Douglas Hamilton, the Scottish zoologist whose life’s work reshaped global understanding of elephants and transformed conservation efforts across Africa, has died in Nairobi aged 83.
His death brings to a close a career that stretched over six decades and left an imprint on science, policy and the survival of a species pushed to the brink.
Douglas Hamilton began his work early. At 23, he undertook the first scientific study of wild elephant social behaviour, living among herds and documenting the complex bonds that define their lives. His findings helped establish behavioural ecology as a meaningful field of study and opened a window into the emotional and social worlds of elephants.
As poaching intensified in the 1970s and 1980s, he shifted from research to advocacy. His surveys exposed the scale of slaughter driven by the ivory trade, which erased more than half of Africa’s elephant population in ten years. His evidence formed part of the momentum that led to the 1989 international ivory trade ban.
In 1993 he founded Save the Elephants, an organisation dedicated to research, protection and human elephant coexistence. He pushed conservation into the technological age by introducing GPS tracking and modern aerial monitoring, tools now used across the continent.
During the poaching surge of 2010 to 2012, he became one of the clearest voices calling for global action. His testimony before the US Senate helped build pressure for the closure of domestic ivory markets, including China’s landmark shutdown in 2018. In 2013 he co founded the Elephant Crisis Fund, which has since supported more than 500 conservation projects in 44 countries.
His work reached wide audiences through books authored with his wife Oria and through documentaries that followed his fieldwork. His honours included the Order of the British Empire and the Indianapolis Prize.
Douglas Hamilton is survived by his wife, their daughters Saba and Dudu, and six grandchildren. His family has requested privacy. His influence will endure through the scientists he inspired and through the elephants whose survival he fought for with relentless determination.
