Elephants, it turns out, absolutely love tomatoes. They just can’t get enough of them.
Unfortunately, this means they can sometimes come into violent conflict with tomato farmers, who are understandably very keen indeed not to have their livelihoods eaten.
Hungry elephants can make short work of an entire field of tomatoes – they’re capable of demolishing one in a matter of hours.
And so an acute dilemma arises – how to protect one of the most adored, important animals on the planet from angry farmers… and vice versa.
This emotional predicament is explored in a new Netflix documentary – ‘Tolstoy the Tomato Thief’ – which tells the true story of notorious elephant tomato thief Tolstoy, a ‘super tusker’ who ends up being speared in the leg by an angry tomato farmer and seemingly realising that he needs help from the very species that so badly hurt him.
The creator is American Kire Godal, an Explorers Club member and award-winning wildlife filmmaker who tells MailOnline Travel how her film is ‘the most amazing story’, a tale of ‘fear and love, despair and hope’, and one that includes ‘elephant behaviour never seen or recorded before’.
The protagonist is a bull elephant who stands 13 feet at the shoulders (3.7m) with ‘the most impressive pair of impossibly straight ivory tusks that reach the ground’.
He is a magnificent example of a super tusker, by definition an elephant with ivory that weighs over 45 kilos or 100lbs per side.
A new Netflix documentary – ‘Tolstoy the Tomato Thief’ – tells the true story of notorious elephant tomato raider Tolstoy (above), a ‘super tusker’ who ends up being speared in the leg by an angry tomato farmer
Here Tolstoy is caught in the act. The documentary is directed by Explorers Club member and award-winning wildlife filmmaker Kire Godal, who tells MailOnline that she ‘fell in love’ with Tolstoy during the seven-year period of developing and filming his story
He roams the postcard-perfect Kimana Sanctuary in the famous Amboseli ecosystem at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro in Kenya and has a ‘gang of bulls’ that go on regular tomato raids.
Kire tells MailOnline: ‘It was hard not to be charmed and to fall deeply in love with Tolstoy during the seven-year period of developing and filming his story between 2017 and 2023.
‘I often relate Tolstoy to the elephant version of Butch Cassidy and his “wild bunch gang” of train robbers during the American Wild West, or to the gentlemen highwaymen outlaws of the UK’s past – unique and glamorous robber legends of their own times.
‘Tolstoy grew up in his own paradise in and around Kimana Sanctuary roaming between grasslands, wetlands and forests. His life was perfect, until the Maasai began settling down. Suddenly roads, fences, vehicles, people and farms were popping up everywhere blocking his path and getting in his way. However, confused though he was, there was one new thing he did like – tantalising, tangy, delicious red tomatoes! Once he’d tasted the forbidden fruit, there was no going back.
‘He quickly became the most notorious tomato thief in the ecosystem. Every farmer knew him and his antics. They all dreaded a nighttime raid where he routinely demolished their entire livelihoods in a few hours. The Big Life conflict rangers were constantly on his tracks trying to intervene, but Tolstoy had become a master of evasion as he led his gang of bulls, outsmarting everyone in his way.’
How did Kire meet Tolstoy?
She says: ‘I first met Tolstoy in 2017 in a tomato field while filming an elephant night raid with Richard Bonham, co-founder and chairman of conservation charity Big Life Foundation, and Save the Elephants researchers as they were protecting the raiding elephants from angry farmers, and farmers from hungry elephants.
‘Tolstoy and his best friend Tim were silhouetted against the night sky lit up by Big Life rangers’ torch lights. Both super tuskers had tomato plants dangling from their mouths. Two naughty fully grown elephant bulls caught with their hands in the cookie jar. I just could not get this endearing image out of my mind.’
Kire pictured with Maasai farm boy Kibaki and two of his friends, Saruni and Korroet. The documentary charts Kibaki’s changing relationship with Tolstoy, who at first he sees as the ‘proverbial monster under the bed’
Kire, above with Tolstoy, reveals how elephants play a positive role in the ecosystem, by creating waterholes and paths in brush and forests that help connect habitats and species
Above – a drone shot of a tomato farm. Kire says: ‘To me, what could be more charming than a super tusker elephant in love with tomatoes? Can you blame him? Tomatoes are finally growing on the plains below Mt Kilimanjaro. Why wouldn’t Tolstoy love them just as much as we do?’
Tolstoy quickly became the most notorious tomato thief in the Amboseli ecosystem
Kire decided that she needed to document the ‘real-time drama’ of the ‘war’ between farmers and elephants.
She continues: ‘To me, what could be more charming than a super tusker elephant in love with tomatoes? Can you blame him? Tomatoes are finally growing on the plains below Mt Kilimanjaro. Why wouldn’t Tolstoy love them just as much as we do?
‘But what could be more disturbing than the new war between farmers and elephants with casualties on both sides? Elephants and people are being killed in confrontations over crops. Human wildlife conflict had overtaken poaching as the leading cause of elephant mortality in Kenya, and Tolstoy the super tusker was right in the middle of a high-pitched human wildlife drama escalating before our eyes. And who knew but the people directly involved?‘
Kire explains that the nub of the problem is that tomato farms can’t simply be moved around and put out of reach for elephants.
She says: ‘There are new farms popping up everywhere under Mt Kilimanjaro.
‘These world-renowned plains belong to the Maasai people, who until recently were semi-nomadic pastoralists who shared their unfenced grasslands with elephants and all wildlife. But today, they’ve settled and the once tolerant Maasai find themselves in a life-and-death struggle with elephants over space and food.
‘In the past, the Maasai could herd their cattle to avoid direct conflict with elephants, but tomato farms cannot be moved out of the way, and now their fledgling farms in the middle of the bush must be guarded night and day from crop raiders. Once a raid starts the farmers have little chance against raiders without Big Life rangers.’
The documentary is ‘narrated’ by Tolstoy himself, with the dialogue ‘informed by years of observation and factual information gathered from elephant behaviour’.
Big Life ranger Johnson Salash introduces local boys to Tolstoy
Tolstoy the super tusker and his gang of bulls
Tolstoy the Tomato Thief is shot in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro
Tolstoy ‘guides the viewer through his story’, which also features Kibaki, a ten-year-old Maasai farm boy who ‘believes Tolstoy is the proverbial “monster under his bed”’.
Kire explains: ‘He’s been chased by elephants while herding his family cattle, he is terrified of running into Tolstoy as he walks to school, and he’s gone hungry due to the elephant raids and is worried that his father cannot pay his school fees. The threat of Tolstoy ruining his life does not leave his mind.’
Elephants are protected by law in Kenya – and they play a very positive role in the ecosystem, by creating waterholes and paths and openings in brush and forests that help connect habitats and species.
But none of that mattered to the unknown (and still at-large) farmer who threw a spear at Tolstoy during one of his raids, severely wounding one of his legs.
Richard Bonham – co-founder of Big Life – looks for Tolstoy from the air
Elephant tomato raiders on the run. The documentary is due to air on Netflix in 2025
Kibaki (with the hat) and his friends Saruni and Korroet watch Tolstoy with ranger Johnson Salash
Rangers Johnson Salash and Job Lekanayia. The rangers help protect the farmers from the elephants – and vice versa
Kire explains: ‘Tolstoy hobbled back to safety inside Kimana Sanctuary in his fever tree forest. Here he has no other choice than to accept help from humans and try to heal. Big Life rangers and Kenya Wildlife Service vets looked after him on a daily basis. From a wary, difficult bull with an attitude, he softened before their eyes and seemed to welcome their attention. During this time Tolstoy displays elephant behaviour never seen or filmed before.’
She adds: ‘The hunt for the person responsible for spearing Tolstoy led ten-year-old Kibaki to learn that his “monster” has been injured. Curiosity and circumstance finally brought Kibaki and his two best friends to their wounded Tolstoy. From here the story takes on a new twist as feelings of fear and hate turn to empathy and compassion and an unforgettable and very important journey unfolds.
‘Hate and fear dissolve into love, and despair into renewal and hope.’
Tolstoy the Tomato thief is currently in post-production and will be aired in 2025 on Netflix. Visit www.tolstoythetomatothief.com and www.kiregodal.com for more information. Follow Kire on Instagram here – www.instagram.com/kiregodal_filmmaker_in_africa.
Thank you to Brian Henderson from Red Digital Cameras for the introduction to Kire. For more on Red Cameras visit www.instagram.com/reddigitalcinema.
