Lockdown gives birth to a baby boom

The closure of Amboseli Wildlife Park has led to rapid growth for its elephant population

It is highly unlikely that a wildlife park like Amboseli, in southern Kenya with views of Kilimanjaro, will ever be this quiet again. For more than six months, tourists, photographers and the like have been grounded and so the friendly free-ranging elephant herds that live here have been left to their own devices.

World-renowned fine-art photographer David Yarrow is an exception. He spent 28 days exploring the park in August with the vast wilderness all to himself. His goal was simple, to capture wildlife in a way that until this year had never been possible. This month he released a photographic series from his time there: “After Man”. In much of his other work, Yarrow has been drawn to ghost towns and abandoned communities, but he never thought this would apply to a place like Amboseli. Yet, Covid conditions have accelerated the dilapidation of one abandoned lodge in the park and the livelihoods of thousands of people that rely on the tourist industry are at risk. “I have long felt some sort of visceral pull toward this kind of narrative – it speaks to the fragility of mankind and the constancy of evolution. In 2020, these thoughts are central to us all,” says Yarrow.

He also found something to celebrate. “The elephant population here is up by over 5 per cent since Covid. Babies everywhere – including twins. This is good news, and while bad news sells better, the positives in conservation need to be told. Amboseli is a paragon in case studies and a credit to the efforts of the Kenyan Wildlife Service.”

The black-and-white image pictured celebrates this success. In the past 12 months, more than 130 baby elephants have arrived, and none has been lost to poaching.

Yarrow says: “Seasoned rangers who have seen it all can be forgiven for being somewhat indifferent to animal encounters, but when we found this mother with her twins born during Covid-19, they ordered me to stop and document it. I felt their pride.”

Words by Lizzie Frainier

Photograph by David Yarrow. To see more, visit davidyarrow.photography