![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_36-800x420.jpg\")
The first photo of a ghost elephant captured by a motion controlled camera. The eyes glow in this night shot. (Credit: Courtesy of The Wilderness Project Archive) <\/p>\n The first photo of a ghost elephant captured by a motion controlled camera. The eyes glow in this night shot. (Credit: Courtesy of The Wilderness Project Archive) <\/p>\n
In National Geographic\u2018s latest documentary, \u201cGhost Elephants,\u201d acclaimed director Werner Herzog follows National Geographic Explorer and conservation biologist, Dr. Steve Boyes, on the latest chapter of his decade-long journey into the forest highlands of Angola to find near-mythical \u201cghost elephants.\u201d <\/p>\n
Spoiler Warning: This story discusses key moments from the National Geographic documentary, \u201cGhost Elephants,\u201d directed by Werner Herzog. The documentary premieres on March 7. <\/p>\n
Joined by a trio of KhoiSan master trackers from Southern Africa, Xui, Xui Dawid, and Kobus, Boyes and fellow National Geographic Explorer Kerllen Costa make a long, dangerous trek from southern Africa to Angola, seeing echoes of its war-torn past along the way, including old abandoned tanks and scarred lands. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Some of the most notable evidence of Angola\u2019s horrific, 26-year civil war (1975-2002) is the ghost elephants themselves, or, rather, their elusiveness. The Angolan Civil War was not just deadly for Angola\u2019s people \u2014 it is estimated that the war took 800,000 lives directly and uprooted four million more \u2014 it was deadly for Angola\u2019s diverse wildlife. As National Geographic reports<\/a>, it was estimated in the 1980s that as many as 100,000 elephants had already been slaughtered for their ivory to help fund war efforts. By 2015, an expansive survey found just 4,000 elephants left in southeast Angola. <\/p>\n All animals deserve respect, protection, and the ability to live a natural life. However, even still, elephants are a particularly special animal. The Angolan Civil War affected them, too. Beyond the death and destruction, elephants are sensitive to danger and stress. They are smart animals, and their reputation for steel-trap memories is well earned. People did horrible things to elephants during the Angolan Civil War, and the elephants that remain in southeast Angola have not forgotten. <\/p>\n Retreating to remote, sparsely populated forest highlands, the ghost elephants Boyes has been searching for since Angola reopened after the war are extremely difficult to find. Boyes has been there many times, never before getting a firsthand glimpse of a ghost elephant, but getting a bit closer each time. Fresher dung, fresher tracks, more evidence that he had just missed an elephant, trailing it by hours, or sometimes, minutes. <\/p>\n These so-called ghost elephants have every right to be cagey, but Boyes believes it is crucial to rebuild the trust between people and pachyderm. As the documentary shows, the history and cultural stories of people and elephants are closely intertwined among numerous tribes in Africa. Some of them, like the Luchazi people, trace their origins back directly to elephants. The connection between human and elephant is sacred \u2014 it matters deeply. <\/p>\n For Boyes, a seasoned conservation biologist, the ghost elephants are particularly interesting. He has long believed that these elephants are special, different from the rest. Living at an elevation of 4,000 feet, the Angolan highlands are not a typical habitat for elephants. The elephants mostly move at night or in twilight, which Boyes thinks is because of the generations of violence they have experienced. And perhaps most exciting of all, the ghost elephants are huge. Boyes has long believed the ghost elephants in Angola are direct descendants of the largest land mammal ever recorded: \u201cHenry,\u201d a 12-ton, 14-foot-tall African Elephant specimen that was hunted by a Hungarian game hunter in Angola in the 1950s. <\/p>\n Boyes\u2019 determination to not only finally observe these ghost elephants but also to explore their potential connection to Henry is on full display in Herzog\u2019s \u201cGhost Elephants.\u201d <\/p>\n It can, at times, feel as though Boyes, Xui, Xui Dawid, and Kobus will never find what they are looking for. But it\u2019s not like these elephants don\u2019t exist; the evidence is right there. Footprints, dung, and little hairs stuck in the bark of trees. These are all carefully collected so that the samples can undergo extensive genetic testing in the United States. There are elephants, that much has been clear to Boyes for years, even if some people doubted him. <\/p>\n But Boyes had never seen them with his own eyes, something that he wasn\u2019t ever that bothered by. Boyes cares deeply about the elephants and has dedicated much of his life to studying them, but seems to have zero belief that he is entitled to anything or that he deserves to finally lay his own eyes on the animals he\u2019s been following for years. <\/p>\n But then, when out searching with Xui, there it was. Finally. An enormous ghost elephant, just off in the distance. Boyes quickly got his phone out and captured some rather impressive footage, which Nat Geo unfortunately did not supply for press. Xui tried to extract a tissue sample with an expert arrow \u2014 this would not have harmed the elephant \u2014 but it deflected. Then the elephant took off. They tracked it for hours, but never caught up to it again before calling it quits.