All text and images credited to the incredible folks at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust who take such great care of Dupotto day and night.
Dupotto was born on Thursday, February 06, 2014.
On the 9th of August, Angela Sheldrick was contacted by Mark Goss regarding an orphaned elephant calf rescued by KWS and the Mara Elephant Project Scouts. She was found abandoned in the Dupoto area in the transmara, a large forest on top of the escarpment.
9th August, 2014
The reason for her being orphaned remains a mystery as a carcass had not been located in this area for over two months, and she could not have possibly survived that time without a mother at just five to six months old as a very much milk dependent calf.
The community found the elephant calf near a boma without her mother and alerted the Mara Elephant Project, who transported her in the back of a landcruiser to the Masai Mara Kichwa Tembo airstrip to await the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust rescue team.
The Mara Elephant Project rapid response team then brought her to Kichwa for collection. The flight from Nairobi to the Masai Mara is forty five minutes and the team came well prepared with milk and all the paraphernalia required for transporting the calf efficiently and effectively. In no time she was prepared for the journey to the Nairobi Nursery.
9th August, 2014
Once she arrived at the Nairobi Nursery she settled and began feeding well from the outset, and very fortunately did not struggle to assimilate the new milk formula.
Her road has been relatively smooth physically, but Dupotto’s scars are emotional ones. She has behaved very strangely, clearly suffering psychologically from events that befell her by being excessively restless and agitated. While she was part of the junior herd she fast became a disruptive member in the group.
End of August 2014
Then she discovered Embu, rescued four days before, an older orphan of approximately 18 months old who was retrieved from the forested slopes of Mount Kenya on the Embu side of the mountain by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Dupotto immediately became emotionally dependent on Embu, sharing their grief both have been able to impart comfort and understanding to each other. To this day they remain firm friends. Dupotto is settling and her strange restless behavior is now much improved.
September 10: Dupotto on the other hand was giving the keepers a hard time as usual, she loves pushing over the bottles, following the wheelbarrow that carries the empty milk bottles, charging the keepers and even trying to push over visitors. She is clearly a very disturbed little elephant but we have seen this before and know that time heals everything
September 13: All the elephants seemed calm as they browsed on the freshly green vegetation after the rain. Dupotto today ran over and pushed Mbegu to the floor, the keepers had to interfere to get Dupotto to understand this is unacceptable behaviour and poor little Mbegu retreated to the safety of the keepers for awhile feeling a little vulnerable.
September, 2014
Kauro woke this morning and seemed to be in a very playful mood, he and little Dupotto play often together and seems like they are becoming very close friends. When Dupotto’s adopted mother Embu is not around you will be sure to see Dupotto and Kauro close to one another.
Dupotto is constantly trying to push Kauro over but in every attempt she falls to the ground, prompting Kauro to climb on top of her, this leads to Dupotto crying out in some attempt to get someone to help her, and of course Embu is first on the scene to help her little baby. All this is game playing though, and it is lovely to see them playing and so happy once more – especially Dupotto who came to us quite disturbed.
We awoke to the gentle sound of rain this morning, the hot days were coming to an end as the temperature dropped with the rain. Unfortunately for the younger babies this meant they had to stay indoors wrapped up in their blankets keeping warm.
Dupotto and Kauro trumpeted loudly indicating just how unhappy they were about having to stay indoors. Kauro loves to mount Mashariki, Suswa and Lentili despite them being double his size, so by him staying indoors it meant none of his mischief would take place until the rain stopped. As for little Dupotto she felt very lost without Embu and didn’t like the fact that she had been separated from her adopted mother.
10th October, 2014
The younger babies went first, after the keepers very carefully applied the coconut oil on all of them they were immediately off into the soil as they rolled around happily. Dupotto was the only tricky elephant to catch as she hates the oil, but once the oil was applied onto her skin she too joined all the orphans in rolling in the soil and playing with each other.
Embu is the sweetest and most humble elephant in our care at the Nursery, and all the babies are attracted to her immediately for her protection and love and she gives of it generously. Dupotto who barely ever leaves her side has made Embu Mum. Embu’s humble personality has also attracted Enkikwe’s attention and it seems that her loving personality is gives these newcomers a sense of security.
So now we have Embu and Oltaiyoni who are the mothers in the herd, they bring comfort but most importantly they bring reassurance to all the new little newcomers the nursery has and help us Keepers enormously by helping settle the new arrivals, and bringing them a sense of normality quickly.
