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Kiasa had to discipline Dololo and Maktao today. The two boys were causing a lot of trouble at the mud bath area and the Keepers were having trouble keeping them in line. They were all about pushing, wrestling and climbing on each other and they wouldn’t listen to the Keepers, and there were quite a number of small school children who were visiting and watching them from behind a rope cordon. Maktao is slightly gentler than Dololo who always plays rough. Eventually Kiasa came over and separated the two boys and pushed them away from each other. It was nice to see Kiasa introducing some discipline instead of causing trouble herself!

Enkesha is able to use her trunk very well despite the hole in it caused by a wire snare, but most of the time when she comes across a water hosepipe she prefers picking up the pipe and drinking water directly from it. This is a much easier way for her to drink. When it was time for the orphans’ 3pm milk feed she downed her two bottles of milk and ran for the water pipe; she didn’t want to share it with any of the others who can drink perfectly well from the water troughs. Maisha and Sattao kept trying to stretch their trunks towards her to request for the hose pipe but she didn’t let either of them have it. When Tagwa walked over however she had no other choice than to drop the pipe and let Tagwa have it as she has to respect the leader of the herd; they all have respect for the matriarch of the family.

Sometimes we find that an elephant’s character will change and develop as they grow. For the longest time Luggard has been such a docile and gentle bull but recently he has turned into a bit of a naughty boy. Today he just wouldn’t listen to Tamiyoi and Enkesha when he was attempting to bully Maktao and Sattao and perhaps it is because there are no older bulls in the Nursery and he is one of the oldest. Maktao and Sattao were having a good time wrestling each other on top of a pile of loose soil they found out in the forest and Luggard walked over to them. As Luggard approached the young bulls thought that he was just going to join them, but instead he started poking them with his tusks. The girls Tamiyoi and Enkesha were watching from a short distance away and decided to intervene and prevent him from bullying the younger ones but he turned against them and was unfriendly. Tamiyoi understands his condition and did not want to retaliate, but Enkesha was ready to start pushing him back. Tamiyoi rumbled which must have meant to leave the situation alone, as Enkesha decided to follow her so they both walked away with Sattao and Maktao with them. 

Since Musiara, Sattao, Kiasa and Larro were moved to different rooms, Larro and Sattao seem to have settled down but Musiara and Kiasa still seem to be upset by the move. Last night neither one wanted to go into their new room; Musiara kept fighting to go into the stable next to his old neighbor Luggard. Eventually he listened to the Keepers and went into the stockade but he kept pushing on the gate sporadically up until morning. Kiasa ran back to the bushes three times and in the fourth attempt to get her into her room Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Enkesha and Maisha escorted her. She had to go into her new room by going through her neighbor Tamiyoi’s room, through the gate partition that they share.

Kiombo is still very hooked on Nabulu even though Nabulu does not show that much interest in him. When she went into the mud bath today little Kiombo decided to join her. They both had a lengthy mud bath as the rest of the group stayed out of the water and just watched them.

Despite the heavy rainfall through the night, the orphans woke up in a very playful mood. As they made their way out to the forest, they were all charging around and rolling in the wet grass and mud. Almost all the big girls, such as Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Maisha, Enkesha, Nabulu and Kiasa were all seen rolling around, bumping into each other. Tagwa once again tried her game of climbing onto some the others’ backs; again she tried to climb on Tamiyoi or Maisha!

Eventually Sattao, Dololo, Musiara and Maktao decided to join in on the fun. As they arrived Tagwa appeared to be watching them and waiting for them to start rolling around. As they were rolling around, Tagwa began sitting on them and climbing on their backs. This didn’t seem to impress the boys who quickly moved away to their own quiet spot.  

After the public visiting hour today the weather changed very quickly and it started raining heavily, which meant orphans like Luggard and Ziwadi were walked back to the stockades to remain indoors during the heavy rainstorm. It is quite interesting to watch these two orphans because as soon as they start to feel a few heavy raindrops, they will leave the herd all by themselves and seek shelter, before slowly starting to make their own way back to the stockade compound to go into their rooms; it is a perfect routine to them! 

As it continued to rain the other orphans were spotted rolling around and enjoying mud bathing on some ant hills and just on the ground as well. Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Maisha, Nabulu and Enkesha were all busy struggling to play on the same ant hill, each one trying to find the space to slide down it. Obviously the space was limited on the smallish ant hill for all of the big girls to fit on it, and they were all squeezed up against each other. At the same time, Larro, Kiasa, Kiombo, Mukkoka and Maktao were seen playfully running in and out of the running water of a small stream, having a lot of fun and trumpeting and splashing at one another in excitement. 

