The Kenyan elephant known for his massive tusks and killed by poachers in 2014 was Satao.
Satao was one of Kenya’s most famous “tuskers”—male elephants whose tusks grow so long that they nearly reach the ground. He lived in Tsavo East National Park and was estimated to have been born around 1968, making him at least 45 years old when he died.
Poachers killed Satao around May 30, 2014, using a poisoned arrow. His carcass was discovered in a swamp with his face mutilated and his tusks removed. The tusks were extraordinarily valuable: each was estimated to weigh more than 100 pounds. Kenya Wildlife Service later reported arrests connected with the killing.
Satao is sometimes confused with Satao II, another Kenyan supertusker killed in 2017. They were separate elephants. His death became an international symbol of the ivory-poaching crisis and the dangers faced by Africa’s remaining big-tusked elephants.