Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant FamilyCynthia Moss has studied the elephants in Kenya's Amboseli National Park for over twenty-seven years. Her long-term research has revealed much of what we now know about these complex and intelligent animals. Here she chronicles the lives of the members of the T families led by matriarchs Teresia, Slit Ear, Torn Ear, Tania, and Tuskless. With a new afterword catching up on the families and covering current conservation issues, Moss's story will continue to fascinate animal lovers. "One is soon swept away by this 'Babar' for adults. By the end, one even begins to feel an aversion for people. One wants to curse human civilization and cry out, 'Now God stand up for the elephants!'"—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times "Moss speaks to the general reader, with charm as well as scientific authority. . . . [An] elegantly written and ingeniously structured account." —Raymond Sokolov, Wall Street Journal "Moss tells the story in a style so conversational . . . that I felt like a privileged visitor riding beside her in her rickety Land-Rover as she showed me around the park." —Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, New York Times Book Review "A prose-poem celebrating a species from which we could learn some moral as well as zoological lessons." —Chicago Tribune |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 8 |
Introduction | 15 |
An Amboseli Day 19731975 | 19 |
Drought 1976 | 41 |
Migration 1977 | 63 |
Mating 1978 | 89 |
Social Relationships 1979 | 119 |
Births and Babies 1980 | 145 |
Flexibility 1982 | 203 |
Population Dynamics 1983 | 229 |
Life Cycle and Death 1984 | 255 |
Future Generations 19851986 and Beyond | 283 |
Epilogue December 26 1986 | 319 |
Afterword November 1999 | 325 |
Amboseli Elephant Research Project Publications as of November 1999 | 345 |
357 | |
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Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family Cynthia Moss Limited preview - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
acacia adult females African elephants Amboseli elephants Amboseli National Park Amboseli's animals Asian elephants baby Bad Bull began behavior bond group born bushes calf calves camp death died drought dry season Ear's elephant population Enkongo Narok estrus family units feeding gave birth grass greeting habitats Harvey head Iain Iain Douglas-Hamilton ivory Joyce Keith Kenya killed Lake Manyara Land-Rover legs lodge Longinye swamp looked Maasai Manyara Masaku mating matriarch months mother moved musth musth male Nairobi Namalog Narok National Park O+ O+ Ol Tukai Orok older Orok percent phants photographs Phyllis poaching rains Right Fang rumbled Slit Ear smell sparring speared started stopped suckle swamp Taabu Tallulah Tamar Tania Tanzania Tara TCs and TDs temporal glands Teresia Tess Theodora Tilly Tonie Torn Ear trees trunk Tuskless tusks vegetation walked watched wildlife woodlands young female young males