Kenya’s largest female elephant dies of old age

AFP-Jiji

11:00 JST, November 9, 2022

NAIROBI (AFP-Jiji) — A Kenyan elephant believed to have been Africa’s largest female tusker has died of old age, wildlife officials said Nov. 1.

Dida was famed for her long tusks and between 60 and 65 years old, the upper reaches of life expectancy for an elephant in the wild.

“She died from natural causes due to old age,” the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Twitter, attaching images of the elephant.

The matriarch lived in the expansive Tsavo East National Park in the southeast of the wildlife-rich country.

“Dida was a truly iconic matriarch of Tsavo and a great repository of many decades worth of knowledge,” the KWS said, adding that she was the subject of many documentaries.

“She shepherd[ed] her herd through many seasons and challenging times.”