Witness History
Mar 30, 2026
In 1972, the world’s longest-running study of wild elephants was first launched in Kenya, making a star of one of its subjects – Echo.
For decades, the Amboseli Elephant Research Project followed Echo and the rest of the park’s population to learn more about their behaviour, communication and social bonds.
And in 1990, when the project began to attract wider attention, a documentary TV crew asked to film one of the groups. It was the start of Echo’s life in front of the camera.
The grand old matriarch would help raise four generations of her family, protecting them from attacks by lions, conflicts with local farmers, and the effects of famine.
Dr Cynthia Moss, who set up the project, tells Jane Wilkinson about the highs and lows of following Echo and the elephants.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: Echo in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya,1996. Credit: Carla Signorini/Alamy)
