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

The exclusive images of wildlife created by globally renowned photographers David Yarrow and Adrian Steirn for readers of The Independent depict two of the planet’s most critically endangered species, the elephant and the leopard, roaming their natural habitat.

Both prints are on sale here now, in a limited run that ends on 9 December, with all proceeds going to Space for Giants, the charity partner of our 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 Independent 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! 

“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 completely.”

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. 

The Independent launched its Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign to help prevent future pandemics by protecting wildlife and ending the illegal wildlife trade.

Our conservation charity partner Space for Giants works to protect wildlife at risk from poachers, 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 Independent. “He’s the dominant male and very confident.

Adrian Steirn in South Africa’s Singita game reserve (Francesco Carrozzini)

“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.

“The Singita concession in South Africa is the best leopard viewing in the world. Three decades of integrated living and responsible conservation created by their team allows me to track these cats and shoot portraits without disturbing their natural pattern of life. An immersive and symbiotic way to share our planet. It’s the only way forward.”

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. “It’s 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.”

To donate to The Independent’s Stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign click HERE