<\/p>\n Later that day, Boyes is explaining what happened to Herzog, and the rains come, and rainbows appear. The moment could literally not have been scripted better, but it wasn\u2019t scripted. This was just real magic. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been out there for months and we\u2019ve been tracking the elephants. We\u2019re getting within an hour, two hours, a day,\u201d Boyes tells PetaPixel. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole mythology around them. When you\u2019re in camp, in our search camp, you\u2019re not allowed to talk about where you\u2019re going the next day, who you\u2019re going with, or when you\u2019re going, because the elephants are listening.\u201d <\/p>\n Boyes made that mistake on the first day of this new search expedition, saying where someone was going. <\/p>\n \u201cI was banned from walking for two days and I got really upset. I went and camped away from the team, sat under the stars, sulking.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the environment you\u2019re in, deep tradition, deep culture, lots of taboo. And we search and we search and we search. It\u2019s 40 miles a day.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the last day when I walk into the elephant, the very final day. I\u2019d surrendered the day before, really. We\u2019d seen the footage from Antonio and Elias, and I was like, \u2018Okay, we\u2019ve got that.’\u201d <\/p>\n Boyes thought it was impossible that the final day would be a successful one. <\/p>\n But Xui had seen the video from two other team members, which showed a ghost elephant far in the distance, mostly obscured by trees. It wasn\u2019t much, but it was everything at first. It was all they had. Boyes thought Xui was invigorated by it. <\/p>\n \u201cI noticed he was very purposeful that [final] morning,\u201d Boyes says. \u201cI think he had just enough of a look and feel of the trees and the place for him to read into it. The master trackers know the names and birthdays of every single elephant out there without having seen one. They know every other animal, every nook and cranny of this place has been memorized. He was very purposeful.\u201d <\/p>\n After a few hours, Xui said, \u201cSteve, Steve, over there.\u201d <\/p>\n And there it was. <\/p>\n When trying to explain what happened to the team after his return, Boyes found it very difficult to say much of anything at all. <\/p>\n \u201cI take the video to Kerllen and show it to him, not talking to them. I just show him the video and a bunch of people come around. I cried a little bit and I was sitting there.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI was trying to eat. I was very hungry, but I couldn\u2019t talk really. And I\u2019ve got the film crew that freaking sticking the cameras in my face. It\u2019s not on the film, but they\u2019re right there the whole time. And I\u2019m just eating rice and beans, cold rice and beans. And then I went and sat in the rain. And I don\u2019t know if any rainbow appears. It\u2019s like, what on Earth is this then? So I go and look at that. But it\u2019s like luck or something, very well timed. I was completely overwhelmed by it. It\u2019s 10 years of time, mountain biking, hiking for months, exploring every single river.\u201d <\/p>\n Experiencing that moment also relates to how Boyes approaches wildlife conservation at its very core. He and his team are involved with the local people, tribes, vice kings, and kings. They spend time there, building schools and clinics, training teachers, nurses, and midwives. They have thousands of farmers working with them, helping rebuild a region that was destroyed by war. <\/p>\n For Boyes, this is how you protect animals, place, and people, from the bottom up. Environmental issues cannot be solved by simply throwing money at them or erecting fences and walls to protect a specific area. Successful, long-term conservation requires being there, on the ground, working with the people who live there. <\/p>\n Boyes and his team are helping to support future generations of guardians, and, hopefully, the ghost elephants will be able to thrive. Perhaps one day they will even trust people again, and let\u2019s hope that trust, if it returns, is never again broken. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t need to see one again,\u201d Boyes tells PetaPixel. \u201cThat was a gift, and it only needs to happen once. I don\u2019t expect it to happen again. But you can feel the elephants there. You can feel the elephants granting us access.