<p>A Kenyan elephant believed to have been Africa's largest female tusker has died of old age, wildlife officials said on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Dida was famed for her long tusks and aged between 60 and 65 years, the upper reaches of life expectancy for an elephant in the wild.</p>.<p>"She died from natural causes due to old age," Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Twitter, attaching images of the elephant.</p>.<p>The matriarch lived in the expansive Tsavo East National Park in the southeast of the wildlife-rich country.</p>.<p>"Dida was a truly iconic matriarch of Tsavo and a great repository of many decades worth of knowledge," KWS said, adding that she was the subject of many documentaries.</p>.<p>"She shepherd(ed) her herd through many seasons and challenging times."</p>.<p>Female elephants often live in close-knit families with young calves at their side, while bulls tend to be more solitary.</p>.<p>Conservation group Tsavo Trust eulogised Dida as a "true embodiment of an iconic cow" who will be remembered by future generations of elephants.</p>.<p>"She will be better remembered... from the lessons they learnt as they watched their matriarch pass her careful judgement," it wrote on Facebook.</p>.<p>"An elephant never forgets."</p>.<p>Dida's death comes barely a month after another iconic elephant died in Samburu, an arid expanse that like most of northern Kenya is suffering the driest conditions in 40 years.</p>.<p>A mother of seven calves, Monsoon survived being shot five times during a rampant poaching crisis about a decade ago that sent Africa's wild elephant population into freefall.</p>.<p>Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, an unprecedented climatic event that has pushed millions across the Horn of Africa into extreme hunger.</p>.<p>Older elephants and young calves are the first to succumb to prolonged drought, experts say.</p>.<p>Kenyan broadcaster NTV on Monday posted a video of villagers in central Kenya watching "helplessly" as an elephant died from extreme hunger.</p>
<p>A Kenyan elephant believed to have been Africa's largest female tusker has died of old age, wildlife officials said on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Dida was famed for her long tusks and aged between 60 and 65 years, the upper reaches of life expectancy for an elephant in the wild.</p>.<p>"She died from natural causes due to old age," Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Twitter, attaching images of the elephant.</p>.<p>The matriarch lived in the expansive Tsavo East National Park in the southeast of the wildlife-rich country.</p>.<p>"Dida was a truly iconic matriarch of Tsavo and a great repository of many decades worth of knowledge," KWS said, adding that she was the subject of many documentaries.</p>.<p>"She shepherd(ed) her herd through many seasons and challenging times."</p>.<p>Female elephants often live in close-knit families with young calves at their side, while bulls tend to be more solitary.</p>.<p>Conservation group Tsavo Trust eulogised Dida as a "true embodiment of an iconic cow" who will be remembered by future generations of elephants.</p>.<p>"She will be better remembered... from the lessons they learnt as they watched their matriarch pass her careful judgement," it wrote on Facebook.</p>.<p>"An elephant never forgets."</p>.<p>Dida's death comes barely a month after another iconic elephant died in Samburu, an arid expanse that like most of northern Kenya is suffering the driest conditions in 40 years.</p>.<p>A mother of seven calves, Monsoon survived being shot five times during a rampant poaching crisis about a decade ago that sent Africa's wild elephant population into freefall.</p>.<p>Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, an unprecedented climatic event that has pushed millions across the Horn of Africa into extreme hunger.</p>.<p>Older elephants and young calves are the first to succumb to prolonged drought, experts say.</p>.<p>Kenyan broadcaster NTV on Monday posted a video of villagers in central Kenya watching "helplessly" as an elephant died from extreme hunger.</p>