The Mercury News reports the sad news:

Wildlife photographer Peter Beard was found dead Sunday in the woods near his home in Montauk, New York. He had been missing since March 31.

Beard, 82, suffered from dementia.

His body was found in Camp Hero State Park, at Long Island’s eastern tip.

Best known for his scenes of African wildlife, he was also a sought-after fashion photographer credited with discovering the model Iman on a Nairobi street.

Handsome and hard-drinking even in his 70s, Beard partied in high society. The second of his three marriages was a two-year union with Cheryl Tiegs, then at the peak of her modeling career.

The scion of a wealthy New York family, he attended prep schools and began a pre-med course at Yale before deciding, against his parents’ wishes, to pursue photography. Some of the photos he took while still in college were included in the 1965 book that made his name, “The End of the Game,” which documented African wildlife and hunting. …

In 1996, he came close to dying after being gored by an elephant, an attack that for a time left him blind and unable to walk.

Earlier report.