This month has been a busy one at the Nursery with a number of newcomers. The first to arrive on the 2nd of the month was an emaciated female elephant calf from Mount Kenya approximately 18 months old. Having been alerted about her first from KWS, we helped facilitate her rescue with our Meru Mobile Veterinary Vehicle and she was then driven to Nairobi as the Embu airport is being used by Kenya’s military forces at present and closed to civil aviation. She not only endured the trauma of the rescue, but a drive of approximately four hours to get to Nairobi. She had obviously been without Mum for a good long time before being discovered as she was desperately thin and riddled with worms. The first days were fraught with her collapsing a couple of times, but slowly slowly she grew stronger throughout the month. Then came a tiny calf rescued from the Ndoto Mountains on the 7th of August. Coming from such a remote corner of the country he was rescued by helicopter and delivered directly to our doorstep, with the helicopter landing close to the mudbath. The tiny calf arrived wrapped up in a blanket, newborn, and absolutely minute. He required a transfusion of blood plasma to ensure he received the all important antibodies as we doubted he had even suckled his mother so had not received the essential colostum. We named him Ndotto, with a slightly different spelling to the mountain range. On the 9th we received another baby elephant rescued from the Masai Mara this time; a young baby of approximately 5 months old. She settled in fast but a couple of weeks later had an emotional wobble and really appeared psychologically disturbed for a while until her friendship with new arrival Embu was reciprocated. It was not long before these two new arrivals became absolutely inseparable, imparting companionship, warmth, comfort and understanding to each other. After that Dupotto has settled and appears emotionally much more content and Embu much happier too. On the 19th the unexpected happened when a baby giraffe was rescued by our Amboseli Mobile Veterinary Team and delivered to the Nursery late at night. Rescued by KWS Veterinary Officer Dr. Njoroge the newborn baby had the long drive from Amboseli to Nairobi. He displaced Balguda who was forced to give up his stable and finally progress to a stockade, a move long overdue. It was not long before Kili the giraffe settled into his new routine and the Keepers learnt the ropes about feeding a giraffe which has required some climbing skills with the guys having to clamber onto the stockade bars in order to deliver the milk bottle at the correct elevated angle! Sadly this month we lost our little Arabukko, a tiny calf that came into our care towards the end of last month from the Arabuko Sokoke Forest in Malindi, but lasted only a week before succumbing to the diarrhea we were unable to get topside of despite our best efforts. Murit who arrived last month has also been slow to thrive with a persistent bacterial infection keeping him on medication for a long time, but towards the end of the month he has begun to show signs of feeling better and beginning to play which has been a great relief. The naughty boys led by Kithaka and Lemoyian are up to their usual pushing games and rambunctious playing, with Sokotei fast becoming one of the naughtier boys too! Ngasha is getting topside of Kithaka and instilling some much needed discipline into the ranks and it appears that Kithaka is responding. Nelion’s bad behavior seems to be matching his tusk growth! The longer his tusks grow the more confident and mischievous Nelion becomes. His old friend Tundani is giving him a wide berth these days and they no longer share a stockade because Tundani was getting prodded and poked at night. Now Nelion and Jasiri have become firm friends. Faraja has learnt to hold his own bottle with his trunk and even to shake it in an effort to get the last drops from it. A friendship between Kauro and Sokotei is emerging and it will not be long before Kauro graduates from being with the baby herd to the big herd as he really has doubled in size in no time. Despite being younger than Kamok and Ashaka he is very much bigger in body size, and being a boy is beginning to become more boisterous than they appreciate. Arruba, Mashariki, Lentili, Rorogoi, Suswa and Oltaiyoni are always on hand to impart love and comfort to the babies and any new arrivals so they have been busy this month with three new babies to care for. In the baby group which now consists of Kamok, Ashaka, Kauro, Mbegu and Murit we now have another rascal emerging – Kamok. Kamok is learning some bad habits which probably all stem from her coming to us literally the day she was born and having a very pampered and indulgent time before she was joined by some more babies. Kamok is prone to pushing and shoving and the Keepers are trying to instill in her what is acceptable and what is not! Little Mbegu is a firm favourite of Oltaiyoni’s and the two of them are inseparable. Oltaiyoni’s love and warmth has rubbed off on Mbegu, who is now giving tiny Ndotto the love she has known and received from Oltaiyoni. Mbegu has also learnt how to charm the visiting public between 11 and 12 noon with her lively midday frolics in the mudbath. Solio the rhino has been to visit once or twice throughout the month and Maxwell has been enjoying his treats of sugar cane enormously. He still gets his daily visits from Shabby the Sacred Ibis and is often part of the naughty elephant boy’s morning routine and charging games.