As Keeper Walter reported:

“The Keepers spotted Arruba this morning on their way out to browse and so I went there to confirm, since she had not visited the stockade for two days. [We knew she was expecting any day now.] I found her with an amazing newborn baby girl, in the company of Mbegu, Pika Pika, Tagwa, and Mudanda, together with a wild bull.”

We named Arruba’s daughter Aura. Mother and baby have remained around Voi ever since, giving us a lovely window into Aura’s first days on earth. She is a voracious eater and a big napper, with a host of nannies observing her every move.

While we cannot absolutely confirm, we have good reason to suspect that Aura’s father is a fellow ex-orphan — none other than our handsome bull, Laikipia. He was very much in the mix during the time that Aura would have been conceived.

This is a wonderful new chapter in Arruba’s story — one that spans 13 years and counting. She was rescued in 2013, when she was just a few months old. We received reports of a young calf near Aruba Dam in Tsavo East who was alone and very distressed.

Aruba Dam is not far from Voi, so it was our Voi Keepers who rescued her. Arruba initially put up a huge fight when the Keepers arrived at the scene, escaping their attempts to help her and reacting extremely aggressively to their presence. Their persistence paid off, and they eventually managed to transport the calf to safety.

After two years finding her feet at the Nursery, Arruba graduated to our Voi Reintegration Unit and had a happy reunion with the Keepers who rescued her. She went wild in 2023, although she has continued to visit us regularly over the years.

Arruba can usually be found in the company of agemates Mudanda, Kihari, Naipoki, and Mbirikani. Pika Pika is another constant in her life. She ‘adopted’ the little girl, who is five years her junior, when both were dependent orphans. Now, it seems that Pika Pika will take on the role of big sister to little Aura. It is a wonderful, full-circle moment for our orphan girls.

Although Arruba lost her own family just as her life was beginning, she found new lifelong bonds with us. To see her in the landscape where she was born, raising the next generation of wild elephants, is a triumph indeed.

Little did we know that, just four days later, two more grandcalves would enter the fold!