The Lost Elephants of Timbuktu

Production Details

One hundred strong, the herd slowly makes its way through the shifting sands, following the ephemeral desert rains.  This is the remarkable story of a lost herd of elephants that live in the Sahel, near the fabled city of Timbuktu.

How the elephants survive in this barren, desolate landscape is a mystery – one that Anne Orlando, a biologist from the University of California, hopes to unravel.  For the first time she will track the elephants to uncharted lands and reveal their relationship with the Tuareg nomads – a relationship which is both respectful, and bloody.

The lost elephants of Timbuktu are completely isolated from other African elephants – they were cut off by the creation of the Sahara centuries ago. They have survived in this unlikely setting by roaming between scattered temporary lakes and marshes.  As drought has intensified over time, the elephants’ wanderings between these vital watering holes have stretched into a remarkable yearly migration of seven hundred miles.

The Sahel is changing fast – the climate is becoming drier and many Tuareg people are establishing sedentary homes around the traditional waterholes of the elephants.  This can only lead to conflict.