Meet The Woman Who Spent 13years in The Hut Living with Elephant in African Wilderness

Happy family: Once she had identified them as being part of different families, she gave each family a name, alongside first names beginning with that letter - the M family all had M names, for example

Imagine trading in your life as a high-flying corporate executive to start a new one, unpaid, with elephants in Zimbabwe.

That's exactly what author and photographer Sharon Pincott, did in 2001.


Remaining in the Hwange bush for 13 years, Ms Pincott from Queensland dedicated her life to fighting for elephants, forming an immense, life-changing bond with them that has been described as one of the most remarkable relationships with wild elephants ever documented.

While you might think that Ms Pincott is fearless, and some might imagine that her time spent in Zimbabwe was a crazy thing to do during one of the worst periods in the country's volatile history,

she says that she is not a natural risk taker:

'I'm not someone who would go bungee jumping or anything like that,' she explains to Daily Mail Australia.

'It was more that the death of a close friend at age 38 made me think that life is too short, as cliched as it sounds,' she says.

'Seeing my first elephant was something I'd never forgotten, and so when the opportunity came about to go out there and help them, I grabbed it.'

Arriving in the Hwange bush totally untrained, Ms Pincott spent her early days establishing a friend base, getting to know the elephants and their various families, and getting used to her new life:

'When I first got there, I will confess I felt surrounded by these great big grey things, but as I got to know them, they became friends to me.'

Most days followed a regular pattern.

She would wake up early, do her washing and her cleaning, before going out in her 4x4 at around 10 to search for the elephants (Ms Pincott explains that elephants keep themselves to themselves in the early hours but that they also stay together throughout life).

Memories forever: Ms Pincott says that there is not a day that goes by where she doesn't think about the elephants - sometimes she finds it hard to look at photos remembering 

She would then find out what she could about each elephant's family by taking photographs of identifiers such as their ears and their tusks.

Once she had identified them as being part of different families, she gave each family a name:

'The M family, for instance,' she explains, 'would each have a name beginning with M. This meant that I could easily keep track of every elephant, and over time, I didn't even have to look at them to tell who it was.

'In the same way that we can identify friends by the way they walk, so too could I tell who each elephant was from a good distance.'

After several years, Ms Pincott was accepted by the elephants, a moment she has not forgotten ever since:

'They would come to my door and grumble like they did with other family members,' she says.

'It took three or four years for them to start, but it was amazing insofar as the females would bring their three-day old babies to my door.'

One elephant who Sharon Pincott formed a particularly special bond with was one called Lady, who she spent a lot of time with over the years:

'I hold a special place in my heart for Lady,' Ms Pincott explains.

'She taught me so much about her kind. She was the first elephant I touched, and while I didn't go out to Zimbabwe saying that I was going to touch a wild, free-roaming elephant, after a couple of years, I touched her trunk, and would rub it by the end of it.

'Having a five tonne elephant let you do that, and accept me, was one of my highlights.'

That doesn't mean that Ms Pincott's time in Zimbabwe was without danger and awful times, however.
'There were threats and harassment constantly,' Ms Pincott explains.

'People, whether they were government officials, or relatives of government officials, were out to make trouble for me and the elephants - for their land and their wellbeing.

'The most heartbreaking moments were when elephants from a specific family went missing and they were gone for more than a week. You knew then that they were gone for good.'

 Level of trust: By the end of her time in the Hwange bush, however, the elephants would come to her door and grumble as they would with family members

And by the end of her thirteen years there, Ms Pincott knew she had to leave Zimbabwe.

Describing the experience as like living in an 'abusive marriage', she says that the decision was devastating, but necessary:

'There's not a day that goes by where I don't think about the elephants,' she reminisces.

'There are times, especially when I was writing the book, where I couldn't look at photos, it was that impossible to be back.

'I'd love to go back at some point, when the political landscape has changed, but I feel I can't at this point. One thing is for certain, and that's that I know I will not go back to a 9-5.'

According to Sharon Pincott, there are currently 400,000 elephants in the world, which might sound like a lot, but means nothing when you hear that one is killed every 15 minutes:

'Some 30,000 elephants die each year,' she says.

'We all need to do what we can to stop this from happening.'

Ms Pincott advocates refraining from buying ivory, anything with elephant tail hair or elephant tusk:

'If there's no demand there's no need to kill them,' she says.

One day: While she says she'd love to go back one day, Ms Pincott feels as though she cannot currently