Today Oltaiyoni was moved out of her stable to a different stockade in order to make some room for the new arrival Wass. Normally when Dupotto arrives home at night she is sure to check Oltaiyoni is close by and even sleeps close to the wall in order to have the comfort of Oltaiyoni. Oltaiyoni’s stockade is in the middle between Lasayen’s and Dupotto so during the night Oltaiyoni takes turns and sleeps along both walls so that her babies feel close to her.
So this evening it was very different… no Oltaiyoni and instead newcomer Wass, Dupotto especially was very unhappy, she walked around the stockade continuously rumbling and screaming. Lasayen too was very unsettled. Moving sleeping quarters is always a tricky affair, but they settle eventually and everything becomes normal again. It is important the little ones have the closed stables and Oltaiyoni was fast outgrowing her stable and was needing to get out to a larger and open stockade sooner rather than later.
Kamok, Ashaka, Kauro, Dupotto, Mbegu and Murit have been promoted to the older orphan group and are no longer part of the tiny baby orphan group in the Nursery. Kamok, Mbegu and Murit are still very attached to their keepers and tend to not want to interact with their older peers. Embu, Enkikwe and Dupotto are always together and tend to separate themselves from the rest of the group.
It was extremely hot at mud bath hour so most of the orphans took a lengthy wallow to cool off. Sirimon, Sokotei and Olsekki spent quite a while climbing on Embu and Balguda. Embu kept pushing them up the mud wall and out of the wallow once her babies, Enkikwe and Dupotto joined her. The young ones sandwiched her between them as they lay comfortably in the mud. Embu did not want their relaxed time to be spoilt with bullying from the boisterous boys. Embu’s body condition in the recent weeks has really improved because she came to us in such an emaciated state, but slowly slowly we are seeing her morph back into perfect condition but it has taken a very long time.
The orphans found a small mud cliff which they played on and browsed around. Dupotto especially had great fun sliding down the edge and the other orphans joined in by pushing him.
We at www.chaloafrica.com are thrilled to play a small part in little Dupotto's journey.
There were heavy downpours of rain during the night and the orphans were playful as they went out to the park in the rain-fresh air. Lentili, Rorogoi, Arruba, Lemoyian, Kithaka and Sokotei had a great time scampering around and bush-bashing as they expressed their happiness at the start of the day. Balguda, Ziwa, Nelion, Barsilinga, Embu, Dupotto and Enkikwe took the opportunity to mud-bathe. Due to the wet conditions tiny Ndotto, Lasayen and Hamsini stayed in their stables under their blankets until the weather warmed up.
Roi, Dupotto, Ashaka and Mbegu had a lovely time in the morning soil bathing and bumping into each other. Their fun attracted Kauro’s attention and he went over to join in. He was very naughty though and seized the opportunity to mount Roi as she blissfully soil bathed. Roi quickly jumped up and head-butted Kauro away before chasing him off into the bushes. The chase continued for a while with Kauro occasionally challenging Roi back until she gave up the chase and returned to the others in the hope of re-joining the fun. Unfortunately they had given up and gone off to browse so she joined them browsing peacefully.
Jasiri, Faraja and Ngasha’s stables have been vacant since they went to Umani Springs but last night Suswa, Lentili, Oltaiyoni and Olsekki were transferred around to fill them. Embu moved into Suswa’s old stockade and Enkikwe, who was sharing with Embu, moved into Lentili’s old stockade. All were very happy in their new accommodation. Dupotto, who initially complained about being separated from her beloved Embu when they come in for the night, now separates from her peacefully and settles into the stable without rumbling in discontent.
It was very hot at the 11am public visiting time so the orphans quickly downed their bottles of milk and rushed into the mudbath to cool off. Mbegu was the star of the show, first into the mudbath she slid deep into the mud headfirst. Everyone was watching her and she did some dramatic rolls which enticed Dupotto, Roi, Ashaka, Kauro, Olsekki, Enkikwe and Oltaiyoni in to join her antics. They slid down the sides of the muddy wallow entrancing the public visitors who must have wondered if they were even happier here with their human family than they would have been in the wild.
You too can foster Dupotto and get monthly updates of his antics. Learn more about Sheldrick's Fostering Program by clicking here.
