Indeed — a fine name to share! 😄 The Amboseli Tim certainly set a high bar, both in stature and legacy.

For comparison, another legendary Amboseli tusker, Tim (1969–2020), is preserved at the National Museums of Kenya, and his specimen is expected to be completed and put on public display in the near future (www.instagram.com/p/DL1-5wytRTx/).

Craig also had a serious bout of intestinal torsion last November (biglife.org/program-upda...). Although he managed to overcome it at the time, the local conservation team noted that his last four molars were already almost completely worn down.

54 isn’t especially long-lived for a wild elephant, but I wouldn’t quite call it dying young either. One consolation is that tuskers, as dominant alpha males, usually have a strong advantage in mating competition and tend to leave behind plenty of offspring to pass on those long-tusk genes.

My friend met Craig 🐘 in Amboseli in October 2024. This is a photograph of Craig with Mount Kilimanjaro, taken at that time.