Photographer Captures the Last Photos of ‘Queen of Elephants’

F_MU1 is a female elephant who lived for more than 60 years in a peaceful corner of Tsavo in Kenya. Will Burrard-Lucas, a wildlife photographer, was fortunate enough to capture the “Queen of Elephants” just weeks before she died of natural causes.

She had survived through many periods of horrible poaching and it was an achievement to know that her life was not ended by a snare, arrow or a bullet.

Burrard-Lucas has partnered with Tsavo Trust to create a coffee table photo book featuring their work and the elephants of Tsavo.

“F_MU1 was skinny and old but she strode forward with stately grace. Her tusks were so long that they scraped the ground in front of her. She was like a relic from a bygone era,” he wrote on his blog.

“My last encounter with F_MU1 was at another waterhole. It was a memorable morning because elephants and a large herd of buffalo were battling for control of the waterhole. When eventually it quietened down, F_MU1 arrived and I had BeetleCam perfectly positioned to capture one last image of her… the Queen of Elephants…”

The images of the elephant queen and other big tusk elephants living in Tsavo were compiled in a book called Land of Giants.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu6VQYzA1vh/