Close encounters of the tusked kind: photographing Kenya’s few remaining Super Tuskers

At 53, he’s no longer a youngster and isn’t fazed by humans. But his age also means he doesn’t have much time left. Aside from poaching, disease, and ecological disasters like drought, an elephant’s lifespan is primarily dictated by their molars. They have six sets lasting on average 10 years each, so when they’re in their 60s, they usually can’t chew and face starvation. 

I couldn’t wait for the chance to photograph him again. This time, I was hoping to capture an image of two icons together: Craig and Kilimanjaro.  

Grateful for rain and rainbows 

During my last visit, it took days of scouting and spotting to find him, but this time we got lucky. Just a few hours after landing on the airstrip, my incredible guide Dickson Montet and I spotted Craig, gently walking towards the marsh, then entering the water for a drink and some fresh grass. 

This year luckily brought the significant water needed to sustain the ecosystem. In the past, droughts have been quite severe, resulting in the deaths of many elephants and other species from competition for water. Even today, water access is a challenge as human needs conflict with wildlife’s requirements—a single elephant needs to drink up to 200 litres per day! 

Amboseli’s weather made my next encounter with Craig even more special. Through clouds and a bit of rain, we spotted him in the distance. I also saw a faint rainbow in the eastern clouds, so Dickson and I jumped at the chance to get a special photo.  

We only had a few minutes, and at first Craig didn’t cooperate, showing us his backside. But our patience was rewarded when he turned to the side, and I snapped a few images with him and the last glow of the rainbow. You never know what nature has in store!  

Super Tusker or lion? 

The following afternoon, we had a decision to make: Craig was spotted on the other side of the park in the morning, but some lions were seen in a different area. It’s hard for me to say no to cats of any kind, but as I was still looking to capture the iconic view of Craig and Kilimanjaro, there was only one right choice.  

You can never go wrong with spending time with this creature. It’s almost therapeutic to watch him go about his business. Although that business didn’t include plans to face the right way for the Kilimanjaro photo, we got quite close to what I was looking for, with two egrets adding to the show. These birds follow elephants in the hope that their movement stirs up insects, which they feast on—one of the many ways elephants are ecosystem engineers. 

Saying goodbye to Craig 

I had my fourth and final encounter with Craig as he made his way to the northern end of the park, likely crossing into a conservancy where he’d be much more difficult to find. He slowly moved from bush to bush, giving me the chance to observe him from the ground as he majestically walked by.  

Having experienced being completely exposed while a 3.5-metre-tall, five-tonne elephant with two-metre-long tusks passes so close that you could touch him, I’ll always see these creatures in a different light. Craig’s generally calm demeanour around vehicles is what makes this experience feasible, but a wild animal remains a wild animal and should be respected accordingly. There is no guaranteed safety. 

In the same vein, I have unfortunately also seen some guides push their cars into Craig’s path at the last second to get the best close-up view, and it makes me increasingly angry. It also says a lot about these animals that, despite what they endure at our hands, they still accept our presence. 

With these mixed emotions, we let Craig disappear into the distance, hoping he’d stay out of trouble. In fact, one worry is that males like him cross into Tanzania, where they are less protected.  

Human–wildlife conflict and trophy hunting in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area of Tanzania has cost many elephants’ lives in the past, including two large tuskers between 2023 and 2024. The Amboseli Trust for Elephants has been advocating to end this for more than 30 years, but policies have changed over the last years, and the moratorium on hunting in the area was lifted. This is a major issue for the elephant population, especially for bulls, because they enter their most active reproductive years in their 40s—an age many of them don’t reach. 

Searching for elephant families 

Although I said goodbye to Craig for this trip, that didn’t mean that my time looking for elephants was over. I wanted to see Hollie, a female with large tusks, so we headed east, where she typically crosses from the forest into the marshes, often accompanied by a few large family groups. Just after the sun rose, we spotted her where expected—elephant families have very specific routines. 

Hollie is rather small, but her tusks are seriously impressive and beautifully symmetric (though the ‘Super Tusker’ designation is reserved for males). Elephants usually use one tusk significantly more than the other (depending on whether they’re right- or left-tusked, if you will) which means tusks don’t always face the same way. Hollie also has very large ears, shaped like the map of Africa and with a distinct cut on the left one. Her body seemed wider than normal, which could indicate a pregnancy. 

I also managed to see two more big ‘tuskers’ named Per and Wickstrom. Once you spend time with these elephants, it’s easy to see how different they look. Per has a sturdier, wider figure and head than Craig, for example, and his eyes are set deep with large black borders, making him appear—especially in black and white—scary and sad at the same time. I watched him wake up and start his day one morning on our way to meet Team Lioness, one of Kenya’s first all-women ranger units. 

Wickstrom has beautiful symmetric tusks, and at age 42, he’s in his prime. When I spotted him in the distance, he was slowly approaching a beautiful acacia tree to scratch his skin, with Africa’s tallest mountain making an appearance in the distance. 

Amboseli National Park will always be dear to me, owing to its incredible elephant population. There are very few places in the world where it is imaginable to be so close to a wild elephant. It brings a feeling of unique connection to this creature, in a way that you rarely build for a wild animal. I’m sure it’s one sided, but that didn't make it any less impactful for me.