NAIROBI, Kenya – Four of seven elephants outfitted with GPS tracking collars have been killed on the forested slopes of Mount Kenya in recent months only a short hike from the rustic cabin where Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton, conservation officials said Tuesday.

For many of us, thoughts of the African savanna are incomplete without the image of a lion. The fabled ‘king of the jungle’ is a part of the very fabric of Africa imagined by those of us living far from the home of these magnificent beasts.