The Duke is dead. Long live Isilo, the new tusker king of southern Africa. His domain is the wondrous sand forests of the Tembe Elephant Park on KwaZulu-Natal's Maputoland border with Mozambique. There, he leads the solitary life of those who wear the crown.

He is the successor to Duke, Kruger National Park's iconic elephant bull who became a favourite tourist attraction and one of the reserve's most photographed animals before his death some months ago.

Isilo has similarly become a tourist attraction in Tembe, although, aided by the dense forest, he tends to be more reclusive.

That is, except when he decides to pay visitors a regal call, which he does by pushing down the perimeter fence of the park's lodge and moseying about the camp.

The name Isilo, I was variously told, was the Zulu word for "king", or "king of kings".

Whichever, his tusks are estimated at over 1,5 metres.

Both are in remarkably good shape, unlike many big tuskers' whose one tusk is often more worn than the other, indicating which is mainly used to unearth roots and tear the bark off trees.

Before Duke broke one tusk in 2007 and then the other in 2008, his tusks were measured at 1,75 metres for the left and 1,56 metres for the right.

I was invited to Tembe to see Isilo by Ernest Robertse, co-owner of the park's smartly rustic rest camp, which prides itself in being run by people mainly from the surrounding communities.

The other owner is Nkosi Israel Mabuda Tembe, in his capacity as chief of the Tembe people.

The 30 000ha park belongs to the tribe, but is managed by Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife.

Robertse, a former private detective who turned ecotourism entrepreneur, was informed of Isilo's newfound status by Dr Johan Marais, who is not only the author of the coffee table book The Great Tuskers of Africa, but also an equine surgeon at Onderstepoort's faculty of veterinary science.

Marais says he has seen Isilo several times and he is a "magnificent animal".

"There is no other tusker in southern Africa that is bigger than Isilo, currently."

The grand old bull is estimated to be about 60 years old.

His crowning as the tusker king bears a special symbolism for the border region and the travails of its elephant population. It is one of survival against the odds, and of new hope. The grand old pachyderm would indeed have seen it all.

There would have been the time in the 1950s when, as a calf, he carefreely cavorted with his mates as the herd, under the direction of the matriarch, moved leisurely about the plains of Maputoland, sometimes venturing into the sand forests to the south and at other times wading into the marshes and flood plains of the parallel Maputo and Futi river systems.

He would, as a young bull, have shown off with his mates as they bravely hived off from the herd to, away from the guiding eye of their mothers, explore the world for themselves. By the time he was ready to challenge in the mating game, he would have been aware of disturbing changes happening in the region.

People with guns were moving in, upsetting the age-old rhythms of life between the animals and the few human inhabitants who made their living in the area.

Elephants were shot at and killed. Their carcasses were cut up for meat for the soldiers in Mozambique's anti-colonial and subsequent civil wars, and their tusks were brutally hacked from their skulls to be traded for arms.

Survival became a matter of cunning, and luck. Some elephants sought refuge in the dense coastal vegetation to the north-east that is today the Maputo Elephant Park.

Isilo would have been among the groups that fled south to find escape in the sand forests across the South African border, in what in 1983 was declared the Tembe Elephant Park... for the specific purpose of lending protection to the endangered animals.

Still, he would have seen some of his associates getting their legs blown off by landmines and others having their trunks severed by snares. He would have seen the high-security fence go up to enclose the park to keep the poachers from coming after them. If spared the years, as his good state of health suggests he might be, Isilo should witness another dramatic change.

It is one that could see life completing its circle for him.With plans well under way to establish a transfrontier conservation area spanning South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland, the boundary fence barring Tembe's elephants from entering their old stomping grounds in Mozambique will come down. It's not clear when this will happen.

A game fence creating a 50km corridor that will allow such migrations has already been constructed along the Futi River's western flank. Whether Isilo will have the energy, or desire, to follow that path cannot be predicted.

He prefers to keep to himself. He now rarely socialises with others around waterholes where they drink and spray their bodies with the muddy water.

The park authorities recognise his status and accord him a special dispensation. He has been breaking fences for some time now.

Even when he pushes down the rest camp's perimeter fence, instead of punitive action being taken he is respectfully coached back into the forest.

"He is such a nice old creature," says Wayne Matthews, Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife's ecologist for the Maputoland region.

"He is mischievous, but he is also humble. He is so special, we just put up with his antics."

As for my hope of getting a close-up photograph of Isilo, this was not to be. He showed it was not in his regal nature simply to do the casual visitor's bidding.

I spotted him at the far end of Tembe's main waterhole, but all he afforded me was a quick glimpse of his magnificent attributes. Then he turned his back and ambled off .

I had to be content with views of other tuskers gathered at a different time at the waterhole. But they made a magnificent sight. One named Induna had tusks that put him not far behind Isilo.

Apparently there is another, named Phukile, which has even larger tusks than Induna, but he tends to keep well away from the park's tourist routes.

Whereas Tembe's elephants were, understandably, wary of humans at first, they are now decidedly trusting, showing little care when game viewing vehicles drive up and the cameras click.

They know that these are not the sounds of guns being cocked.

If you go...

• For accommodation contact: Tembe Elephant Lodge, Tel: +27 31 267 0144, Fax: +27 31 266 8718. E-mail: info@tembe.co.za Website: www.tembe.co.za
• Tembe's tented huts are en-suite, with showers, and are hidden among the forest growth, with verandas from which one can quietly watch antelope, warthog and birds.
• The lodge has a comfortable lounge and bar areas and, depending on the weather, meals get served either on a large veranda or in an open-sided thatched dining room. The cuisine was good, the beer cold and, with after-dinner coffee served around an open fire, it was a joy to listen to manager Thom Mahamba talk about the region he grew up in and the travails and hopes of the Tonga people.
• Sometimes Tembe dancers come to the lodge to enact their folklore in song and rhythm.
• Summer days get hot, so light clothes and hats are a must.
• Mosquito repellent for the evenings is advisable.
• The park is open for day visits by four-wheel-drive vehicle, but numbers are restricted.