In the mid 1960s, Iain Douglas-Hamilton began his seminal study of elephant society in Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania, where he met battalions of formidable females, like Inkosikazi, that charged on sight. Their hatred of mankind was tangible, inflamed by decades of trophy hunting.

But Iain broke all their rules, meeting hostility with calm and anger with humility. The elephants soon realised he wasn't a threat, opening their ranks. His observations of the elephants' natural state, and insights on their society and intelligence, transformed our understanding of elephants as emotional, sentient beings, much like us.

After 20 years fighting to shut down ivory trade, Iain moved the STE team to Samburu national reserve to study the free-roaming elephants of North Kenya. With 1000+ individuals known by name, a growing team of local and international scientists have minutely documented their relationships, families, DNA, decisions, movements and life histories since 1997.

Henrik is a bull in his prime. In his late 40s, he's now one of the oldest surviving males in Samburu. Named after a Danish STE researcher that builds satellite tracking collars, Henrik appears sporadically, often battle-scarred from fights with other males - a perfect future vessel for a collar.

In Samburu, the elephants are named after 'genres'. There's a Storms family, some Artists, Spice Girls, Turks and even First Ladies. Anastasia is the matriarch of the Royals. When her matriarch-mother died, atypically, both she and her older sister, Cleopatra, became co-matriarchs.

With decisions wholly in-tune, the Royals are the largest, most dominant family in the reserves, known for their distinguishing "royal mark" - spots of pigment loss on their legs and trunks - that appear as pink patches after a thorough wash in the river. Sadly, Cleopatra died of natural causes in 2019, but Anastasia continues reigning wisely.

There's nobody quite like Anwar! Unaware of the impact of his considerable bulk and strength, Anwar loves to come say hello to our team. He might rub his face on the car, sit on the hood, or take a good long sniff of the occupants. It's left us with a few cracked windscreens and holes in the canvas roof, but it's always unintentional.

These same overtures are not received so well in the local town, where he breaks open mud roofs to access stores of seed pods. It keeps our 'human elephant co-existence' team very busy, and he's collared for advance warning of his whereabouts.

A ferocious Manyara matriarch, Boadicea was famous for her terrifying displays of defiance, thundering out of the bushes, screaming at her enemy, and thrashing vegetation with ruthless savagery.

Named after the British Iceni Queen that rebelled against the Romans, Boadicea was one of Iain & Oria's favourite elephants. Despite her fierce posturing, the charges were always bluff. Acts of great courage, in fact, placing herself physically between her family and danger to give them time to escape. She was killed by poachers in the late 1970s, as ivory trade spiralled out of control.

A junior member of Boadicea's family, Virgo was a gentle-hearted, curious teenager that caught Iain's eye from the start. She also took note of him, consistently on foot skirting the perimeter of her family. Their mutual curiousity led in time to an extraordinary cross-species friendship that lasted decades.

It was the first contact of its kind, a singular spark that entirely reshaped our understanding of elephants. In the award-winning film, A Life Among Elephants, the famous primatologist, Jane Goodall, fondly recalls her astonishment meeting Virgo with Iain, and the magic of their interactions.

Sarara first came into our Camp with Chuck Yeager, a favourite habituated bull. Despite lower ranking, Sarara soon claimed the turf as his own, giving bluff but firm warnings if we overstepped his boundaries. He left and indelible mark.

Seedlings that slithered through his gut are now part of our forest. Bats skimmed his legs to feast on insect clouds he'd stirred during midnight snacks, mere inches from our beds. Or he'd lie down on a sandbank near us, snoring softly beneath the stars, dreaming elephant dreams. We lost Sarara and Yeager within two weeks of each other, killed by angry, armed men in mindless acts of violence after a long, painful drought.