Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family

by Cynthia Moss

Book Overview

Cynthia 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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688053483
• ISBN13: 9780688053482
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Study of Kenya's Amboseli Elephants

Cynthia Moss spent thirteen years in Amboseli National Reserve studying the elephants there. This book is the culmination of her work. Cynthia writes about the elephants as if they were her friends or her family. She is obviously as attached to them as one gets attached to a pet cat or dog. Cynthia keeps family trees of the Amboseli elephants - noting births, deaths, etc. The names of members is the same family all begin with the same letter. That makes it very easy to keep track of each family as you are reading the book. Cynthia talks about the death of one of the elephants as if it were a part of her family. That was a very sad section of this book. Ok, I admit it, I cried. Cynthia shows how the elephants care about each other just as humans do. They are sad, just like we are, when a family member dies. In Elephant Memories, you get to learn about the everyday activities of the elephants, how they play, eat, drink, mate. You learn what the elephants do during the dry and rainy seasons, what they do to survive a drought. A nice thing about the book is the chapters are written in such a manner that you could simply pick any chapter, read it, and still get a lot out of it. Each chapter is its own story - no need to read previous chapters. If you were interested in the births of elephants, you could read just that chapter with having read the previous ones. If you are at all interested in elephants, definitely read this book.

HOW WONDERFUL ELEPHANTS ARE

IT IS AMAZING TO ME THAT MAN DOESNT KNOW OR CHOOSES NOT TO ACKNOWLEDGE HOW INTELLEGENT AND WONDERFUL THESE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES OF GOD ARE AND THIS BOOK MAKES IT REAL CLEAR.

The lives of elephants revealed

This is a wonderful book. Cynthia Moss takes the reader deep into the intricate social lives of Africa elephans in Amboseli National Park (Kenya), and leaves a profound impression. How very sensitive these animals are, and how endearing. It is entirely clear how these creatures have suffered at the hands of humans, but also nobody can read this book and not feel the urge to conserve this fantastic species. Also it may inspire some to travel to Amboseli to see the elephants 'in person' - an experience that you will never forget!

Intriguing

This is an excellent book. At first, the book seems confusing as the author continuously refers to the individual elephants on a first name basis when one has no idea of who these "people" are. As the names become more familiar and the individual stories develop, the strange names develop into a wonderful, although at times anthropomorphic story on the natural history of these gentle animals. As she warns us, the author takes the liberty of adding unwitnessed, fictional pieces to most stories, which can be confusing and at times blur the objective observations that she makes with subjective, although probably real, assumptions. But this book is not a hard core technical text, despite glimpses of it being so in the beginning. The book is about remembering the wonderful social and behavioral characteristics of individuals that make up a population. From matriarchs to lonely males, from birth to death during periods of drought or at the hands of Masai warriors, this book gives a comprehensive insight into relevant issues affecting the survival of the African elephant. The author comes across as a human being, with emotions that go beyond the hard-core science. Although her prose is dry at times, this book is very enjoyable and opens a magnificent window into the world of the Amboseli elephants.

Great Historical View of Amboseli's Elephants...

Moss' "Elephant Memories" provides intimate detail of her experiences with Amboseli's elephant herd in the 1970's-early '80s. Some of the material is dated as she has since learned new truths and details of elephant behaviors since this book was first published. One example was the discussion of the twin calves: Equninox and Eclipse. Moss was wondering if these male and female calves would be free-martens like cattle twins and unable to reproduce. Well, since those early days, the female has since matured and has had a calf. So the free-marten theory was disproved. But it was interesting to ponder. Basically, the story follows the lives of four closely related family groups--the "T" familes. In her research, she names most of the family members in one family starting with the same letter. So most of the "T" family members names start with the letter "T". I found the book to be entertaining, an elephant saga, yet informative, also. Moss teaches yet inspires empathy for these magnificent creatures. The celebration of elephant births and sorrow of their deaths with the continuation of their daily hardships--drought, killings, hunger and human encroachment are discussed in easy to read detail. "Elephant Memories" is part elephant soap opera and part Moss' speculations regarding her dealings with these pachyderms. There are two separate inserts of photos--one section is in black and white, the other is in color. For anyone who follows Moss' books and videos, it is a must to read this book. It shows photos of elephant's when she first started taking their photos up to the 13 years she researched them before publishing the book. It is interesting to see the "before" and "after" pictures of some of the younger elephants who then grew up. "Elephant Memories" is a great read. I've gotten a lot of detail in my own quest for elephant information by reading this book.