She was the oldest and the wisest.
She had successfully raised eight babies.
She was a celebrated character in the Samburu area of northern Kenya where she lived.
She was an elephant called Khadija.
Now she is dead.
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Eight orphans left behind.
The tide of brutal, relentless poaching that is sweeping Africa carried her away, as it has thousands of nameless others, in a continent-wide carnage visited on elephants by the world’s most powerful, most dangerous and most egotistical species — the human being.
Khadija(photo from cyprianfernandes.blogspot.com
We knew a lot more about Khadija because she was one of the elephants studied by the world’s leading elephant scientist, Dr. Iain Douglas Hamilton, founder of Save The Elephants.
Her radio collar discreetly opened our eyes to the intimate secrets of her life. The paths to water, the forests where the best browse could be found, the deepest and safest thickets. But even her wisdom, Iain’s vigilance and the determined efforts of Kenya Wildlife Service rangers could not protect her.
When bloody ivory sells for up to $700 a pound and when the hundreds of millions of wealthy Chinese middle class — the bafahu — can afford to buy it, then no wild elephant is safe.
So Khadija is gone. A wasted life, snuffed out to satisfy human vanity and greed.
How many more will follow her before we say “enough”?
Blogging off,
Will
P.S. If you want to help protect the survivors then please support Born Free USA’s Elephant Defense Fund.