{"id":390304,"date":"2026-01-04T04:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390304\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T04:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:07:08","slug":"craig-the-beer-ambassador-elephant-dies-aged-54","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390304\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig the beer-ambassador elephant dies aged 54"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A Kenyan elephant believed to have been one of Africa&#8217;s largest male tuskers has died of old age.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pachyderm, fondly known as Craig, died of natural causes on Saturday morning at Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya, conservationists confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Craig had just turned 54 years old. He led a long life and no doubt fathered many calves,&#8221; said the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in its farewell message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Famed for his long tusks, Craig the elephant was a major attraction at the park near the Tanzanian border. In 2021, he was named an ambassador for the popular Kenyan lager brand Tusker &#8211; a name also used for adult male elephants with tusks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Kenya Wildlife Service described Craig as an &#8220;icon&#8221; of successful conservation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Craig was one of the last remaining super tuskers in Africa &#8211; a rare class of bull elephants whose two tusks weigh over 45kg (100lb) each. Fewer than a handful remain today, making him a living monument to Africa&#8217;s natural heritage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KWSKenya\/status\/2007366473338032538\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The wildlife body also said &quot;Craig was deeply loved for [his] remarkably calm nature&quot;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The wildlife body also said &#8220;Craig was deeply loved for [his] remarkably calm nature&#8221;<\/a>, often &#8220;pausing patiently as visitors photographed and filmed him&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Thanks to his many protectors, he died peacefully of natural causes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">More than two million tourists visited Kenya last year, many of them seeking out wildlife in the country&#8217;s world-famous national parks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbcafrica.com\/media\/7762786525753\/tourism-investment-in-kenya-capitalising-on-emerging-opportunities\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Kenya&#039;s tourism sector accounts for 10% of national GDP;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Kenya&#8217;s tourism sector accounts for 10% of national GDP<\/a>, officials say.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"An employee of the East African Breweries Limited sorts Tusker beer cans in 2019 at the company's plant in Ruaraka, Kenya.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/350f6f39dc0707ac7160bd19a64b6565.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Craig the elephant became a brand ambassador for Tusker five years ago [AFP via Getty Images]<\/p>\n<p>You may also be interested in:<img alt=\"A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News Africa\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"295\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c7a608b642136b2879dce57f6fb5d461.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>[Getty Images\/BBC]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Go to <a href=\"http:\/\/bbcafrica.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:BBCAfrica.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">BBCAfrica.com<\/a> for more news from the African continent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow us on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCAfrica\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@BBCAfrica;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">@BBCAfrica<\/a>, on Facebook at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BBCnewsafrica\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:BBC Africa;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">BBC Africa<\/a> or on Instagram at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcafrica\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:bbcafrica;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">bbcafrica<\/a><\/p>\n<p>BBC Africa podcasts<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Kenyan elephant believed to have been one of Africa&#8217;s largest male tuskers has died of old age.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[6074,209031,209030,64,63,191206,33849,167895,128,338],"class_list":["post-390304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-africa","tag-amboseli-national-park","tag-amboseli-trust-for-elephants","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brand-ambassador","tag-craig","tag-kenya-wildlife-service","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}