Sri Lanka Wildlife Diaries- Memoirs from the wilderness: The Story of Tim- The Mighty Tusker of Amboseli

This is the story of Tim, the most famous African elephant in recent memory. He was the most impressive elephant I have ever encountered in the years of travels in the wilds, and will always be my favorite and most memorable.

Tim’s life began in the savannah’s and swamps of Amboseli National Park in Kenya, East Africa. He was estimated to be born in 1969, to the famous “T” family, which was this named and categorized by the iconic Dr Cynthia Moss and her elephant research team in Amboseli National Park. Hence the letter is given to this family, all members females and calves born to this family were given names with the letter “T”. This when Trista gave birth to a healthy male elephant in 1969 he was named Tim. His grandmother Teresia also had long straight tusks, and she bore another two big tuskers a male and female named Tolstoy and Theodora.

Over the years the genes of the T Family which results in large tusks showed clearly as he grew to become a fine young bull, and as he matured his ivory grew to its distinctive shape. One tusk almost touching the ground and the other curved inwards.

Tim in 2012 still maturing and growing

Thankfully poaching in Amboseli was quite low and hence he managed to survive until full maturity, and became one of the most dominant bulls in the eco system.

Despite this, he was well known as a crop raider and used to rain many of the plantations and farms outside the protected park boundary. In 2014 he was treated to a bad injury in the rump by a spear.

In 2016 he was seen with a spear sticking out of his head, and knowing there was relative safety in the park he was seen walking around with this injury until he was subsequently treated.

Tim with a spear sticking out of his head

Tim being treated for a spear wound

In September of the same year, the park decided to radio collar him in order to help keep track of him and his movements and hopefully avoid further issues.

Tim being darted and tranquilized to fit a radio collar on him

Tim with his new radio collar

But this did not stop him, and around 2018 he broke his collar. He continues to get into mis-haps and near death experiences it seems as once again in December 2018 he got stuck in deep mud in the Kimana swamp. The rangers of the Big Life Foundation were alerted and a herculean operation ensued where he was pulled by a tractor with multiple breakages of the straps, to gradually pull him over 25m over muddy terrain to finally enable him to gain a firm footing at the last light of day, and avert a disaster.

Tim stuck in the mud

He was often found outside the park itself mostly in nearby surrounding conservancies and forest patches during the day, usually accompanied by a large group of young males who follow him. Sometimes his relative and “uncle” Tolstoy was also seen with him and when I visited in 2019 his lookalike Craig who had similar tusk shapes albeit slightly smaller was with him. The rangers have a daily task of chasing him and the others back to safety as they end up raiding many of the crops in the local farms, eating the fresh product like tomatoes. This would en-rage the villagers and the fear was always there for retaliatory action against Tim.

Sadly and shockingly, Tim died in February 2020, apparently due to natural causes which were said to be a twisted gut. But the question remains if the multiple tranquilizers used to sedate him for different purposes over the years took a toll on his health. Nevertheless he was gone to us, and it came as an absolute shock to many around the world. Tim had managed to capture the minds and hearts of thousands of people the world over.

His tusks were massive and once extracted and weighed were a an astounding 71 KG and 68KG each. If he had survived a few years longer, his tusks might have even reached 80KG.

My memories with him will remain forever engraved in my heart. From my first quest to see him in 2016, and how I finally saw him on the final day of our tour. I still remember my adrenaline pumping hours after our encounter. It was like nothing I could have imagined. My life’s dream of photographing a big tusker of Africa became a reality.

Then three years later, I once again met him face to face outside the park, this time much closer and on foot. Spending over 3 hours with him and his companion Craig, it was truly an unforgettable experience. Sadly I never realized that this would be the last time we see each other again as he died the next year a week before we were to leave for Kenya to try and see him again.