The last pictures were ever taken of a unique “Queen of elephants,” whose tusks dragged on the ground.
British photographer Will Burrard-Lucas snapped the gorgeous beast, known as F_MU1, in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park.
Will, a full-time shooter from Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, captured the images just before the 8ft elephant – whose tusks were estimated to be up to 6ft 5in long – died peacefully of natural causes at more than 60 years old.
Will said: “Tsavo is home to some of the last remaining ‘big tuskers’ – elephants with tusks weighing over 100lbs on each side.
“It’s been estimated that there are less than 20 of these elephants left on earth, and almost half of them live in Tsavo.”
“I was speechless when I first saw her; she had the most magnificent tusks I’d ever seen.”
I might not have believed that such a magnificent elephant could exist in this world if I hadn’t seen her with my own eyes.
“If there were a Queen of Elephants, it would surely have been her.
“When we first spotted her, she appeared frail and ancient, but she walked with regal majesty.
“Her tusks were so long that they scraped the ground in front of her. She was like a relic from a bygone era.”
Will spent days looking for the elephant, as her national park home was comparable to Switzerland.
His photos show her drinking at waterholes, eating acacia tree branches, and striding towards the camera.
He was able to get intimate shots from below thanks to a specially-covert remote-controlled camera buggy known as a “Beetlecam,” which he created in 2009 for capturing close-up images of potentially dangerous African wildlife.
The stunning images of Will, taken in collaboration with Tsavo Trust in August 2017, are now being published for the first time as they will feature in the new book “Land of Giants,” which describes his experiences in the conservation area.
He added: “We had been looking for this elephant for several days, but finding her in a vast wilderness the size of Switzerland had proven difficult. “We spotted her from the air, and we were converging on her position.
“I had a feeling of great excitement mixed with anxiety that she may yet evade us in the thick vegetation.
“But over the bushes, I caught a glimpse of an elephant’s back, so when she stepped out into the open seconds later, I was speechless.”
