Elephants: extraordinary & irreplaceable treasures!

"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 a matriarch, they can depend on her memory and leadership. UNluckily for them if she is killed, and all 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.

     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.  

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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.

               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.”  

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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