David Daballen
Director of Field Operations
David is an ambassador and warrior for elephants with a deep understanding of animal ecology and behaviour.
A Diploma holder in wildlife management, he has spent more than twenty years working at Save the Elephants (STE) and heads up STE’s Long Term Monitoring programme (LTM). David can individually identify about 500 Samburu elephants on sight – a very unique talent! In addition to his monitoring work, he has led more than 200 collaring operations in Kenya, Mali and Uganda, often in dangerous and stressful circumstances.
As a Samburu elder, he inspires community action to protect elephants and acts as an important link between Save the Elephants, communities and the local authority. In the course of the 2009-2013 poaching crisis, David and his team led outreach campaigns that resulted in communities becoming vigilant to the ongoing elephant killings.
David has featured in numerous films and documentaries (BBC, Nat Geo, etc) and has represented STE overseas, rubbing shoulders with goodwill ambassadors from Yao Ming and Li Bingbing to Prince William and Bill Clinton. In 2022, David was named as a finalist in the prestigious Tusk Awards.