The Prince of Wales has paid tribute to pioneering elephant conservationist Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who died aged 83 at his home in Nairobi on Monday.
Douglas-Hamilton spent his life studying and campaigning to protect African elephants, becoming a world-leading expert on their behavior in the wild, BBC reported.
His groundbreaking research exposed the devastating effects of poaching - often at great risk to his own safety - and was instrumental in the banning of the international ivory trade.
Prince William praised the zoologist as “a man who dedicated his life to conservation and whose life's work leaves lasting impact on our appreciation for, and understanding of, elephants.”
“The memories of spending time in Africa with him will remain with me forever,” added Prince William, who is a royal patron for the African wildlife conservation charity, Tusk, of which Douglas-Hamilton was an ambassador.
“The world has lost a true conservation legend today, but his extraordinary legacy will continue,” the charity's founder Charles Mayhew said in a statement.
Born in 1942 to an aristocratic British family in Dorset, England, Douglas-Hamilton studied biology and zoology in Scotland and Oxford before moving to Tanzania to research elephant social behavior.
It was there at Lake Manyara National Park that he began documenting every elephant he encountered, eventually becoming so familiar with the herds he could recognize them by the unique shapes of their ears and wrinkles on their skin.
“The thing about elephants is that they have a lot in common with human beings,” he said in a 2024 documentary about his work, A Life Among Elephants.
Friend and fellow conservationist Jane Goodall, who died in October, was featured in the documentary, and said he had shown the world that elephants are capable of feeling just like humans.
“I think his legacy will be one of a man who did so much to help people understand how majestic, how wonderful elephants are, and to learn more about their way of life,” Goodall said.
