Masthulele

As you may already know, all of Elephant Gin’s individual batches are named after legendary past African tuskers or elephants our partner foundations, Space For Elephants and Big Life Foundation, currently help to protect.

For those of you, who have purchased bottles of Elephant Gin’s very first batch will recognize this name, written on the label: Masthulele.

Masthulele is probably the largest tusker in Kruger National Park at present, with each of his tusks weighing in excess of 40kg! He is named after the elephant researcher Dr. Ian Whyte, who chose the name to demonstrate the bull’s passive character traits; it translates to “The quiet one.” Masthulele is believed to be about 50 years old and therefore only middle-aged. We hope that he may live on for many years in which case he could become one of the largest ever tuskers of the park.

After many attempts to see this bull, Dr. Ian Whyte recently came face-to-face with Masthulele – a moment of mutual respect between the two, and one of joyful admiration for the researcher, who was able to take this photograph.

Photo copyright: Ian Whyte