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Animal So Rare It's Called a 'Ghost' Caught on Cam for First Time in Years

Animal So Rare It's Called a 'Ghost' Caught on Cam for First Time in Years

Newsweek11-06-2025

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Niokolo-Koba National Park (PNNK) in Senegal has long been a haven for some of West Africa's most-elusive wildlife. Yet among them, one creature has remained almost mythical—an elephant so rarely seen that it has earned the name "ghost elephant."
Now, for the first time in half-a-decade, a camera trap has captured video footage of the solitary giant, offering a haunting glimpse into the park's dwindling population of African elephants.
New footage captured by wildcat conservation organization Panthera, in collaboration with Senegal's National Parks Directorate (DPN), revealed the moment a male elephant called Ousmane moved through the darkness.
Named after Ousmane Sarr, a veteran park ranger who dedicated his life to protecting Niokolo-Koba's endangered species, the elephant steps silently into view in the black-and-white footage. His large frame glows pale under the night-vision lens.
The African forest elephant is smaller and differs slightly to the Savanna elephant. Native to humid tropical forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin, it is the smallest of the three living elephant species, reaching a shoulder height of 7 feet, 9 inches. The term "ghost elephant" is often used to describe the isolated populations in areas like Senegal.
Ousmane the elephant was last spotted in January 2019, and is the first to be photographed since 2020. He is considered one of just five to 10 elephants remaining in the park—an alarming number considering the area was home to approximately 450 elephants in the late 1970s.
Today, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species places the African forest elephant as critically endangered and decreasing in population.
A picture from footage of the "ghost elephant" captured for the first time in five years.
A picture from footage of the "ghost elephant" captured for the first time in five years.
Panthera & Senegal's National Parks Directorate DPN
Hope for the Elephants
Still, there is some hope for the solitary elephants, as the sighting sparked discussions on what can be done to protect the creature for the future, including potential relocation strategies to restore a breeding elephant population.
Niokolo-Koba's wildlife has shown resilience before. The park's critically endangered West African lion population has more than doubled since 2011, following persistent anti-poaching efforts and scientific monitoring led by conservation experts Panthera and the DPN.
This success recently prompted UNESCO to remove Niokolo-Koba from the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger, reflecting conservation gains—including protections for the region's largest-remaining leopard population.
Ousmane is not the only recent rediscovery in the park either. Just a few months ago, another camera trap captured an endangered giant pangolin, marking the first documented sighting of the species in Niokolo-Koba in 24 years.
Newsweek reached out to Philipp Henschel and Chele Martinez Marti from the Panthera organization via email for comment.

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These Archive Photos Honour The Windrush Generation's Legacy Of Style
These Archive Photos Honour The Windrush Generation's Legacy Of Style

