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

But Iain broke through 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 focus on North Kenya's free-roaming elephants. With 1000+ individuals known by name, a growing team of local and international scientists have studied their relationships, families, DNA, decisions, movements, and life histories in detail since 1997.

Henrik is a bull in his prime. Now in his late 40s, he's one of the oldest surviving males in Samburu. Named after a STE Danish researcher that now 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 is 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 now the most dominant family in the reserves, known for their distinguishing 'royal' mark - spots of pigment loss on legs and trunks - that appear as pink patches after a cleansing wash in the river. Sadly, Cleopatra died of natural causes in 2019, but Anastasia continues with her wise reign.

There's nobody quite like Anwar! Somewhat unaware of his considerable bulk and strength, Anwar loves to 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 resulted in a few cracked windscreens or holes in the canvas roof, but he means no harm.

These same overtures are not received well in the local town, where he breaks through 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 threat displays, thundering out of the bushes screaming defiantly at her enemy, while savagely thrashing vegetation.

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

A junior cow in Boadicea's family, Virgo was a gentle-hearted, inquisitive teenager that caught Iain's eye from the start. 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 enkindled an entirely new understanding of elephants. Fondly recalling meeting Virgo, in the award-winning film, A Life Among Elephants, the famous primatologist, Jane Goodall, was astonished by the gentle magic of their interactions.

Sarara was brought to Camp by Chuck Yeager, an habituated bull we knew well. He soon claimed it as his own turf, despite his lower ranking, giving bluff but firm warnings if we ever disrespected his boundaries, but happily sleeping among us, dreaming elephant dreams as he snored beneath the stars.

Seedlings that slithered through his gut are now saplings in our forest, and he was greatly loved by bats, who'd skim through his legs like night fighters, feasting on the clouds of insects he'd stir. We're devastated to have lost both bulls within two weeks of each other - killed in mindless acts of violence by angry, armed men, enraged by drought.