Compared to the last few days, it was a very warm morning as the orphans came out their stables. This meant that Maktao was rearing to go and as soon as he was let out of his stable, he was charging around playing with Sattao, Dololo, Mukkoka, and Musiara. Once again, it was Musiara that engaged him in a strength testing match. This was because Sattao was chased by Maisha, who appeared envious of the games, and Mukkoka and Dololo ended up in their own game. 

Today, the orphans had their morning bottles of milk down at the mud bath. When they had finished their bottles some of them began to play whereas others moved off and started to browse on some of the bushes near the waterhole. The orphans were so busy with their activities that they got such a fright when two warthogs came flying passed them. They all immediately ran towards their Keepers unsure of what had spooked the warthogs. As the Keepers looked around, they noticed two male lions appear from the bushes. Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Musiara, Maisha and Enkesha immediately noticed the lions and they all had their ears opened wide and they were all deeply rumbling at the lions. The lions who noticed the orphans facing them immediately decided to change direction and headed off back into the forest. 

It was a wet and cold morning as there had been heavy rain throughout the evening. Mukkoka and Larro, who both don’t like the rain, had a very restless night and only appeared to calm down when they were walking out to the forest. When the orphans reached the forest the heavy rains seemed to subside and there was only a light drizzle remaining. The older girls, Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Enkesha, and Maisha all took it upon themselves to keep the younger orphans warm. They began digging at the muddy ground, to have a mud bath. This was a great idea as the younger orphans began to join in warming up their muscles and bodies. Ziwadi seemed to love wallowing in the self-made mud pool and could be seen rolling all over the place. 

In the morning as the orphans head out to the forest, there always seems to be a debate as to whether Tagwa or Tamiyoi will take the lead. This morning, Tamiyoi wanted to go in a completely different direction to Tagwa and this appeared to annoy Tagwa as she continued in her own direction rumbling intensely in protest. Tamiyoi was followed by Kiombo, Mukkoka, Dololo, Maktao, Luggard, Nabulu and Musiara. Whereas Tagwa was followed by Larro, Kiasa, Enkesha, Maisha, Sattao and Ziwadi. It appears Tagwa and Tamiyoi are both trying to form their own little herds as they have both been matriarch to the Nursery herd. Although they sometimes disagree over who should lead, Tamiyoi is always respectful of Tagwa as her elder and her matriarch. 

Kiko has been improving with his training of entering his transport crate, but the Keepers have come up with a cunning method to ensure he enters. They will lead him into the trailer slowly with his milk bottle and then they will feed him pellets and the rest of his milk once he is in the trailer. Although he used to be very reluctant to get in, he is now getting in without much fuss and once he is in, he happily eats his greens that are hanging up for him. These are all great strides towards him being moved and his eventual reintegration back into the wild. 

Due to Dololo misbehaving and being very mean towards Ziwadi, Larro, Roho and sometimes Mukkoka, he has been moved from the younger first group into the older group with Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Maisha, Enkesha and Nabulu during the public visiting hour. The presence of the older girls will have a calming effect on him and he wouldn’t dare misbehave towards any of them. Today he was much better behaved during the feeding hour under the watchful eye of the older girls and wasn’t a bully at all, he just browsed quietly on the greens laid out for the orphans. He remained quieter than expected for the rest of the day, and even when he went back out to the forest he didn’t bully any of the other youngsters like Roho, Larro or Ziwadi like he has been doing recently. Perhaps this change has already had the desired effect on the little naughty bull!

The orphans had a quiet morning this morning and all were seen browsing quietly with each other, following the big girls Tagwa, Tamiyoi, Enkesha, Maisha and Nabulu. The big girls walked at the front and lead the way as all the little ones followed behind them. There wasn’t any showing off or any games of any kind going on at all really. The playful ones like Maktao, Musiara and Mukkoka were all quiet and concentrated solely on browsing. Even the naughty ones like Dololo were being quiet this morning! 

By the afternoon the calm of the morning had been broken when Maktao, Musiara and Kiombo decided to start a play fighting match for almost a whole hour from 2pm. Maisha, Tamiyoi and Nabulu each tried to separate them but with no success. Nabulu tried her best to force Kiombo to leave the play fight by trying to push him away from Maktao and Musiara but Kiombo wasn’t willing to leave the fun game. Eventually she poked him hard in his hind legs with her tusks which sent him off running, and Nabulu followed behind him running so that he couldn’t turn back! She drove Kiombo deep into the bushes where the others were busy browsing and stayed beside him so he couldn’t sneak back either – Nabulu has become more attached to Kiombo recently after all the affection he has always shown her – she loves to brows with him these days.