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What Jane Goodall did for chimpanzees, international ecologist and conservation scientist Hannah Mumby now does for elephants in this compelling, eye-opening account that brings into focus this species remarkably similar to humans - and makes a persuasive argument for saving them.. From early childhood, Dr. Hannah Mumby has loved wildlife, especially elephants. Her first wild elephant sighting at twenty-four changed the course of her life. Since then, she has devoted herself to studying these incredible animals and educating humanity about them. Hannahs field work has taken her around the world, where she has studied many elephant groups, including both orphaned elephants and the solitary elephant males.These remarkable animals have so much to teach us, Mumby argues, and Elephants takes readers into their world as never before, revealing a society as complex as the chimpanzees, maybe even humans. Mumbys exploration of elephant culture provides an empathetic, humanistic portrait of these majestic animals, illuminating their personalities, memories, and rich emotional lives. Mumby explains how elephants communicate with one another and demonstrates the connection between memory and trauma - how it affects individual elephants and their interactions with others in their herd. Elephants and humans, Mumby makes clear, are not very different. From emotional bonding to communication, human and elephant experience similarly nuanced lives, and the commonalities she uncovers are both surprising and heartwarming.Featuring a 16-page color insert of original photography, Elephants is a captivating, deeply moving exploration that offers a new way to look at these pachyderms and ourselves and a persuasive, passionate argument for rethinking our approach to animals and their conservation.
About the Author
The short version of me is that I'm more comfortable with animals than people. And I have a particular affinity with elephants.The long version is this:I am a huge nerd. This led me to become a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist. I am also a conservation scientist because I care. I am currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Branco Weiss - Society in Science Fellow through the ETH Zurich. I was previously at the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge as Drapers' Company Research Fellow at Pembroke College. I was also lucky to be a College for Life Sciences Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin and a Fulbright Scholar at Colorado State University. I lead the Applied Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation lab. We conduct fieldwork with elephants and other mammals in Nepal, Hong Kong, Southern Africa and some other beautiful places.Although I love talking and writing about elephants, the best way for me to learn is to watch them. With the team, I collect behavioural observations, track elephant movements, collect dung to extract genetic and hormonal data and take lots of photos to assess body condition, individual identity and reproductive status. We try to understand elephants by interviewing people, doing behaviour experiments and taking samples. I'm ten years in and I am still learning a lot! I'm is also actively involved with conservation efforts and have assisted with collaring operations, translocating elephants and outreach work.I have talked about elephants on TV and radio, in schools and universities to a wide range of audiences in India, Myanmar, Thailand, Japan, the UK, Germany, the US and beyond. I live in Hong Kong.My book Elephants Birth, Life, and Death in the World of the Giants, is a lyrically written and deeply personal account of several years of field research, in which I describe my own elephant encounters, explore the most up-to-date discoveries about the lives of these gentle giants.
