Now living wild, where she is a matriarch, mother of an ever-growing family, and grandmother
Current age
25 years old
Gender
Female
Rescued date
26 October 1999
Rescue location
Tsavo Ecosystem, Tsavo East NP
Date of birth (estimate)
26 September 1999
Reason orphaned
Poaching
Age at rescue
0 months old (approx)
Current location
Living Wild
They walked across the Mtito tributary, loaded her onto the back of an old Landrover and drove her across the crocodile infested Athi river to the nearest Airfield at Tsavo Safari Camp, from whence she was flown to Nairobi.
.Whilst in the Nursery she also suffered from a sluggish metabolism, as, indeed did Emily when young, so she was moved to Tsavo along with Kinna and Mukwaju in February 2001 following unseasonal rains in January.
They walked across the Mtito tributary, loaded her onto the back of an old Landrover and drove her across the crocodile infested Athi river to the nearest Airfield at Tsavo Safari Camp, from whence she was flown to Nairobi.
.View diary updates from across all our orphan units as written by the Keepers
Chapeyu’s story is a unique one. Given his age, he is not a typical new rescue — but he desperately needed our help, and so we moved mountains to save him.
Yetu — Ithumba's first grandbaby — was born just outside the stockades on 19th January 2012. Read more.
In 2022, Yetu became a mother herself, delivering a little girl named Yebo. Photographed above are Yetu (left), Yebo, Yogi, and Yatta (right). Read more.
Yoyo was born on 7th October 2017, a special month in which we welcomed three new wild-born babies into the fold! As Yatta's second calf and first son, Yoyo has a doting older sister and a herd's worth of nannies on hand to watch over him and spoil him as he grows. Read more.
A very special delivery arrived in Ithumba on the morning of 10th November 2021, after Yatta introduced us to her third calf, a healthy boy we have named Yogi! Yogi is the fourth baby born in as many weeks to our ex-orphans, following in the footsteps of Kaia, Njema, and Noah. Read more
Yatta is now a mother four times over and a grandmother. Hours after giving birth on 29th March 2025, she made a special visit to Ithumba to show off her latest addition. We named her daughter Yara, which means 'small butterfly' in Arabic. Read more.
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