Iconic Kenyan big tusker roams no more

NAIROBI－Kenya has lost a celebrated male elephant that used to roam in the country's southeastern plains neighboring Tanzania, authorities said on Wednesday.

Kenya Wildlife Service, or KWS, said the iconic elephant named Tim the Big Tusker died aged 50 on Tuesday at Amboseli National Park and its remains will be preserved at the national museum 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 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 mingled with the female counterparts with ease despite established norms that dictate a 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 biggest elephant populations in Africa, estimated at 35,000 in the latest census. The government has enhanced protection of the iconic land mammal amid threats like poaching and a shrinking habitat.

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