The Lost Elephants of Timbuktu

2001· 60 min★ 7.6· Documentary

One-hundred strong, the herd slowly makes its way through the shifting sands, following the promise of ephemeral desert rains. This is the remarkable, precarious, and untold story of a lost herd of elephants that live near the fabled city of Timbuktu. How the elephants survive in this seemingly barren, desolate landscape is a mystery. It is one however that Anne Orlando, a biologist from the University of California, hopes to unravel. For the first time she will track the elephants to uncharted lands and reveal the relationship they have with Tuareg nomads - a relationship which can be both respectful, and bloody. The lost elephants of Timbuktu are completely isolated from other African elephants - they were cut off from each other as the Sahara turned to desert centuries ago. They have survived in this unlikely setting by having a mental map of scattered temporary lakes and marshes.