Saba Douglas-Hamilton was raised in a family with a keen eye on conservation. Her father is the respected zoologist, Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton who was an expert in elephant behaviour, along with his wife, Oria. Saba spent her early years running around the bush in Africa with the elephants and went on to ultimately gain a Masters in social anthropology. Her first job for the BBC Natural History Unit was Going Ape, this was followed by a variety of projects including Elephant Trilogy.  Saba went on to co-present Big Cat Diary, which can be seen on the BBC Earth website along with several other programmes including Elephant Trilogy.