One year later, both orphans have recovered from their ordeals, grown in strength and confidence, and are daring to spend time apart. This is a good sign — it means their horizons are expanding! Unusually for a young bull, Taroha prefers the company of girls over boys. He has formed a special friendship with Talek and spends hours playing with her. 

Further demonstrating his improvement, Taroha surprised us all one afternoon by being the only orphan who chose to wallow. As the others milled around, he waddled into the water and paddled around. The Keepers had a hard time persuading him to leave when it was time to return to the forest!

Weka and Loldaiga have started a fun tradition of yelling as they run in for their milk feeds. They sprint through the forest, trumpeting all the way as if their last bottles had been three days ago, rather than three hours ago. After downing their milk in seconds, the feisty friends immediately calm down and amble off to play.

Muridjo, Nyambeni, Mzinga, and Shujaa are the original ‘blanket babies’ — but now that they’re older, they have become our mischief crew! They are such a fun-loving, high-spirited bunch. One morning, the four honed in one a family of warthogs who were trotting behind the orphan herd. Trumpeting in excitement, Muridjo, Nyambeni, Mzinga, and Shujaa thundered after them. The pigs evaded them with minimal effort and disappeared into the forest. Deciding that they must have gone to the stockades, the four elephants ran home, still trumpeting indignantly with trunks held high. Of course, the pigs were nowhere to be found. 

Sholumai, a drought victim who was rescued 11 months ago, is still skittish. However, slowly but surely, she is learning how to have fun. One afternoon, we were pleased to see her sprinting after impalas and baboons with the other orphans, having a grand old time despite the futility of the task. (Her quarry merely moved a few metres away, totally unfazed by the trumpeting elephants!)

Mushuru, another shy elephant, can usually be found with Sholumai. However, she is also a tomboy and loves to hang out with the junior bulls. Mukutan, Choka, Loldaiga, Mageno, and Kitich have welcomed her into their boy band.

We call Mukutan, Kitich, Loldaiga, Mageno, and Choka the ‘bachelor boys.’ They are the oldest boys at the Nursery and love to flaunt their seniority. They have formed a little club and all sorts of antics ensue. One afternoon, Loldaiga nimbly stood on his hind legs and he stretched his trunk high to pluck soft green leaves from the top of a tree. But before he could return to earth, Choka and Mukutan scooped up the fruits of his labour and popped them into their own mouths! He repeated the charade a few times before giving up and walking over to Kitich, who was mimicking his tree climbing tactics. Unfortunately for Loldaiga, Kitich had a wingman: When he tried to pinch some of the younger bull’s spoils, Mageno pushed him away. 

Kerrio is such a good mini matriarch. She is the preferred playground for many of the youngest orphans, particularly Mzinga and Nyambeni. The gentle elephant lays her (relatively) big body on the ground, inviting the girls to come play on her. First Mzinga climbs on her, then Nyambeni pushes her off, then Nyambeni climbs on her, then Mzinga pushes her off — and so the game goes!

Pardamat is a law unto himself. We feed infant orphans — at the Nursery, this includes Talek, Taroha, and Mokogodo — a special milk formula, which suits their sensitive tummies. Pardamat also falls into this age bracket, but he is such a greedy boy that we recently decided to add some oats to his bottle, in an effort to curb his insatiable appetite. This worked a treat; satisfied with his porridge, Pardamat has calmed down a lot during milk feeds.

On 9th March, a young bull was rescued from the Maasai Mara. The new orphan is about the same age as Pardamat and was put in the room next to Taroha. He arrived agitated but in reasonably good condition. Olomunyak (which means ‘lucky’ in Maa) remained in his stable for a few days, as he acclimated to his new life and recovered from his ordeal.

It rained a lot this month — much to the dismay of some! During one particularly loud nighttime downpour, Weka was the first to begin protesting. She was soon joined by Mukutan, Talek, Muwingu, and Muridjo. The five trumpeting elephants woke up all the Keepers and the rest of the Nursery herd. Loldaiga is another rain-hater. One night, he shouted and shouted at the rain, as if that would make it stop. The Keepers treated him to sugar cane, which did cause the storm to abate but did placate the young elephant. 

He may be part of the ‘bachelor boys,’ but Mageno is also a nanny. With his old friend Nyambeni, he spent an entire afternoon babysitting Mokogodo and Talek. Another day, he fiercely defended Shujaa, Pardamat, and Taroha when Mukutan was pestering them. He pushed Mukutan away and stood protectively next to the boys, making it clear that no more bullying would happen on his watch.

