The combined IA/IC family has an unusual history. In Amboseli family composition is generally fairly straightforward. All the adult females are related: they are mother and daughter; grandmother and granddaughter; aunt and niece; or sisters or cousins. There are a few interesting exceptions and this family is one of those.

The IA family was one of the first we found and photographed in September 1972. At that time it consisted of six members. The matriarch was a beautiful big female whom Harvey called Isabel after his mother. We estimated her to be over 50 years old. There was also a young adult female about 17 years old and a younger, ten-year-old female. The older one was named Irene, the younger one Iris. In addition there were three youngsters, all males. One was about 14 years old and he was called Igor; the second was about seven years old; and the third was a small calf about a year old belonging to Irene.

Isabel    1920   Adult F
Irene     1955   Adult F
  IRE71   1971   M
Iris      1962   Adolescent F
Igor      1958   Young M
Calf      1965   M

Over the next five years we saw the family regularly. Once I was living in Amboseli, starting in September 1975, I got to know the IAs well. They were western elephants, just as the HAs were. That meant they stayed on the western side of the Engongu Narok Swamp moving out towards the Il Merisheri Hills in the evening and coming in to drink and feed in the swamp in the daytime.

To read the full history of the IA/ICs open the attachment.