Wildlife artist Robert Fuller has an encounter with an elephant in Kenya after visiting the home of a world famous conservationist.

LAST month I was lucky enough to visit one of the most magical places on earth and meet the inspirational people who work there.

Kenya is host to some spectacular wildlife. And after a week watching the great animal migration in the Masai Mara, I thought I’d seen everything.

But then I visited Elephant Watch in Samburu, owned by one of the world’s most famous elephant conservationists, Iain Douglas-Hamilton and his wife, Oria.

Elephant Watch Camp is based is north of the equator, and is just 12kms from the headquarters of Save the Elephants, the campaigning and research charity he founded in 1993.

The eco-camp is the best place from which to see the 900 elephants that he and his team of researchers study daily.

Iain’s research into elephant behaviour is world famous. He was the first person to record the fact that elephants co-exist in a matriarchal society and his pioneering efforts to put a halt to the ivory trade has earned him international recognition.

The camp is set on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro River, the main source of water for miles around and an oasis of activity in an otherwise parched and arid landscape.

Staying there was rather like roaming a live TV set. The elephants that walk daily to the river to drink have been so well documented by programmes like the BBC1’s Planet Earth series and the BBC2 series Living with Elephants and The Secret Lives of Elephants, I felt as though I was amidst stars.

The guides know almost every elephant by name and could describe their characters and tell you how they were related to one another almost as though they were part of the family.

Our days revolved around the lives of the elephants. We woke early every morning to view game in the early light, often spotting leopard or lion as well a daily display of colourful birdlife.

By late morning we would head to the river, where the elephants spent the hottest part of the day cooling off, quenching their thirst or resting in the shade.

One our first game drives of the trip we encountered a herd called ‘The Royals’ that were just outside camp. The young elephants are great fun to watch as they mock charged the vehicles within the safety of their mother’s care.

Elephants in this national park are some of the calmest I have seen and will let visitors get surprisingly close, which is quite unusual.

Elephants form a herd around the oldest and wisest female who is known as the matriarch and her female relatives. There is usually about nine or 10 in such a group, although they join up with other herds that they are loosely related to and form much larger ‘kinship herds’ often numbering 50 or 60 individuals.

There was a group of male elephants tagging along with ‘the Royals’ but before long they headed off to the river to drink. Not only do they quench their thirst here they also seem to bond.

Watching their behaviour as the older bull passes on the wisdom of sparring practice as they lock trunks and push one another back and forth is fascinating.

The elephants are such admirable characters I could never tire of watching them. It is no wonder that Iain Douglas-Hamilton and his family have devoted their lives to these wonderful creatures.