This month has seen our recent arrivals Ziwa and Balguda more settled and fortunately for them they have been taken under the watchful care of Sonje and Murera, with Balguda now in the privileged position of Sonje's favored baby! He has usurped Zongoloni’s position, but thankfully Sonje still has time for Zongoloni and Zongoloni does not seem to be too stressed about it either. This ensures that the other boys Ngasha, Faraja and Jasiri are not able to throw their weight around the newcomers. Ziwa is very active and jumps between all the Umani orphans spending time with them all, but Balguda on the other hand is savoring the attention of the big girls. Both have gained condition and are nearly as fat as the others and have settled in remarkably well to their new home.

Lima Lima continues to be a busy elephant, always the most alert in the group, absolutely everywhere all the time, mostly in the company of Quanza, and at milk times she and Jasiri are the greediest! They love to hang around for possible seconds. Lima Lima very often leads the group out in the forest, with instructions always coming from their ultimate decision maker, oldest orphan Murera.

There have been some interesting encounters throughout the month with wild elephants, buffalo, bushbucks and baboons. The rains and green vegetation have meant that the orphan’s have had a varied feast, and even a treat of some specially sourced acacia pods were brought by the Keepers one day who had sourced them from further a field. This was met with great excitement. We are heading into pod season, which carries the wildlife through the drier months, so soon all the acacia trees will be laden with these nutritious seeds.

Stories from each of our ten orphans presently at Umani Springs are recounted throughout the Keepers daily diaries accompanied by some beautiful photographs to share too.