Didida, biggest elephant in Kenya defenses, is dead of old age

The female, aged about sixty years, lived in Tsavo National Park, in the south-east of the country.

Le Monde

An elephant, considered as the largest defense female in Kenya, died of old age in this country in East Africa, announced on Tuesday 1 er November, national service fauna, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

Dida, known for its long defenses, was elderly according to estimates between 60 and 65 years. The life expectancy of elephants in nature is estimated at around sixty years. “She died of natural causes due to her great age,” the Kenya Wildlife Service announced in a tweet.

The elephant lived in the vast national park of Tsavo, in southeast Kenya, known for its fauna and flora. Dida “led her herd through many seasons and difficult moments,” retraced the kws.

Elephants often live in very united families with elephants alongside them, while males tend to be more lonely.

The death of Didida arrives almost a month after the death of another famous elephant in the Samburu reserve, arid in northern Kenya which faces one of the worst droughts for forty years.

Exceptional drought

Monsoon (which means “monsoon” in English), a female aged sixties, and mother of seven elephanteaux, had survived poachers five times. The elephant was euthanized at the end of September, the NGO Save The Elephant having then declared that the poor health of the elephant was due to its age, but that it had “been aggravated by the drought”.

Kenya, an economic engine of East Africa, has been drought of unprecedented intensity for four decades years, and hunger affects it at least 4 million people over a population of more than 50 million ‘inhabitants.

Four seasons of insufficient rains immediately created the driest conditions observed since the early 1980s.

rivers and wells have dried up, the pastures have turned into dust, causing the death of more than a million and a half of cattle heads, just in Kenya.

/Media reports.