Refinery29

timea day ago

  • Refinery29

These Archive Photos Honour The Windrush Generation's Legacy Of Style

My grandfather, originally from Barbados, passed away when I was 2. It didn't leave much time to get to know him outside of family stories, but elders in my community would tell me that they could see him – a very tall man whose suits were always razor sharp — in me. 'Look, she!' they would laugh in patois as I walked past. 'She is Mr Blackett, himself.' I recently began searching through old photographs of my grandparents — they have all 'gone to glory' now, as they would say — and marvelled at their elegant and immaculate presentation. My grandmother on my mother's side, originally from Antigua, passed away earlier this year. She was a woman known for her faith, a powerful voice that turned everyone's heads in church, but also for her style. She was known to wear a fascinator with a long matching dress on an average Wednesday. Like many Caribbean people who migrated to this country in the 50s and 60s, my grandmother's adjustment to the UK wasn't easy. But she took extra special pride in her appearance — a value that was passed down to my entire family. I've been thinking a lot about the legacy of style left behind by this generation. It's soon Windrush Day (June 22), and more than 75 years ago, the first Caribbean migrants arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush in 1948. It's said there were 1027 passengers on board hailing from Jamaica, Trinidad, St Lucia, Grenada, and Barbados. Many of those who arrived had served in the British armed forces during the war and were recognised as citizens of the United Kingdom — part of the 'Empire'. As they arrived in England, hopeful for the life and opportunities promised by the 'Mother Country', many wore their Sunday Best as they traversed to this new frontier. It's said that Caribbean migrants received a pamphlet ahead of going to Britain, documenting how they should dress for the cold (freezing weather my grandma would describe as 'wicked!'). Yet, as was reported in The Thurrock Gazette in 1948, they arrived via the Empire Windrush 'Dressed in an odd assortment of clothes, many wearing ties of dazzling designs.' ' The origins of the Black British aesthetic — the fusing of Caribbean and African influences in British fashion, music and culture — arguably began here. ' You may have seen the incredible photos from this arrival and the other ships that followed over those years: Caribbean men, like my grandfather, in tailored suits, wide-brimmed hats and Fedoras, overcoats, and shined-up shoes. Women, a picture of sophistication, in frilled blouses, dresses, and bold jewellery. In many ways, these photos capture the start of the Caribbean's influence on British culture. The origins of the Black British aesthetic — the fusing of Caribbean and African influences in British fashion, music and culture — arguably began here. Today, we continue to see echoes of that original elegance in contemporary fashion. Cast your mind back to May, when Vogue unveiled the theme for the 2025 MET Gala, fashion's biggest night of the year: ​​' Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.' With its chair of stylish Black men — Colman Domingo, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and Lewis Hamilton — the event successfully introduced the fashion world to Black Dandyism. As Unbothered writer Taryn Finley explained at the time, a Dandy is, by its official definition, 'a man unduly devoted to style, neatness, and fashion…' However, during the transatlantic slave trade, 'enslavers dressed Black people in extravagant clothing and paraded them around, calling them 'luxury slaves.' It was used as a dehumanising form of minstrelsy that further objectified Black men.' Taryn explained that as time went on, Black people reclaimed Black dandyism. The Met Gala intended to illustrate this reclamation, and it largely achieved this. As celebrities stepped out in flamboyant suits, exaggerated wide-brimmed hats, perfectly rounded afros, prints and more in honour of the MET Gala's theme, my immediate thoughts went back to those photos taken on the Windrush ship (Lewis Hamilton's suit, made by Black British designer Grace Wales Bonner, paid a subtle homage in its small details). Though they may not have described their style by the same name, the Windrush generation also embodied the spirit of Black dandyism. The Sunday Best suits and tailoring (from my parents' accounts) gave them an unmistakable swagger that disrupted the common status quo of British fashion. They were seen, and this visibility formed part of the resistance. Mahoro Seward put it best for British Vogue back in April, 'Black contributions to Britain's sartorial canon are as extensive as the existence of Black communities on these isles, with dressing long serving as a crucial means of resisting against and rising above diminishing perceptions – and defiantly asserting an empowered, dignified sense of identity.' Indeed, for the Windrush generation and the generations that followed, dressing wasn't just about style but dignity in a time when they faced the ugliest sides of Britain; from Notting Hill slumlord Peter Rachman's discriminatory housing policies, race riots and rampant racism. Like the best of fashion, it can reflect a time and space — economic stability or instability, social unrest, a disillusionment in government, etc. In this case, by dressing with intention, Black men and women helped challenge dominant ideas about race; tailored clothing was a point of pride, in a time when your skin colour made you both visible and vulnerable. And so, they gave them something to look at. Now, where the injustices of the Windrush scandal — when Caribbean immigrants were wrongfully threatened with deportation and denied rightful citizenship in 2018 — are still felt, looking through these photos has felt like a balm. I am reminded that here in the UK, Black Brits continue to shape culture. Our legacy isn't just stitched into the seams of sharp suits and Sunday hats — it's woven into the very fabric of British culture.

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