For a long time, Kamili was on the brink both emotionally and physically. Although she has recovered, she is still quite withdrawn by nature. But we are starting to see glimmers of a fun-loving, friendly elephant within. One day, she had the most marvellous time chasing warthogs with Nyambeni and Weka. She used to avoid boisterous mud baths, but she has even started paddling into the water with her friends. On a very special morning, she charged out of her bedroom and boldly challenged Shujaa and Mageno — who is one of the oldest bulls at the Nursery — to wrestling games. Kamili has reached a state of health which none of us dared hope was possible. Now, it is wonderful to see her embracing life with both tusks.  

Otherwise, May began on a dramatic note, courtesy of our young boys. It began in the morning, when Pardamat headbutted Taroha without provocation. Sileita comforted Taroha while Pardamat evaporated from the scene, feeling quite smug. But his victory was premature: An hour later, as Pardamat was getting his morning milk bottle, Taroha struck: He ran over from the side and headbutted him not once, not twice, but three times! Clearly, he had been plotting his revenge since the morning’s incident. Again, it was Sileita who restored calm

As we have noted, Pardamat is currently the Nursery’s chief pest — a role he holds with gusto! He is one of the youngest orphans at the Nursery, but a few months ago, we moved him to the second group in a largely vain attempt to keep his behaviour in check. One afternoon, he managed to sneak away from the Keepers to join ‘Group One’ at the mud bath. As the younger orphans were enjoying a peaceful milk feed and dust bath, Pardamat came cantering down, knocking over an unsuspecting Talek, pushing Mzinga into the robe cordon, and taking a victory lap around the mud bath. Two Keepers frogmarched him away for a time-out, but he had achieved his mission and seemed very pleased with himself. 

One Keeper describes Kerrio as ‘the orphan with the big heart’ — she is such a caring, kind and responsible mini matriarch. She is also an excellent diplomat. One morning, she was browsing next to little Olomunyak, allowing the little boy to pluck greens directly from her mouth. This was too much for Talek, who was watching from a distance. The jealous girl charged over, pushed Olomunyak away, and tried to take his place. Kerrio trunk hugged Talek to calm her down before walking over to Olomunyak and again offering him greens from her mouth. A few minutes later, Talek joined the pair and, incident forgotten, all three elephants ambled on together.

Shujaa is a colourful character, but he is unusually well-behaved during milk feeds. We were reminded of this afternoon, when Shujaa padded down to his milk feed and did not find a Keeper waiting with a bottle held high. Most orphans would have thrown a temper tantrum, but polite Shujaa busied himself with some branches while patiently waiting for someone to bring him a bottle.

By contrast, Mageno and Weka have appointed themselves ‘town criers’ for every milk feed. They love to announce their arrival as they run to the feeding area, which doubles as a way to check if their friend has beaten them there. When one trumpets on their way in, the other will answer with an equally loud blast, and so it goes until bottles are in their mouths! 

Mzinga is known as Raha’s best elephant friend, but Nyambeni is also looking to befriend the young rhino. As Raha was leaving the mud bath one morning, Nyambeni observed the direction she headed. An hour later, when Nyambeni was back in the forest, she snuck away from the herd to hang out with the small rhino. Surprisingly, Raha welcomed her visit! 

The orphans always look out for each other. One night, something upset Kerrio (probably a bad dream) and she started yelling and pushing at her gate. As a Keeper calmed her down, Mageno, Weka, and Sileita rumbled to her in an unusually low tone. We don’t know what they were saying, but they were clearly trying to reassure her. When Kerrio emerged from her bedroom in the morning, she found Sileita and Muwingu waiting outside — they had immediately come to check on their sister.

Muwingu is very caring yet also very mischievous. She lovevs to play a special trick on the Keepers: On her way down to the midday milk feed, she first makes sure that she has a muddy trunk. Then, she ambles up to a Keeper (who, to add insult to injury, is waiting with a bottle aloft for her to enjoy) and wipes her trunk on his dustcoat! When she is feeling particularly cheeky, she takes this trick to the next level and squirts a trunkful of mud on the appreciative visitors. 

Little Mushuru is blossoming as a nanny. Sometimes, her enthusiasm hinders her objectives! One morning, she dashed over to Mokogodo’s room and planted herself outside. Because she was in front of the door and was refusing to move, Mokogodo’s Keeper was unable to push it open. It took three men to usher Mushuru out of the way, so little Mokogodo was able to make her exit!

