Saba Douglas-Hamilton
Saba Douglas-Hamilton (born 7 June 1970) is a British wildlife conservationsist and television presenter.
She was born in Kenya in 1970, the daughter of zoologist, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, and Oria Douglas-Hamilton née Rocco. She is a great-granddaughter of Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton. Her sister Mara Moon Douglas-Hamilton, known as "Dudu", is a film producer.[1]
Saba means "seven" in Swahili. She was so named because she was born on 7 June at 7 o’clock in the evening, and happened to be the 7th grandchild.[2]
Saba spent her early childhood in Kenya, and was then educated in the UK, at the United World College of the Atlantic and the University of St Andrews, from which she graduated in 1993 with a first class degree in Social Anthropology.[2] After university she worked for the Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia, mentored by conservationist Blythe Loutit.[3]
On 4 February 2006, Saba married Frank Pope in a traditional Kenyan ceremony.
She is a trustee of Save the Elephants, a charity founded by her father.[2]
Television career
Since 2000, Saba has appeared in a number of wildlife documentaries produced by the BBC and others. Many of these have been set in Africa and have featured elephants — an animal with which she became very familiar during her childhood. Since 2002, she has been co-presenter of the Big Cat Diary series, with Jonathan Scott and Simon King. She has also appeared in wildlife programmes set in other countries, such as India, Lapland and in the Arctic, where she filmed polar bears. Since 2004, Saba has presented a number of short pieces featuring vacation destinations in the BBC Holiday series. In 2006, she appeared alongside Nigel Marven in one episode of Prehistoric Park in which she traveled back 10,000 years to study sabre-toothed cats. One particularly interesting documentary she produced and narrated was called Heart of a Lioness. It was about a wild lioness called Kamunyak, "the blessed one," who acted as a maternal quardian for the lion's natural prey: an antelope.
In March 2008 she presented a three part BBC documentary, Unknown Africa,[4] reporting on the state of wildlife in Comoros, Central African Republic and Angola.
Criticism
Saba is one of a new generation of young wildlife presenters who have been used by the BBC in recent years, which includes others such as Steve Leonard and Charlotte Uhlenbroek. Critical reaction to them has been mixed. On one hand they have been accused of "dumbing down" the BBC's usual high standards, whereas others have described Saba in particular as the "new David Attenborough" — an epithet she vigorously disclaims. Saba has also been criticised for her "barefoot urchin" appearance; but for others, this is possibly part of her attraction.
Nissan advertisements
Saba was also the face of the Nissan Adventure advertisements shown in 2005 and 2006, where she drove a Nissan x-Trail and blew up a mine in Africa. As an avowed environmentalist, her decision to be involved in the promotion of high carbon-emitting vehicles provoked criticism, and she is now on record as saying that she would not do it again.[5]