Mammoth Magic: For the Love of Elephants
Part One
I’d been in Kenya a week before I was booked to fly south to Amboseli. Ryan sent me an anxious email the day before departure:
On your flight tomorrow afternoon to Amboseli, you are the only person on the 12 seater plane. As they lose money with only one person, they make the single person pay for an extra ticket :(
The day of my departure the attendant at Wilson airport approached me and said “Are you Kathy Karn? You are our VIP passenger today; follow me to your plane.” I hoisted my pack, heavy with camera gear, and followed him onto the tarmac. Nothing, not even having to pay for 2 seats, was going to keep me from my plan to get to Amboseli and see their famous elephants.
When the plane touched down, one Land Cruiser was waiting on the dirt airstrip. I grabbed my backpack and descended the steps drinking in the warm air of Kenya’s Amboseli region. A young man dressed in khaki greeted me, “Jambo! I’m Julius.”
“Jambo Julius. I’m pleased to meet you” I replied.
As I jumped into the back seat of the open vehicle, Julius turned to me: “I understand you are a keen photographer, would you like to see Tim?”
“Yes!” I replied enthusiastically, not believing my adventure had started with such an extraordinary invitation. I scrambled to unpack and put my cameras together. Would I really get to meet Tim, Kenya’s, indeed Africa’s, most famous Big Tusker, star of Wildlife Photography Exhibitions, poster animal for elephant conservation and the fight against the rampant poaching crisis that has decimated elephant populations across the continent?
Julius drove a short distance from the airstrip and detoured off-road towards a tall Acacia tree. Five huge elephants stood silently under the canopy, resting in the shade from the heat of the afternoon. The massive trunk of the tree took on life as 2 huge ears flapped rhythmically in and out on either side of the Acacia. “That’s Tim,” whispered Julius, pointing to the giant who created a comical image as if he was trying to hide behind the tree.
I was awestruck – these elephants were HUGE. We were so CLOSE! “I’ll see if I can get closer,” said Julius.
“Closer?!” the danger signal in my brain squeaked, as Julius navigated through the bushes to the other side of the tree revealing Tim in full view. The huge bulls gazed at us, nonplussed by the intrusion, eventually sauntering out into the open to graze.
“They pretty much eat 24/7,” said Julius. An elephant continues to grow throughout its lifespan of 60+ years. They have 6 sets of teeth, one for each decade. As one set gets ground down another grows in. At age 60, elephants will do their best to eat succulent greens to prolong their teeth and consequently their life. Eventually, unless something else takes them, an elephant dies of malnutrition due to an inability to eat their food.
Tim and his famous buddies, Ulysses, Craig, Ganesh, and Tolstoy glided past us stuffing grass into their mouths in a slow, silent march. Julius reached across the front seat and pulled out a camera with a large telephoto lens. “I’m a photographer too. I’ve known Tim for several years. I have hundreds of pictures of him.” he whispered in a revered tone.
“I’d love to get down low,” I whispered to Julius.
“If we find a good spot you could get out,” he replied.
Get out?! My heart rate rose a few levels. Although these massive animals appeared peaceful and benign, at 6 tons Tim could flip our truck with one casual swing of his trunk or simply step on me and it would be all over. Julius slipped out of the truck keeping one eye on the elephants and opened the door where I was sitting.
“You can lie down on the floor of the truck,” he said, reading my mind. I squeezed myself between the front and back seats and stretched out on the floor, my lens 2 feet above the ground. This was amazing!
We continued to follow the big boys as they grazed. Julius manoeuvred the truck so I was directly in front of Tim as he ripped grass from the earth, shook off the dirt with a fling of his trunk, and stuffed his face. In an electrifying moment he lifted his massive head, looked straight at me, and issued a low long, low rumble sending every nerve in my body into high alert. The message was clear—back off. Julius didn’t need any prompting; he reversed, giving Tim more space.
The other famous Tuskers in the group were Ulysses, age 45 with long tusks that spread wide; Craig, age 40 with tusks similar to Tim’s but shorter and a right angled tear in his right ear; Tolstoy, almost 40 with a straight right tusk and a trimmed left tusk because he was a trouble maker; and finally Ganesh, the eldest at 57 and a single tusker.
We left the big boys and headed to the lodge. I’d been on the ground for a couple of hours. The proximity to these extraordinary mammoths left my heart full and my mind dizzy with images. I was grateful I was a solo traveller. This was not a time for conversation, I needed time to take in my experience. It had been a long day. I was tired. I peeled off my clothes and stepped into the shower, the cool water told every pore that yes, I was awake, it had happened. I met Tim!
Support the Big Life Foundation. Buy a Tim Print.
As a tribute to Big Tusker Tim, I'm selling prints of Tim that I took and donating 25% of all sales to the Big Life Foundation. Protecting over 1.6 million acres of wilderness in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem of East Africa, Big Life partners with local communities to protect nature for the benefit of all. Since its inception, Big Life has expanded to employ hundreds of local Maasai rangers—with more than 30 permanent outposts and tent-based field units, 14 patrol vehicles, 2 tracker dogs, and 2 planes for aerial surveillance to prevent poaching. Please consider supporting this worthy cause through a print purchase below or a direct donation.