Mukutan is one of the oldest bulls at the Nursery. While he can be boisterous, he is also an excellent peacekeeper. One day, Weka was being Weka, climbing on top of Pardamat and shoving him under the water. Before the Keepers had time to intervene, Mukutan rushed over, pushed Weka out of the way, and helped Pardamat out of the wallow.

The Nursery’s big bulls — Mukutan, Choka, Loldaiga, Mageno, and Kitich — have formed a little boy club. While some prefer only to play with their best friends, Choka is happy to partner up with anyone, no matter their size or their age. 

Muridjo is a bit older than them, but she can usually be found hanging out with Mzinga, Nyambeni, and Shujaa. They all have neighbouring stables and have always been a quartet. One afternoon, Mzinga and Muridjo were again lumbering after the warthogs. Muridjo, who has a short attention span, soon tired of the game and went back to browsing with Kitich and Shujaa. But Mzinga was committed to the chase! She continued pursuing the pigs and somehow ended up back at the stockades on her own. Mzinga made the most of the situation by checking the rooms for any leftover treats before two Keepers ushered her back to the herd.

Friendly girl Talek has become a troublemaker during milk feeds. Ignoring the Keepers, she heads for the wheelbarrow, stretches her trunk between the still-full bottles, and sucks up the pools of milk lying on the bottom — knocking over all carefully portioned bottles in the process! To prevent this little trick, we have started to send the clever elephant down to the mud bath in the last group of orphans, like her rascal neighbour Pardamat.

We feel little Mokogodo is making good progress. It is slow, but she is moving in the right direction. She is getting great care, enormous amounts of personalised attention, and lashings of love from her Keepers and adoring nannies. Latika is Mokogodo’s greatest cheerleader and can usually be found glued to her side. One very cold morning, Mokogodo remained in the stable, clad in two layers of cosy blankets. Latika led a bevy of girls to her bedroom, where they proceeded to rumble impatiently. Mokogodo gave them an answering rumble, almost as if reassuring them that she was just waiting to join them until it warmed up. Accepting their little friend’s message, the girls abandoned their post and padded into the forest.

Olomunyak was only rescued in March and is the newest addition to our Nursery herd. Now that he is a few months into things, he is beginning to flex his muscles! Rather than melting into the background, he has started to assert himself. One morning, he was heading down to the milk feed with Pardamat, Taroha, and Latika. Running his fastest and trumpeted loudly, he prevented his friends from overtaking him by zigzagging left and right. When Pardamat managed to dash past, Olomunyak pushed him down and then guzzled his milk in record time. Still feeling full of himself, he then gave his nighttime neighbour, Taroha, a shove. Taroha, who is the stronger of the two, pushed the young upstart to the ground. Ego cut down to size, Olomunyak ran for refuge with Sileita. 

Our shy, sweet Sholumai has picked up an impressive trick: She can now feed herself by deftly twisting her trunk round the bottle. After finishing her two bottles one afternoon, she refused to let go of the final bottle and pranced around the wallow holding it aloft. Once she realised that it would not magically be filled with more milk, Sholumai tossed it into the wallow. 

The orphaned rhinos:

Little Raha is doing well, putting on weight and getting stronger. Nowadays, she chooses to walk deep into the forest, exploring the territories of wild black rhinos living in the park. At the beginning of the year, Raha did not have the strength or confidence to venture far from the familiar stockades.

It has been lovely to see her mood improve along with her health. One morning, she woke up in such high spirits that she did funny little kicks all the way out into the forest, kicking up tiny clouds of dust with each little hop! 

Like Raha, Maxwell spent the month in high spirits. One day, he was in a mood to show off, rolling in his biggest mud bath with his stout legs waving in the air. His warthog friends tried several times to join him in the water, but he did not want to share the spotlight: Every time they came close, he hastily chased them away. 

Maxwell might want to be more welcoming to his warthog friends, lest Raha steal them away. One morning, the young rhino took a nap in the forest surrounded by an unusual security detail: two warthog friends, who browsed by her side as she slept. When Raha made the afternoon march down to the mud bath, her security guards trotted in her wake!