The Elephant Whisperer: Learning About Life, Loyalty and Freedom From a Remarkable Herd of Elephants

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I don't read memoirs that revolves around someone life around animals that much and efter reading this book, I feel like that need to change. Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of ‘rogue’ elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in South Africa because he was known as being amazingly good with animals. This book is absolutely beautiful and I am very much in debt to the friend of mine who recommended this book to me and lent me her copy! Among them, learning the value elephants place on family, loyalty and compassion and their willingness to go the extra mile.

We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. The elephants get the credit they deserve for being remarkably intelligent and resilient, despite extremely harsh treatment and bad memories early on. What a lucky herd to have been given the chance to live at Thula Thula and to have an advocate on their side when no one else wanted them.It shows how humans and animals can form close bonds and how animals communicate in ways we do not always understand. In fact, it includes a great deal of history, culture, traditions, spiritual beliefs of the neighboring Zulu tribes, as well as the impact of the former apartheid policies. The entire book was informative, not only about elephants, but about other animals, including snakes, vultures, baboons, insects, dogs and more. Farther into the bush, we saw huge, galloping giraffes that would stop and munch from the tops of trees and, now fortified, bang necks with each other in combat.

It’s natural, uncluttered by materialism or artificial ethics and it helps me to maintain a wholesome perspective of my own existence and that of my friends and family. Very interesting reports on the smarts elephants have although the story leaves things out that I wanted to know about. When South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of 'rogue' elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand, his common sense told him to refuse. In the early years of his custodianship of Thula Thula, he took in a herd of troubled elephants who were about to be destroyed. They key to both Anthony's success is raising this herd and in writing this book is that he does not anthropomorphize these animals that he loves.

In some ways this story reads more like a novel than non-fiction due to its pace, twists and engagement. Through a very brave and painstaking process, he befriended the matriarch, Nana, and from there the entire herd, except for one male rogue. It is a source of great happiness that there are such people working tirelessly to create an environment of inclusion in a world that increasingly seems focused on self-aggrandizement. Apparently he wanted to refuse because of the problems of adding another herd of elephants, but he just could not say no.

Details of his conservation activities appeared regularly in regional and international media including CNN, CBS, BBC, Al Jazeera and Sky TV and featured in magazines and journals such as Reader's Digest, the Smithsonian, the Explorers Journal, Africa Geographic, Men's Journal, Shape magazine, Elle magazine and others. There were also magnificent martial eagles, with their 7-foot wingspans, on the look out for vervet monkeys they might pluck from tree branches. Hermann drove and was accompanied by a local tracker, who could read any footprint or pile of scat on the trail. Such is Africa, the flawed, beautiful, magnificent, beguiling, mystical, unique, life-changing continent.He was the long-standing head of conservation at the Thula Thula animal reserve in Zululand, South Africa, and the Founder of The Earth Organization, a privately registered, independent, international conservation and environmental group with a strong scientific orientation.

Lawrence Anthony He left an amazing legacy at the Thula Thula reserve in KwaZulu, Natal, South Africa, , and his work with conservation, and wild animals. Set against the background of life on the reserve, with unforgettable characters and exotic wildlife, this is a delightful book that will appeal to animal lovers everywhere. As Anthony risked his life to create a bond with the troubled elephants and persuade them to stay on his reserve, he came to realize what a special family they were, from the wise matriarch Nana, who guided the herd, to her warrior sister Frankie, always ready to see off any threat, and their children who fought so hard to survive. But on his death, the herd inexplicably trudged for miles in a solemn funereal procession to pay their respects at his house. A touching memoir of a South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony and his wildlife game reserve in Zululand.Could you retain your cool with a charging bull elephant bearing down on you, or for that manner on finding yourself face to face with a black mamba, or even confront poachers that would happily shoot you? What is depicted are varying mesmerizing situations the author has experienced that the reader may glean the relevance of. As Lawrence battled to create a bond with the elephants and save them from execution, he came to realise that they had a lot to teach him about love, loyalty and freedom.