When you think about majestic creatures that have walked on planet earth, you cannot deny that elephants are a part of this list of animals. African elephants are on an average 6000 kilos in weight and 3 meters long. They might be giant but are gentle. Unfortunately, some people do not look at them with love. People try to gain benefit out of them and earn money by selling the product made by their tusk.
This “Elephant Queen” lived over 60 years
The number of elephants in the world is constantly dropping. Tsavo Trust and Kenya Wildlife Service and a few others are taking great efforts to preserve whatever is left. They collaborated with British photographer, Will Burrard-Lucas to show the beautiful nature and animals in Tsavo.
The photographer shared a detailed blog about his experience with this project. But the major interest was someone who stood out of the crowd of elephants.
“If there was an Elephant Queen, it would surely have been her,” explained Burrard-Lucas. She was F_MU1, an elephant with two huge tusks. She is one of the few elephants known as “supertusker”, whose genes guarantee them a large size and huge tusks.
“F_MU1 was old and thin, but walked with grace. Her tusks were so long that they scratched the ground in front of her. She was like a relic of past eras,” the photographer recalls the first time he saw her.
She lived over 60 years and was as gentle and harmless as you can think of. “Her temperament was kind and peaceful. Sometimes she came so close to me that I could have touched her.”
When these photographs were taken by Will, the area was hit by drought causing poor living conditions from all animals. No food and water, contributed to the Elephant Queen’s death a couple of weeks later
Below you can see one of the videos Burrard-Lucas captured:
