Saba Douglas-Hamilton

Saba Douglas-Hamilton
Douglas-Hamilton among Samburu elephants
Born	June 7, 1970 (1970-06-07) (age 47) Kenya
Nationality	Kenyan
Alma mater	University of St Andrews
Occupation	Broadcaster / Naturalist
Spouse(s)	Frank Pope
Children	Selkie, Luna, Mayian

Saba Iassa Douglas-Hamilton (born June 7, 1970) is a Kenyan wildlife conservationist and television presenter. She has worked for a variety of conservation charities, and has appeared in wildlife documentaries produced by the BBC and other broadcasters. She is currently a director of Elephant Watch Camp in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve

Born in Nairobi Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya, she is the daughter of zoologist Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Oria Douglas-Hamilton née Rocco. Saba means "seven" in Swahili. She was named by Maasai women because she was born on 7 June at 7 o'clock in the evening, and was also the 7th grandchild. Her first language was Swahili and she grew up playing with the local Kenyan children. Her father came to Africa as a young man to study and conserve elephant populations. Her white African ancestry comes from her mother who is the daughter of Italians who settled in Kenya in the 1920s. Her mother still farms at Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley.

She is a great-granddaughter of Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, the 13th Duke of Hamilton. Her sister Mara Moon Douglas-Hamilton, known as "Dudu" (which means 'insect'), is a film producer.

Douglas-Hamilton did not start school in Kenya until she was seven, then went to Britain to an all-girls boarding school for three years which she later described as 'like a prison'. She went on to attend the United World College of the Atlantic in South Wales to study for the International Baccalaureate. She gained a place at St Andrews University in Scotland and was awarded a master's degree in Social Anthropology with a thesis on 'Concepts of Love and Sexuality amongst the Bajuni People of Kiwaiyu Island, Kenya'.

When she was 18, Douglas-Hamilton was on a camel safari when she was bitten on her leg by a venomous snake. Though sometimes misreported as an asp, this was identified as a carpet viper. Friends made a pressure bandage and gave her electric shocks to keep her awake until they reached help.