Kenya's iconic male elephant dies
This handout picture taken on September 10, 2016 shows Tim, Africa's largest and last great elephants standing just before being darted and collared in Amboseli National Park, in Kenya, at the foot of the snowcapped peaks of Kilimanjaro. Big Tim, a beloved elephant who was one of Africa's last giant "tuskers", has died, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on February 5, 2020. A survivor of poachers, Big Tim was found dead of natural causes in Amboseli National Park at the foot of the snowcapped peak of Kilimanjaro, the Amboseli Trust for Elephants said. (Photo/Agencies)
Kenya has lost a celebrated male elephant aged 50 years old that used to roam in the country's southeastern plains neighboring Tanzania, authorities said.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the iconic elephant named Tim-the Big Tusker died on Tuesday at Amboseli National Park and its remains will be preserved at the national museums for exhibition and education purposes.
"Big Tim is one of Africa's last big tusker elephants that roam in a vast and remote wilderness of southern Kenya," KWS said on Wednesday in a statement issued in Nairobi.
The wildlife management agency said the celebrated elephant, whose gigantic tusks were an instant draw to local and foreign tourists, had earlier suffered head injuries after it was hit by a huge rock.
"Kenya Wildlife Service in collaboration with partners sedated and treated him and then he found his way back to the Amboseli marsh family in a fairly short time," said KWS.
It said that Big Tim blended with the female counterparts with ease despite established norms that dictate solitary life for males when they reach sexual maturity.
"Tim was always welcome to travel in the company of females and their families. He was unassuming, unpretentious and laid back," said KWS.
"A benevolent and slow-moving preserver of the peace at Amboseli, he was well known and loved throughout Kenya," it added.
Kenya has one of the highest elephant population in Africa estimated at 35,000 in the latest census and the government has enhanced protection of the iconic land mammal amid threats like poaching and shrinking habitat.