New Delhi, March 19 South African explorer Steve Boyes, who has spent years obsessively searching for the elusive "Ghost Elephants" in the highlands of Angola, says he faced many moments of frustration, but they were always balanced by the excitement of new discoveries.
Boyes is driven by the search for these elephants, the potential descendants of the largest land mammal ever recorded, which have long been considered a myth.
Renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog joined him to document his quest. The documentary, titled "Ghost Elephants," is set to premiere on National Geographic India on Friday.
"You can smell them. You can sense that there are elephants here. But you can't hear or see anything," Boyes describes his search for these creatures.
"It's an extraordinary thing. That's why locals call them ghosts. They will say, 'Yeah, if you go down in the valley within a day or two, you will find dung and signs of elephants'. But if you want to see these elephants, you will have to live down there," he told
During these expeditions, Boyes and his team found 25 to 100 new species for science, although the search for the ghost elephants continues because a close encounter with a 12-foot-tall bull elephant ended in disappointment when the animal fled. Despite this, Boyes has made two more trips to Angola since that initial sighting in 2024.
"Everything here is unique. Through discussions with local leaders and kings, I've learned that these elephants are incredibly important to their culture and mythology. This makes the search even more compelling," Boyes added.
Herzog, who has documented Boyes and his expedition in the documentary, has a long and successful career in both films and documentaries. His most famous works include "Encounters at the End of the World," "Grizzly Man," "The Look of Silence," "Into the Inferno," "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," and "Into the Abyss".
How did Herzog decide to join Boyes in his quest?
Boyes explained that their friendship grew through introductions and shared dinners and lunches. They soon began discussing the "extraordinary landscape in the Angolan Highlands" and the "ghost elephants".
Henry is a 11-ton African bush elephant mount that has been a centerpiece of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History since 1959. Standing 13 feet 2 inches tall, it is one of the largest elephant specimens ever recorded.
Boyes said when Herzog heard about his quest for Henry's descendants, the German director told him, "This is an important story if you're searching for the descendants of that elephant."
"I said, 'In three weeks, we're going to go to Namibia. We're going to live with the local trackers. And after a month, we'll go to Angola with them and conduct a search. This is it. We have the best trackers in the world, and we'll stay until we find them'. And he said, 'Well, then I have to come'. And within two days, Werner was completely focused on the story," he said.
The acclaimed director has directed, narrated, and written this film, which had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in August 2025.
"I shared some books and poetry with him, and he really understood them. Within two days, he had absorbed enough information. He was meeting our team members and the trackers. But the first thing he would ask is, 'What would a world without elephants be like?' 'What do you dream of?' and 'What's your motivation?' And that's what's in the film... He knew and understood the story and pursued it passionately," he said.
A sixth-generation African of Indian and British descent, Boyes says he considers himself African, and for him, conservation is not about excluding people from the land, but about drawing on indigenous knowledge.
"I use the word 'protection' as a community activity... When we're working at the source of rivers, they are sacred to people. The forests associated with them are sacred to people. And the animals associated with them, like these elephants, are sacred. And that's a far more effective way of protecting them than guns, fines, fences, or even vilifying local people as poachers," he said.
As someone who has undertaken many expeditions in some of the most remote parts of the world, Boyes says living on the edge feels normal, even though the risks are many and, at times, life-threatening.
"I've just come off an expedition. There's the danger of things like crocodiles that are bigger than our dugout canoes, an 18-foot crocodile is a big thing. You see that spider in the film (the documentary), that's a wolf spider. You also have assassin bugs, centipedes, and they're all crawling around.
"You have spitting scorpions, and we also have malaria all the time in the team. We also have flesh-eating bacteria that we can't get rid of," he said.
According to Boyes, if you don't take care of yourself, there's "constant danger".
"Obviously, interacting with elephants that are very cryptic and misunderstood has its risks when you encounter them. You're walking through minefields, landmines, and constant threats," he added.
"Ghost Elephants" is produced by Herzog for Skellig Rock, Inc. and Ariel Leon Isacovitch for The Roots Production Service.