The Asian Elephant, A Natural History by J.C. Daniel
From the curator of the Bombay Natural History Society comes a review of the past and present status of the elephant and problems that it faces in its fight for survival
Eyewitness: Elephant by Ian Redmond
A vivid introduction to the elephant, in the colorful Eyewitness visual style. With plenty of background on the natural history of the elephant, including description of its behavior and social habits. Great for children too.
The Astonishing Elephant by Shana Alexander
Elephant is an unabashed celebration of these mysterious creatures, whose closest living relatives are the dugong and the hyrax. “They have,” Alexander writes, “essential nobility, grace, serenity, sagacity, loyalty and playfulness, a simple goodness, a lack of animosity–unless provoked.”
Elephants on the Edge by G.A. Bradshaw
This thoughtful book by animal trauma specialist Bradshaw draws analogies between human and animal culture to illustrate the profound breakdown occurring in elephant societies.
Coming of Age with Elephants: A Memoir by Joyce Poole
Poole is an animal behaviorist who has devoted her life to the study of the African elephant. Her intensive involvement with these majestic creatures revealed that they are self-aware, startlingly empathic beings, experience musth, and communicate in low-level vibrations that humans cannot hear. Those discoveries are fascinating, and Poole’s accounts of her adventures with the […]
Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family by Cynthia Moss
Amboseli National Park, near Mt. Kilimanjaro in southern Kenya, is home ground to some 600 elephants; this herd has been relatively free from human interference and was a major focus for field study. Moss follows one extended family through 13 years of good times and bad times, observing details of their daily lives; mating, migration, […]
The Pope’s Elephant by Silvio A. Bedini
In early 16th century Rome, among the Pope’s great joys was his menagerie of exotic animals, and the prize of his collection was an Indian elephant named Hanno, presented to him by the King of Portugal. The Pope’s Elephant by Silvio A. Bedini, historian emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, describes Hanno’s powerful effect on the […]
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
It’s the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world. He introduces us to Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; to August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus’s animal trainer); […]
Modoc by Ralph Helfer
Raised together in a small German circus town, a boy and an elephant formed a bond that would last their entire lives, and would be tested time and again; through a near-fatal shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, an apprenticeship with the legendary Mahout elephant trainers in the Indian teak forests, and their eventual rise to […]
Hannah’s Dream by Diane Hammond
Hannah has been cared for by Samson Brown for her 41-year captivity. But Samson is aging and his health is failing, and the zoo needs a plan. Enter Neva Wilson, an energetic young zookeeper whose creative ideas for Hannah’s well-being immediately put her afoul of Harriet Saul, the zoo’s petty, tyrannical administrator. To save Hannah’s […]