in a strength testing pushing game while Layoni interacting with Mbegu’s herd until the stockade dependent group made their way back to the stockades for their noon milk feed and some water followed by their older friends. The two older boys then left the juniors on the southern side of Msinga Hill as they made their way to towards the Mzima spring-Mombasa water pipeline area.

28 October 2018

The morning milk feed took place bright and early after which the stockade dependant orphan elephants enjoyed their supplements before they busied themselves playing around the stockade compound. Nelion engaged Tundani in a wonderful head on play fight while Bada together with Mudanda, Mashariki and Rorogoi fed on acacia branches along the fence line together. Bada later became impatient taking the lead of his friends towards the browsing field.

Ishaq-B who in the recent past has been trying to take Mbegu’s herd managed today to separate them from the Kenia’s herd, staying with them for the whole of the mornings browsing session. Ishaq-B later led them towards the baobab tree water hole where they joined the rest of the orphan elephants for their milk feed and mudbath.  

Tawi the father to Karibu who had paid a courtesy visit to greet her three weeks ago, today once again left the stockade to go wild.  

29 October 2018

It was a bright and sunny morning as the stockade dependant orphan elephants came out of their stockade excited to begin another day. After the milk dependant orphans had finished their milk bottle, they joined their older friends for the Lucerne pellet feeding before teaming up to play games around the stockade compound. Ngilai held his best friend Murit in a wonderful wrestling match entwining their trunks as they played. Mbegu went for a scratching session against one of the small rocks in the stockade compound.

The orphans then took off towards the field to begin the days browsing sessions. On arriving at the southern foot of Msinga hill, the orphans stopped to break small branches off bushes, carefully stripping them of their tasty and nutritional bark, before proceeding to feed on the open savannah grass lands on the far northern side of the stockade.

After visiting the baobab water hole in the afternoon, Mbegu’s herd separated themselves from Kenia’s herd, and was joined by Ishaq-B who re-united them with Kenia’s herd an hour later.

30 October 2018

It was a perfect beginning to the day as the orphan elephants stuck with their milk and supplement feeding routine before engaging in a few play fights after which they headed to the browsing fields. Arruba, Suswa and Embu came out with a little limp which disappeared after some Fastum gel was rubbed onto their knees. On arriving on the northern foot of Msinga Hill, Ishaq-B once again separated Mbegu’s herd from Kenia’s herd. Mashariki, Suswa and Embu were suspicious of Ishaq-B’s intended plans for the younger orphans and made sure to stay close by.  Ishaq-B left the three to play with Mbegu’s herd in some deep erosion trenches on the foot of Msinga hill watching them from a short distance away.

The orphan elephants visited the baobab water hole where they drank milk and water but did not partake of the mudbath as it was a cold and cloudy day. The afternoons browsing activities took place close to the waterhole.

31 October 2018

After the morning milk and supplement feeding, the orphans gathered at the stockade compound for some wrestling and playing. Ndoria became naughty holding Arruba away from the Lucerne grass pellet feeding area making the Keepers intervene so that Arruba could access the pellets.

Rorogoi and Lentili then took the lead of the orphan elephants towards the fields. Green grass and bush had started regenerating following the recent rains with the orphan elephants not hiding their excitement as they played happily.  

The stockade dependant orphans started running, letting their bodies go loose which made their ears and trunks flop about at the same time as they trumpeted with a loud pulsating sound associated with play. Kenia was quiet in the beginning but it was not long before she too broke into a run to join her friends. Tahri spent the better part of the day browsing close to Naipoki and Panda as her adopted mother Ndii watched her interaction with the other too. The orphans visited the baobab water hole in the afternoon where they had a brief mudbath. Ishaq-B split Mbegu’s herd from Kenia’s and spent the afternoon browsing with them.  The two groups rejoined when it was time to head to the stockades for the night.