15th March marked Olomunyak's big debut. Mid-morning, Kerrio, Nyambeni, Mzinga, Taroha, and Muridjo escorted the new rescue out into the forest. Kerrio did not leave his side for the whole day, while Sileita and Latika also went out of their way to welcome him. Intrigued, Mageno tried to push the girls away so he could get close to his new little brother. Olomunyak behaved calmly and quietly.

However, one orphan was not so welcoming. Perhaps sensing an opportunity, naughty Pardamat blocked Olomunyak during one of his first group milk feeds. Noticing this behaviour, Mzinga and Nyambeni sprinted over and took control of the situation, nudging Olomunyak gently towards a Keeper and blocking Pardamat from any more nonsense. 

Olomunyak has become Mokogodo’s new companion. This led to some jealousy from Taroha, who is of two minds: One one hand, he wants to expand his friend circle and hang out with the older elephants; on the other, he doesn’t want anyone else spending time with his original best friend!

Mokogodo’s coterie of adoring fans are as devoted as ever. We were reminded of this one morning: The moment Taroha’s and Olomunyak’s stable doors were opened, the young bulls planted themselves outside little Mokogodo’s stable. Minutes later, they were joined by Kerrio, Mzinga, Nyambeni, Latika, Sileita, and Muwingu, who gathered in a cluster. When the moment came for the little girl to emerge (oblivious, as usual, to all the attention), Sileita pulled rank. As the matriarch of the Nursery herd, it was only fitting that she escorted Mokogodo to the forest!

Mushuru and Muwingu are two mischievous girls. One morning, they decided to play hide and seek with the Keepers. They greeted Maxwell at his lower gate, then ran behind the stockades and round the corner to his upper gate. After trying to pinch a few pellets from the rhino’s stash, they backtracked to the lower gate. When three Keepers closed in on the pair, they decided enough was enough and strolled out to join the herd.

Muridjo and Shujaa are roughly the same age and have a sister-brother relationship. One of their favourite games is chasing impalas — although they aren’t very good at it! They lumber around after the nimble antelopes, underrated by the fact that they never have a hope of winning. When the impalas inevitably prance off into the bush, Shujaa — who is never one to hide his feelings — trumpets loudly in annoyance.

Although she has spent over half her life at the Nursery, Kamili remains very reserved. With her tiny tusks and folded ears, she often chooses to browse within the orbit of the herd, but a short distance away. In contrast to almost all of the older females, she shows little interest in looking after the babies. To each their own!

By month’s end, Olomunyak had really started to settle into Nursery life. However, as we are always reminded, acclimatisation comes in baby steps, rather than leaps and bounds. One morning, he and his new buddy, Talek, were browsing side by side. While Talek greeted the three nearby Keepers individually, Olomunyak just continued browsing quietly. He is settling in well, but does not yet have the confidence to extend a trunk to his human family.

The Rhinos:

Maxwell had a good month — and an ornery month, as is a rhino’s right! One afternoon, he was relaxing in his mud bath when a family of warthogs paddled in to join him. Maxwell usually enjoys their company, but today was not one of those days. He clambered out and chased them away, wanting to wallow on his own.

Raha is also an ornery little girl. One morning, she woke up full of beans. She strode out of her stable as soon as her Keeper opened her gate and ran ahead of him up the path, doing the odd little skip and making squeaking sounds. Happily, Maxwell was waiting at his gate when Raha walked past. She stopped, stared at the much larger male rhino, made another series of squeaks, and continued on her journey. Max then completed several laps of his enclosure before settling down to graze on his pile of pellets with a couple of warthog friends.

Raha and Mzinga’s friendship is still going strong. One morning, Mzinga spotted the little rhino from a distance. Almost as if she was pretending not to notice Raha, Mzinga began browsing in her direction, nonchalantly walking away from the elephant orphan herd. Her tactics did not fool the Keepers, but they were happy to allow this little excursion. Mzinga ambled up to Raha, trunk touched her, and rumbled in greeting.

But not every elephant has a penchant for rhinos. One afternoon, Loldaiga accidentally wandered into Raha’s path. Not expecting to come across the small rhino, he about-turned, trumpeted in alarm, and ran back to join the herd. Raha continued on her way, placid and unperturbed by the large elephant’s behaviour.