Little Male

Little Male was born in 1968 in Amboseli, Kenya. He was named by the famous Cynthia Moss, who first identified his family in August 1973. As he was the archetypal young male elephant with no specific ID markers and very nondescript tusks, he ended up getting this rather “temporary” name.

His name after all seemed very ironic, as he had grown to become one of the most distinctive adult males of Amboseli. He was utterly huge and there was really nothing “little” about him.  Cynthia’s team long considered the idea of giving him a new name, but since many records identified him as Little Male, it simply stuck with him up until the end of his life. Little Male was a part of the so-called EB family, whose matriarch was the famous Echo for a long time. He was the son of Emily, who is Echo’s sister.

On the 7th of October, 2017 he was tragically shot and killed by authorities, who believed that he was responsible for the death of a local farmer. Passing away at the age of 49, Little Male was one of the last big elephant bulls in Amboseli.

Photo credits: Amboseli Trust for Elephants