“Elephants form deep bonds with each
other, which last for decades. Elephant
survival is strongly affected by access to the social and ecological knowledge
that older elephants hold; where to go, what to eat, how to avoid danger.” — Dr. Cynthia Moss, Director & Founder,
Ambroseli Trust for Elephants, Kenya
(elephanttrust.org)
Sateo, iconic tusker Richard Moller pic Luckily for the elephants who travel with
UNluckily for them if she is killed, and all
a matriarch, they can depend on her memory and leadership.
that wisdom is lost – although sometimes a younger femalesteps up to lead the
family herd. While it’s probably not wholly
true that “an elephant never forgets,” they reportedly come pretty
close.
And
while elephants are not scared of mice (eek!) – as claimed in Pliny the Elder’s
Natural History, in the first century A.D. — they are frightened of bees. That fact has helped scientists “train” them
away from crops needed by the African farmers who planted them, and possibly
save them from farmers’ lethal revenge.
Fascinated
by elephants along with many of his fellow Romans, Pliny thought that of all
animals, they were the most like humans in sensibility. Today’s extensive knowledge of elephants
supports his judgment (elephants are intelligent and sociable; they grieve at
the remains of other elephants and they are self-aware – that is, they
recognize their own reflections in a mirror).
With
feelings and behaviors some might believe are strictly human, elephants
keep confounding those who hold human-centered beliefs.
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| Asian elephant family HSI pic |
Humans’
treatment of elephants ranges from Save the Elephants and the Elephant
Crisis Fund (see previous post) and those who so valued elephants that during
this pandemic, they laboriously moved one 50-year old Asian elephant 1,700
miles from an Argentinian zoo to a sanctuary in Brazil . . . down to the lowest
of the low: poachers who slaughter elephants for ivory and profit.
In observing World Elephant Day (Aug.
12), PAWS, the Performing Animal Welfare Society, celebrated the eight
elephants now living at its California site –five “ripped from their
free-living mothers and families and sold into captivity” and all rescued or
retired from circuses or zoos.
“Elephants
simply do not thrive in captivity, where they suffer serious captivity-related
ailments, have shorter lifespans, breed poorly, and experience high infant
mortality rates. Captive populations are
simply not sustainable.” That’s why PAWS
urges us to take action to protect elephants both in the wild and in captivity.
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| African elephants NYT pic |
Read all about them
Of the many books about elephants, these two were recommended to me:
· An Elephant in My Kitchen: What the Herd Taught Me
About Love, Courage and Survival, by Francoise Malby-Anthony. After her husband died unexpectedly, the
author continued their work alone at Thula Thula, the South African game
preserve they had founded. In a country with few women in authority, her
limited ability to speak the native language was another hurdle to
success. Not only did she save their
elephant herd, but also managed to open a nursery for orphaned baby elephants
and others. (sequel to Lawrence
Anthony’s The Elephant Whisperer)
· The White Bone, by Barbara Gowdy, a “complex, meditative
and deeply sad” novel told wholly from the point of view of elephants. “As layered as any human family epic,” wrote
a reviewer of the “intimately imagined social hierarchy and inner lives of the
pachyderms.”
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| Baby elephant PAWS pic |
Please note: Links
included in my blog posts are more than the dry footnotes you might expect. They’re usually videos and other materials
that complement the text, and are sometimes just fun. Typically, besides being the sources of
quotes I’ve used, they offer more info on the topic at hand. I hope you’ll check them out each time. For instance, here are two links you shouldn’t miss.
(Elephant
Crisis Fund) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1KhOTsMxeQ&feature=emb_title
(We
Love Elephants!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQwETI_gkMw&feature=youtu.be
#
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elephants.