With tusks that each weigh over 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and often scrape the ground, “super tuskers” are elephants that live up to their name.
This rare trait is the result of a genetic variation that causes the tusks to grow faster and longer than usual. While it gives the elephants a powerful and distinctive appearance, it also makes them vulnerable to poaching.
Fewer than 30 of these giants remain in Africa, according to the Tsavo Trust, which monitors elephant populations in Kenya’s Tsavo Conservation Area.
Most of the surviving super tuskers, also known as “great tuskers,” are found in southern Kenya, where Italian-born photographer Federico Veronesi has spent years tracking and photographing them. His new book, “Walk the Earth,” the culmination of years of work in Kenya and beyond, pays tribute to the elephants he calls “the last witnesses of a world before humans took over the Earth.”
As a child growing up in Italy, Veronesi was captivated by African wildlife. That fascination led him to Kenya, where he eventually settled and began photographing the animals he had admired for so long.
“Photography is almost like a medium through which I get to stay among the animals and express my love for them,” said Veronesi.
Elephants became his central focus, not just for their grandeur, but for the way they seemed to embody the soul of Africa for him. “When you see an elephant walking through a savanna,” he reflected, “it’s so evocative, like everything about Africa is in that one scene.”
The book is rooted in Veronesi’s encounters with some of Kenya’s most iconic elephants. One of the most significant came in 2010, when he first saw Tim, the legendary super tusker of Amboseli National Park.
“We were waiting as the elephants made their daily walk from the woodlands to the marsh,” he remembered, “when this massive bull appeared with tusks so long, they nearly touched the ground.”
For Veronesi, it was as if a childhood dream had become reality. Tim reminded him of tales of Ahmed, a great tusker so revered in Kenya that in the 1970s, President Jomo Kenyatta declared him a “living monument” and assigned him armed guards for protection.
“Through the book I also wanted to show different aspects of elephants’ lives,” Veronesi said, “such as courtship with Tim, fighting, mud-bathing, swimming, reaching up for branches and social relationships.”
Veronesi also sought to highlight the diversity of habitats where elephants live across Africa, from the deserts of Namibia to the Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater and Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe.
Veronesi’s favorite image is one of Balguda, “probably the greatest tusker alive at the moment,” as described in his book. Balguda was only known from occasional sightings during aerial patrols and Veronesi spent years looking for him.
In August 2023, in a remote corner of Tsavo, Balguda finally appeared. “I still can’t believe that I finally managed to see and photograph him, to have breathed the same air as him. The image of him walking in the riverbed will probably remain with me forever – one of my most intense encounters in the wild,” Veronesi writes in the book.
“I always told myself, if I find him, then I will do the book,” he added.
Photography and conservation
“Walk the Earth” is Veronesi’s third photography book, and he has been working on it for the past five years. It highlights the threats elephants face today: habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, and the continued danger of trophy hunting, especially for the few remaining great tuskers.
Veronesi has long used his photography to help protect wildlife. He says he donates images to conservation organizations, contributes to awareness campaigns and has spoken internationally, including in China, where he presented his wildlife photos to raise awareness about ivory demand.
Veronesi strives to not only document elephants as specimens, but to portray them as individuals. “The goal is always to make the viewer connect with the animal, to look into its soul somehow,” he said.
That connection requires patience and perspective. He often positions his camera low to the ground, so the elephant seems to tower over the frame. Many of his most powerful images are in black and white.
“Elephants have this incredible aura of calm patience,” he said. “They convey a sense of wisdom, of knowledge. And at the same time, they’re extremely social and caring for each other.
“They make everything seem fine. Like the whole world is grazing and nothing is happening.”