Tim, Africa’s Largest Elephant, Dies in Kenya at Age 50

Tim, the celebrated elephant believed to be the largest jumbo in Africa, died on Tuesday at the Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya.

The 50-year-old giant elephant took its last breath early Tuesday morning in the Mada area of Amboseli National Park, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said. KWS said the park management visited the scene and secured its body.

“The body is on the way to National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi for a taxidermist to prepare the body for preservation for education and exhibition purposes,” said KWS.

“Big Tim is one of Africa’s last big tusker elephants that roam in a vast, remote wilderness of southern Kenya.”

KWS disclosed that a few years back Tim, who was described as the great patriarch of Amboseli National Park, was hit on the head with a large rock and stabbed through the ear with a spear, the tip of which was embedded in his shoulder.

 “Kenya Wildlife Service in collaboration with partners sedated and treated him and then he found his way back to the Amboseli marsh in a fairly short time,” added KWS.

The agency further described Tim, who stood out for his enormous tusks, as a unique elephant.

“Elephant families are matriarchal and males are solitary from the group when they reach sexual maturity. But Tim was always welcome to travel in the company of females and their families.”

“He was unassuming, unpretentious and laid back. A benevolent, slow-moving preserver of the peace at Amboseli, he was well known and loved throughout Kenya,” said KWS.