\u201d <\/p>\n Ultimately, \u201cGhost Elephants\u201d is not quite a film about the elephants themselves. It\u2019s not even really about Boyes. The movie is about what ghost elephants, and what happened to them, tells us about ourselves. The ghost elephants are a massive, elusive mirror that reflects humanity\u2019s worst, but also its potential to be better. It is a poignant, beautifully filmed movie that is well worth watching. <\/p>\n \u201cGhost Elephants\u201d premieres on Nat Geo at 9 PM ET (6 PM PT) on March 7. <\/p>\n Boyes has also written an accompanying book, \u201cOkavango and the Source of Life,\u201d which features Boyes\u2019 accounts of his adventures, explorations, history in Africa, and approach to conservation. There is also an excellent chapter dedicated just to the ghost elephants. The book is available now<\/a>. <\/p>\n Image credits: National Geographic. Individual photographers are credited in the captions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first photo of a ghost elephant captured by a motion controlled camera. The eyes glow in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[6074,64,63,2929,1691,5276,27531,261799,261800,15460,206668,192862,2270,128,261801,261802,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-526209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-conservation","12":"tag-documentary","13":"tag-elephant","14":"tag-elephants","15":"tag-ghostelephant","16":"tag-ghostelephants","17":"tag-movie","18":"tag-natgeo","19":"tag-nationalgeographic","20":"tag-nature","21":"tag-science","22":"tag-steveboyes","23":"tag-wernerherzog","24":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526209","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=526209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_UHD_03-800x433.jpg\")
Dr. Steve Boyes stands in the rotunda of the Smithsonian Museum. He confronts for the first time in his life the largest elephant ever killed. (Credit: Skellig Rock, Inc) ![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_UHD_05-800x433.jpg\")
Dr. Melissa Hawkins and Dr. Steve Boyes inspect the actual tusks of Henry the elephant kept in storage at the Smithsonian. (Credit: Skellig Rock, Inc) ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_UHD_12-800x433.jpg\")
Josef J. Fenykovi poses atop the elephant he killed in Angola on November 13, 1955. The elephant was later donated to the Smithsonian and known as \u201c\u2018Henry.\u201d (Credit: Skellig Rock, Inc) <\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_26-534x800.jpg\")
Werner Herzog, director, writer; narrator of Ghost Elephants. (Credit: Lena Herzog) <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_50-800x473.jpg\")
The first photo of a ghost elephant captured by a motion controlled camera. The eyes glow in this night shot. (Credit: Courtesy of The Wilderness Project Archive) <\/p>\n![\"Close-up](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_28-800x450.jpg\")
Xui, a San Master Tracker, stares into the distance at sunset. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch) ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_27-800x450.jpg\")
Xui, a San Master Tracker, shoots his poisoned arrow. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch)
\n ![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_38-800x600.jpg\")
San Master Tracker Xui finds signs of the ghost elephants in a stretch of wetlands. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch) <\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_30-800x534.jpg\")
Dr. Steve Boyes and Kerllen Costa take a rest by their four-wheel-drive vehicle. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch) <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_46-800x600.jpg\")
Dr. Steve Boyes, with a rainbow in the background, experiences the first signs of the rainy season. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch) <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_39-800x600.jpg\")
Kerllen Costa, Dr. Steve Boyes, and a group of Angolan tribal hunters check Steve\u2019s cellphone video of a ghost elephant. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch) ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_45-800x600.jpg\")
A group of Angolan tribal hunters, Dr. Steve Boyes, and Kerllen Costa, check Steve\u2019s cellphone video of a ghost elephant. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch) <\/p>\nDr. Steve Boyes stands in the rotunda of the Smithsonian Museum. He confronts for the first time in his life the largest elephant ever killed. (Credit: Skellig Rock, Inc)
\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_33-800x534.jpg\")
San villagers watch the night-long elephant Trance Dance. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch) Xui, a San Master Tracker, stares into the distance at sunset. (Credit: Ariel Leon Isacovitch) ![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_UHD_24-800x433.jpg\")
A San Triabl Village Elder sings at sundown. (Credit: Skellig Rock, Inc) <\/p>\n![\"Underwater](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_UHD_06-800x433.jpg\")
Underwater footage of an elephant as seen in Ghost Elephants. (Credit: Skellig Rock, Inc\/Roger Horrocks) ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GhostElephants_UHD_07-800x433.jpg\")
Underwater footage of an elephant as seen in Ghost Elephants. (Credit: Skellig Rock, Inc\/Roger Horrocks)<\/p>\n![\"Book](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/okavango-book-boyes-800x281.jpg\")
<\/p>\n