Africa’s largest female Tusker and Kenya’s Iconic elephant Matriarch, Dida has died in East Tsavo, due to natural causes of old age after living for between 60 to 65 years.
Dida, famously known as Africa’s largest female Tusker, and the oldest in Kenya has died of natural causes of old age in kenya’s Tsavo East National Park where she resided, as reported by Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) officers on Twitter.
The Queen of Tsavo is famed for her long tuskers which played a major attraction to tourists who came visiting Kenya and is the oldest.
Dida has been crowned the Matriarch of East Tsavo since she has been a mother to many elephants and steered a big herd of female elephants for the longest time.
Dida dies at the upper age limit of between 60 to 65, as per the lifespan of the tuskers she thrived longer.
“Dida was a ‘great repository’ of many decades worth of knowledge, and had shepherded ‘her herd through many seasons and challenging times’, KWS noted.
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Dida the Kenyan Matriarch is considered a ‘Tusker’ since her ivory tusks were so long that they could touch the ground.
“We are saddened by the death of Dida who was possibly Africa’s largest female Tusker and a matriarch residing in Tsavo East National Park. She died from natural causes due to old age, having lived a full life to about 60-65 years old,” the KWS statement read.
“Those who got to know her through pictures and videos as well as those who had the exquisite pleasure of meeting her in person will remember her,” KWS added.
Even so, two elephants were reported to have succumbed to hunger due to drought experienced in Mount Kenya slopes, Imenti Forest, the two adds to the list of the elephants recorded to have died over the past year due to drought experienced in Eastern Africa.
Read also: Tale of Tusker, land thirst, and Hurst’s hunts in Ngorongoro
