Eudora

Eudora was born in 1973 in Amboseli, Kenya. She was part of the famous so-called EB Family under the matriarch Echo, who have been portrayed in multiple BBC documentaries.

Eudora grew up to be a strong female though through her life suffered many miscarriages or had to see three of her new born calves die within a year. In March 1996 she gave birth to a big, healthy male calf, who survived. In 2009, Amboseli was struck by the worst drought in living memory. By the end of that year 83% of the wildebeests, 71% of the zebras, and 61% of the buffaloes had died. Close to 400 elephants perished from both the drought and an upsurge in poaching. Over half of the matriarchs died, including Echo, the beloved and wonderful matriarch of the EB family. Losing such important females was extremely difficult for the family, as they struggled with the challenge of making it through without the leadership of experienced family members. Echo’s family including Eudora was in distraught. It broke down into small subunits and some of these units seemed not to know where to go and what to do. Eudora led part of these subunits attempting to find the last bits of food.

In the end, the EB family did better than some; they lost Echo and six calves, but not another adult family. In 2010, when the drought was truly over, the sub-groups coalesced again with Ella as their leader. Ella at 46 years old is old and wise enough to be a good matriarch. She still tends to be independent and when she and her daughters and their offspring are not with the family Eudora takes over.