We rescued Kamili in October 2021. A victim of the drought, she was discovered at the eleventh hour, dehydrated and emaciated. Many of the orphans we rescued during this time arrived in a skeletal state, but none took as long to recover as Kamili. It wasn't until nearly two full years after her rescue that her condition finally started to improve. She helped herself in this department, feeding well and clearly fighting to live.

Even as Kamili began to fill out, she remained quite weak. She seemed aware of her fragility and kept herself out of the fray. As time wore on, she became especially close to Kerrio and Latika, another orphan who had an especially difficult start to her life. They gave each other strength, and slowly the girls started to come out of their shells, even commanding the mud bath or racing around the forest.

Delightfully eccentric, Kamili always danced to her own tune. We called her our resident contrarian — while her peers were preoccupied by the babies, she showed very little interest in nannying. Instead, she preferred her own private adventures. We would often find Kamili wafting off in a different direction, head happily in the clouds.

In December 2025, Kamili graduated to Umani Springs alongside her best friends, Kerrio and Latika. Initially, we were thrilled with Kamili's transformation: within weeks of moving, her ears — which had remained stubbornly folded, a symptom of the poor condition in which she was rescued — completely unfurled. She went from plump to downright portly. With her improved condition, she became more outgoing and confident, too.

But towards the end of May, Kamili grew a bit off-colour. Dr Lawi came to assess her and administered antibiotics. That made an immediate difference — the next day, she was back to her bright self, running to be first to the milk bottles and diving into the mud bath with gusto.

Despite that promising bounce-back, Kamili failed to recover to the degree we had hoped in the weeks following. We decided the best course of action was to bring her back to the Nursery, where we could monitor her condition more closely, bolstered by on-call veterinary care. To make the transition seamless and stress-free, we parked the translocation truck at Umani for several weeks prior, so Kamili could re-familiarise herself with it.

The move commenced in the early morning hours of 21st July. Kerrio immediately grasped the situation and escorted Kamili onto the truck. The girls shared milk bottles side by side before Kerrio disembarked and bid her friend farewell. She proverbially handed her off to Peter, one of Kamili's favourite Nursery Keepers, who accompanied her on the drive. There was no stress or drama — elephants are remarkably intuitive, and everyone seemed to understand that the move was in Kamili's best interests.

Upon arriving at the Nursery, Kamili was instantly embraced back into the fold. The doors opened and she was met by the familiar faces of Muridjo, Mzinga, Nyambeni, Taroha, Pardamat, and Talek, who clustered around their old friend. We put Kamili into a stockade between Wamata and Pardamat and could often hear the neighbours rumbling through the night.

The next few months gave us cause for cautious optimism. While bloodwork didn't give us any definitive diagnosis, another course of antibiotics brought about an improvement in Kamili's condition. She started to gain back some of the weight she had lost and her appetite improved. Of equal importance, she seemed happy — wallowing alongside the others and even flaunting her seniority a bit, as was her right!

One morning, Kamili would only allow the little babies to join her in the pool. The boisterous boys had to wait patiently outside the water until the big girl and her tiny friends had finished swimming. Another day, Kamili had us all in stitches when she put Pardamat firmly in his place — which is no easy task. Trying to entice her into a game, the young rogue gave her a playful push and was rewarded with a strong shove. When he tried again, Kamili turned around and bit his tail. Pardamat ran away trumpeting in embarrassment, and Kamili went back to browsing. She always knew how to handle a situation.

But even with her famous independence, Kamili never had to handle anything on her own. It seems likely that the Nursery matriarchs intuited her illness, because they were very diligent in looking after her. Mzinga was particularly attentive. If Kamili ever drifted away from the herd, Mzinga followed her. She was like a loving shadow, standing by and supporting her throughout the day.

All was ticking along well until last Friday, when Kamili had a sudden and dramatic downturn. She became very listless, refused her milk bottle, and stopped eating her greens. We rushed the vet to examine her, and he found that her white blood cell count was very high. All the markers were off and there was clearly something going wrong internally. We kept Kamili in her stockade, cushioned by soft hay to stand on, fresh greens, and her favourite Keepers by her side.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, Kamili never came back from that downturn. In the early hours of Monday, she slipped away, leaving those who loved her and cared for her all these years absolutely bereft.

Nursery Head Keeper Edwin had these words to say about Kamili:

Kamili will be remembered for her resilience and her want to live. She came to us a skeleton and survived for many months without much improvement, but she was determined to feed — and that is what gave her a chance to live.

Coming back to the Nursery when she was sick again, she looked weak, but her ability to keep feeding helped to keep her alive. The moment she stopped feeding, her fate was sealed. This tells me that she was so determined to live, until she reached a point that she decided it was time to let go.

Kamili will be missed, and remembered for her long and brave fight.

Edwin echoes what all of us are feeling. We did everything we could to save Kamili, but it seems that she was never meant to make old bones. In the end, she concluded things on her terms. Her symptoms reminded us uncannily of Shukuru, another brave elephant who walked a similar road that ended too soon. While much remains a mystery, it seems that both these elephants had pre-existing health conditions that proved too great to overcome.

We shared five special years with Kamili. We wish more than anything that her journey had taken her into adulthood and back to the wild, but that wasn't meant to be. In the wake of this heartbreaking loss, we find comfort in the fact that Kamili was happy during her time with us. The shell of an elephant we rescued blossomed into a quirky, free-spirited girl who lived life her own way — and that is how we will remember her.

We are so sorry to share this news with you — for all the miraculous stories that unfold in our world, these losses are very difficult to bear. Please know that we are grieving alongside you and here to answer any questions you might have, to the best of our abilities.