save the elephants Archives

Date:: July 21, 2018
Categories:: Africa, wildlife
Tags:: africa, baby elephants, elephant, elephants, northern kenya, reteti, save the elephants
Comments:: 0

Lost baby elephant wanders into research camp

The team at Save the Elephants’ research centre in northern Kenya got the surprise of their life when a lost baby elephant walked into the middle of their camp recently. The team are used to monitoring and occasionally rescuing wild elephants in the field but this was the first time an elephant had ever approached them for help! The 300kg baby’s unannounced visit came just thirty minutes after a nearby tourist facility, Samburu Lodge, reported seeing a small calf alone on the river bank. STE immediately dispatched a team to investigate. While the team were still in the field, a[…]

Date:: July 3, 2017
Categories:: Africa, photography, wildlife
Tags:: adventure, africa, conservation, kenya, new life, reinvention, samburu, save the elephants, wildlife, wildlife photographer, wildlife photography
Comments:: 0

One Kiwi’s journey from PR maven to wildlife photographer

I’m so thrilled and humbled to have been profiled in Your Weekend Magazine in New Zealand and to have had my image of the mournful female gorilla in Rwanda featured on the cover! The interview was written by acclaimed author Kelly Ana Morey, whom I once shared a room with in Sixth Form at New Plymouth Girl’s High boarding school, and published in print in New Zealand’s Dominion Post, Waikato Times and Christchurch Star and online. Reading the piece over the weekend I still can’t quite believe it’s me! Read the full story here. SaveSave

Date:: December 10, 2016
Categories:: Africa, wildlife
Tags:: africa, collaring, elephant, elephants, kenya, orphan, poaching, samburu, samburu national park, save the elephants, wildlife, wildlife photography
Comments:: 0

How an orphaned baby elephant overcame tragedy to lead her own herd

This elephant collar, held by Save The Elephants’ Research Assistant, Benjamin Loloju Ltibikishe, was once worn by a great matriarch of the Swahili family called Khadija. During the poaching crisis of 2011/2012, she was the only remaining female – the last matriarch – left in the herd that roamed around the south side of Buffalo Springs, not far from Samburu. A mother to three babies, she was a compassionate and special elephant who had earlier adopted her niece, the baby Habiba, after her mother was killed by poachers when Habiba was only a few months old. In 2011, Khadija was found wandering around in Samburu[…]

Date:: December 9, 2016
Categories:: Africa, wildlife
Tags:: africa, bathing, diving elephants, elephant, elephants, kenya, river, samburu, save the elephants, wildlife, wildlife photographer, wildlife photography
Comments:: 0

The diving elephants of Samburu, Kenya

Is it a submarine, is it a lochness monster? No, it’s an elephant thoroughly enjoying itself in the Ewaso Nyiro River in Samburu, Northern Kenya during a particularly hot day. This elephant stayed in the river for about twenty minutes, sometimes submerging himself under water for at least several minutes, before splashing about, spraying water with his trunk and then heading off in search of food. Elephants are good swimmers and can stay underwater for quite some time by using their trunks as snorkels. Check out more pictures of this particular and very happy bathing elephant below.

Date:: December 8, 2016
Categories:: Africa, wildlife
Tags:: africa, baby elephants, elephant, elephants, kenya, playing, samburu, samburu national park, save the elephants, wildlife, wildlife photography
Comments:: 0

The adorable bush flattening baby elephants of Samburu

While most of the elephants in Samburu National Park in Northern Kenya have been happily and quietly eating the new green vegetation that’s sprouted after the recent rains, two baby elephants have been approaching their food in a somewhat less civilised manner. No doubt a handful for their patient mother, these two siblings – aged about three years old – have decided they’d rather flatten their food than eat it and have launched into a game of ‘bash the bush’ wherever they go. Together they run from bush to bush stamping, squashing and attacking as many plants as they can – ears forward, trunks flailing, both[…]

Date:: December 7, 2016
Categories:: Africa, wildlife
Tags:: adventure, africa, bull elephant, elephant, elephants, kenya, samburu, samburu national park, save the elephants, wildlife, wildlife photographer, wildlife photography
Comments:: 0

The wild bull elephant that visits the STE research camp

We had a rather awe-inspiring visitor yesterday … an enormous 17-year-old bull elephant called Malaso who for some unknown reason, took exception to the special collar testing units that we’d set up in the morning on a patch of land at the entrance to the Save The Elephants camp. He strode into the camp, sniffed the heavy collars and their wooden stands which we’d positioned as part of an alert testing, and then promptly lifted them into the air and threw them to the ground as though they were mere twigs. He then happily munched on salt bushes while we[…]

Date:: July 13, 2016
Categories:: Africa
Tags:: africa, avaaz, elephants, ivory, petition, save the elephants, Tsavo East
Comments:: 0

Stop the elephant slaughter

This is an old photograph I took with a Samsung digital camera nearly twelve years go in Kenya, Africa.The photo is of two elephants – brothers in fact – walking calmly across the plains of Tsavo East National Park. They were so relaxed around us that they almost walked into our jeep. The sound of their soft rumbling and sharp snorts of breath was captivating and moving. Later that night, a family of elephants visited a waterhole very near our camp and we were lucky to watch the herd drinking together. I have never been so close to wild elephants and probably never will again.[…]