Saba Douglas-Hamilton
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Saba Douglas-Hamilton was born in Kenya on June 7, 1970. Her name means "seven" in the local Kiswahili language, and was given to her because she was born at 7 p.m. on a Sunday, the seventh day of the week, on the seventh day of the month, and she was also the seventh grandchild in the family. She is the daughter of zoologist, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, and a first cousin once-removed of Angus Douglas-Hamilton, 15th Duke of Hamilton.
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.
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 travelled back 10,000 years to study sabre-toothed cats.
On February 4, 2006, Saba married Frank Pope in a traditional Kenyan ceremony.
Saba is one of a new generation of young wildlife presenters that 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.
Saba is also the face of the Nissan Adventure advertisements shown in 2005 and 2006, where she drives a Nissan x-Trail and blows up a mine in Africa.
