Go behind the scenes on the exclusive wildlife photographs created to help stop illegal wildlife trade

World famous photographers David Yarrow and Adrian Steirn’s images are available to buy now until 9 December, with all proceeds going to our campaign charity partner Space for Giants
Emma Ledger13 November 2020

The exclusive images of wildlife created by acclaimed photographers David Yarrow and Adrian Steirn depict two of the planet’s most critically endangered species, the elephant and the leopard, roaming in their natural habitat

Both prints are now on sale until December 9 with all proceeds going to Space for Giants, the  charity partner of the Standard’s Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign.  

For Yarrow, getting the perfect shot of Craig the elephant - one of the world’s few remaining ‘big tuskers’ - wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. It was a life-threatening lie down in one.  

“I was laying on the ground with the elephant 12 foot away coming straight towards me,” says Yarrow, who the Standard filmed on location in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park.

“I wanted a sense of Craig approaching, and that meant I needed to be as low as possible. Which, I must add, people should not try to do!  

Adrian Steirn’s shot, an adult male leopard approaches the waters edge as night falls in South Africa’s Singita game resort.
Adrian Steirn

“With most elephants in the world I’d be dead, but not with Craig. He’s 50 years old and has never been known to charge a jeep. He’s well known by the Masai and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers I was working with, and whom I trusted.”

Don’t-try-this-at-home moments are all in a day’s work for fine art photographer Yarrow, who has worked with everything from wolves to mountain gorillas in Rwanda in his 20 year career.

“You always get a buzz, an energy rush, when you get the shot. I knew a few minutes after [taking the photo] that I’d got it.  

“We’d been with Craig for seven days, but he had to be on his own for me to get out of the jeep. So much depends on a sense of movement, whether there’s an energy and vibrancy to it, and of course it’s got to be pin sharp focus.  

“Craig is a magnificent reminder of the enormous breadth of wildlife on this planet. The fact that we are his biggest enemy should force us to have a good look at ourselves.”

One in four elephants that were alive in 2007 have since been killed, most slaughtered for their ivory by criminals involved in the global trade of wildlife.  

Our conservation charity partner Space for Giants works to protect wildlife at risk from poachers due to the conservation funding crisis caused by the pandemic, helping to support wildlife rangers, local communities and law enforcement personnel to prevent wildlife crime. 

A conservationist, photographer and filmmaker, Adrian Steirn works to shine a light on the threats facing endangered species in rainforests from Brazil to Uganda, mountain ranges of Nepal to the Caucasus and beyond.  

“I spent 10 days tracking the adult male leopard in South Africa’s Singita game reserve,” Steirn tells the Standard. “He’s the dominant male and very confident.

“I took so many images, but the one just before he crossed the river shows him completely in his own environment, and has such a great light.

"When I was a young man I wanted to get as close as possible to the animal. But that’s not the answer, it’s part of the problem. We all want to consume, to own. But we need to learn to conserve and integrate in order to be sustainable cogs in the wheel that is planet earth.”

Steirn works to promote wildlife conservation, using visual images as a means to raise awareness and generate action around key issues such as poaching.

“I support the Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign because it is possible to stem the tide and protect endangered wildlife, but it requires money on the ground.

“Leopards are treated as vermin and poached. We are killing wildlife, we are taking away wild spaces.  

"We need a paradigm shift in human behaviour to secure a better future."

Yarrow agrees that for the natural world to recover from human impact requires action now. 

He adds: “Its very important that our grandchildren can have the experiences that we’ve had. Humankind's legacy at the moment is nothing to do with the technological era, it is that we have presided over the most unprecedented diminishment of the great wildlife of our planet. That legacy has got to change.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in