The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Tuesday that a female elephant thought to be Kenya’s largest tusked elephant has passed away from old age in the east African nation (November 1).
Dida, who was distinguished by her protracted tusks, was thought to be between 60 and 65 years old. Elephants in the wild are thought to live for about 60 years on average.
“She died of natural causes due to her old age,” the Kenya Wildlife Service announced in a tweet.
The elephant lived in the vast Tsavo National Park in south-eastern Kenya, known for its wildlife.
Dida “led her herd through many seasons and difficult times,” according to the KWS.
While male elephants tend to be more reclusive, female elephants frequently live in close-knit groups and frequently have young calves by their side.
Dida’s passing occurred in the Samburu Reserve, a dry region in northern Kenya that is experiencing one of the worst droughts in the past 40 years, about a month after the passing of another well-known elephant.
Monsoon, a woman in her sixties who was the mother of seven calves, had escaped poachers five times. The NGO Save the Elephant claimed that although the elephant’s bad condition was a result of her advanced age, it had been “aggravated by the drought” at the time of her euthanasia at the end of September.
Over 50 million people live in Kenya, the economic hub of East Africa, where 40 years of record-breaking drought have left at least 4 million people in need of food.
The driest conditions since the early 1980s have been brought on by four consecutive weak wet seasons.
More than 1.5 million animals have perished in Kenya alone as a result of rivers, wells, and pastures turning to dust.
