One of Africa’s oldest and largest tusker elephant has been killed by poachers, conservatives have said.
Satao II, known as “giant tusker” body was found by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) near the Tsavo National Park border.
Satao was named after another giant tusker that was killed by poachers in 2014.
According to the Tsavo Trust the cause of death is unknown but is believed to be from a poisoned arrow.
Tusker elephants have tusks weighing more than 45kg, and are particularly desirable to poachers because they produce so much ivory.
There are approximately only 21 left in east, central and southern Africa and of these 10 live in parks controlled by the Tsavo Trust with a further 16 elephants set to potentially grow tusks long enough to qualify in the next years, the Independent reports.
