Elephant Destiny: Biography Of An Endangered Species In AfricaFor thousands of years, the majestic elephant has roamed the African continent, as beloved by man as it has been preyed upon. But centuries of exploitation and ivory hunting have taken their toll: now, as wars and poachers continue to ravage its habitat, as disease and political strife deflect attention from its plight, the African elephant faces imminent extinction. What will become of these magnificent beasts? As the elephant's future looms ever darker, Martin Meredith's concise and richly illustrated biography traces the elephant's history from the first ivory expeditions of the Egyptian pharaohs 2500 years ago to today, exploring along the way the indelible imprint the African elephant has made in art, literature, culture, and society. He shares recent extraordinary discoveries about the elephant's sophisticated family and community structure and reveals the remarkable ways in which elephants show compassion and loyalty to each other. Elegant, illuminating, and urgent, Elephant Destiny offers a beautiful and important tribute to one of earth's most magisterial creatures at the very moment it threatens to vanish from being. |
Contents
Manyara | 1 |
The Land of Punt | 7 |
Arms and the Elephant | 13 |
Roman Games | 23 |
Protégés of the Gods | 29 |
The Elephants Graveyard | 35 |
Natures Masterpiece | 41 |
Footholds on the Coast | 47 |
Safe Havens | 123 |
Ancestors | 131 |
Enter the Scientists | 139 |
Family Life | 147 |
Mating Pandemonium | 157 |
Body and Mind | 165 |
Rumbles | 177 |
Death | 183 |
The Cape of Death | 61 |
Zanzibars Tune | 75 |
The Khartoum Run | 87 |
Heart of Darkness | 97 |
Rivers of Ivory | 107 |
Jumbo and Friends | 113 |
The Culling Option | 191 |
Ivory Wars | 201 |
An Image of Liberty | 223 |
| 227 | |
| 237 | |
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Common terms and phrases
adult African elephant Amboseli animals Arab arrived Asian elephants beast became biologists bones calf calves Cape caravan carried century bc CITES coast Congo Congo River culling Cynthia Moss dead elephants demand for ivory Douglas-Hamilton ears elephant corps elephant herds elephant populations elephant’s European eventually expedition exported extinct feet females forest elephant Game Department game warden head huge human hunt elephants hunters Iain Douglas-Hamilton inland ivory ivory trade Joyce Poole Jumbo Kenya Khartoum killed kilos Kruger Lake land large numbers Loxodonta males Manyara Manyema matriarch ment Moeritherium move Murchison Falls musth musth bulls National Park Nile organised phants poaching Portuguese pounds rainforest reached recorded returned River Roman rumbles scientists Selous shot slaves South Africa southern Stanley Sudan survival Tanganyika tion Tippu Tip tons of ivory trees trumpeting trunk Tsavo tusks Uganda Ujiji White Nile wildlife wrote Zanj Zanzibar Zimbabwe