Murray-Anne: Solio’s Bushbaby

By Ava Paton

Whilst on his way back from a night game drive, Solio intern Peter Fleck found a small, abandoned bushbaby not far from the lodge and brought it in. 

On the same day, tennis player Andy Murray beat Roger Federer at the London Olympics and won a Gold Medal for Team GB.

And so, when we decided to nurse the bushbaby back to health, we called ‘him’ Murray.

We only found out a few months later that she was a girl, which was pointed out to us by a professional Safari Guide. She then became Murray Anne.

The morning after she was found, there was a mad dash to Nanyuki, the nearest town, to buy baby formula and syringes. But we soon discovered she was more keen on Tusker Malt. Initially, she lived in a camera lens case on a shelf in our office, but was soon ensconced under a white massage towel and hot water bottle which was changed every morning.

She was now on a diet of milk, yoghurt, home-made muesli, strawberry jam and cheese. In nature Bushbabies eat insects and resin from trees. We then started catching insects for her and hand feeding her-she was very fussy and chose which insects she wanted-her favourite being sausage flies. By now she was jumping very well-they can leap a distance of 5 metres and clients were flocking to the office to see her in the evening. Being nocturnal they usually sleep all day.

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After a few months we decided to leave an opening in the sliding glass window of the office so Solio’s bushbaby could be free. Very tentatively at first she would hang out of the window, make sure the coast was clear and spend the night out and come back to her massage towel and hot water bottle in the morning and spend the day in her territory which she marked by weeing on her hands.

Her main predators are owls and genet cats and it was always a tense moment when she was not found in the office in the morning. Then we started hearing her calling in the trees in the vicinity of the office and knew she had found a mate. She was closely monitored by our Security staff (askaris) and a report of her movements is written in their book every day.

Murray Tusker

She then started stripping the leaves of the plants on the hanging garden in the dining area and building a nest in one of the hollow bamboo apartments after about a year and moved out of the office. She even tried to take one of the beaded nets off the milk jug to pull it into the nest which got stuck while she was trying to pull it in-very amusing.

We then put soft pieces of fabric in a crack in the bamboo, which she pulled into the nest. At this point we knew she was pregnant. By now she had made the whole dining/meals area her new territory, although she still sometimes visited the office. Much to the delight of guests she would leap around from chair to chair, onto the guests’ shoulders-she is a real show off! A very unique experience for clients to see a bush baby so close.

Murray and various 113

Around the time that Prince William and Kate had their child, Zakayo, our head waiter and one of Murray Anne’s favourite people said she had a baby. We decided to call it George Louis or Georgina Louise as we were still not sure of the sex. We saw her teaching the baby to climb on the wires that hold up the hanging garden and there was huge excitement about the birth––something that has never happened before after I spoke to some professional guides about this.

She must have taken the baby wild to start a colony as we did not see it again. They usually form colonies and this baby must have been a male. She then moved into the mess area where we put her food out every night and she continued to entertain clients leaping along the top of the curtain rails like a minute kangaroo.

About a year later, we noticed her stripping the leaves from the plants and re-making the same nest again-left fabric out for her to drag in which she did. And the 2nd baby was born a few months later! Unbelievable and we let all the clients know that we keep updated on Murray Anne’s news.

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However, we think this baby must be a female as she has stayed for almost a year. We have been able to witness the most amazing scene of events unfold as mom teaches daughter how to climb and jump and she has not been taken out into the wild.

As we speak, she is yet again stripping the leaves for another nest so she may be pregnant with her 3rd bush baby baby. This unique phenomenon hugely enriches a guests’ experience. We had one client who delayed his safari helicopter tour by an hour just so he could spend more time with the bush baby. And children adore her.

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