João is the only member of ‘The Magnificent Seven’ bulls of The Kruger National Park whose magnificent tusks are not on display in the Letaba Elephant Hall. Estimated to have weighed in at more than 60 kg each, the giant not only survived an AK-47 attack, he mysteriously lost both his mammoth tusks.

Age

This massive tusker bull stood 3,4 metres at the shoulder and it is said that he arguably carried the heaviest ivory of all seven of The Kruger’s famous giants.

He was first sighted at a waterhole with the same name that is situated in the Shingwedzi region of the park. João, Portuguese for John, was brutally attacked by poachers in 1982 with AK-47 assault rifles. This calm and placid animal was sedated and after his wounds were treated, he was injected with a dose of antibiotics and fitted with a radio tracking collar.

At that time the mammoth-sized elephant bull was said to be 45 years old and it was widely believed that he carried the largest set of tusks of any elephant alive then. In an unexplained incident in 1984, both his tusks were snapped off just above the lip line. He disappeared in 2000 and was never to be seen again.