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"the Elephant Whisperer" by Lawrence Anthony

book review by Riley Burnham 7/27/2022

audiobook 👍👍👍

loved this book; so endearing; so informative

the poachers are of course the hired help [go figure], which are former soldiers rather than conservationists -- this gets sorted, & the elephants calm down (once they reach sanctuary free of poachers)

so much to mention: the ways animals communicate ["i see you/" acknowledgment]; how mothers show & share their calves [& methods they use in rearing]; pecking-order antics; plenty of good humor

elephants are of course very powerful & mightily cunning [their methods for escaping captivity are varied & clever, including battering-ramming weaker herdites into electric fences to break it down]; they can sense electrical current w/ trunks at a distance from wire; so use a "dousing rod" technique to sense weak spots in order to exploit them

elephants set boundaries amongst their "nests" where humans are prohibited: only w/ extraordinary trust will they allow (welcome) a person even remotely close, & will otherwise be very dangerous

they're lovable, jovial, charismatic creatures [who love horse feed, lol] & are well-adapted to their natural environments [roaming, foraging, etc.]

they can kill rhinos [once they realize they can they tend to do it again], which is of course a problem in terms of endangered animal conservation

​​​​​​​a matriarch is the leader for much, including reaccepting trust for humans once it's been broken [if a matriarch re-asserts trust for a human, then & only then will the herd respond in kind, more or less]

an animal in pain will cause a ruckus -- watch for infections w/ a rowdy animal -- we learn this w/ a huge elephant in the book who gets put down due to hostile behavior -- too late