Celebrating Mother’s Day
Celebrate Mother’s Day this year with a gift of The Wisdom of Elephants ! Elephants are devoted mothers – family is everything to them. With every purchase of The Wisdom of Elephants $10 goes to elephant conservation in Amboseli Kenya.
Here’s a short video (3 mins) about my unforgettable encounter with a female elephant on the Amboseli Plain.
I have some sad news to add this week’s post. Big Tusker Tolstoy died April 27, 2022. An uncle of famous Tim who died in 2020, Tolstoy died of a spear wound age 51. Tolstoy’s death is a grim reminder of the biggest threat to wildlife, human wildlife conflict.
All over Africa wildlife habitat is being sold off for both small and industrial farms thereby reducing the natural spaces elephants need to survive. Farmer’s crops are an irresistible temptation for hungry elephants. Farmers who lose their livelihood to crop raiding elephants are understandably upset, they often go after the marauders with poisoned spears. Tolstoy was treated for a leg wound from a spear 6 weeks prior to his death. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of rangers, veterinarians and elephant conservationists, Tolstoy succumbed to his wound.
“Tolstoy was one of the few elephants in Africa with thick tusks that grazed the ground,” according to Elephant Voices. “To the world he was a Super Tusker. To us, he was Tolstoy, an elephant who came up through the ranks over the course of the time we have worked in Amboseli – from a calf in a well-known family, to a role model to younger males and a father to many of Amboseli’s younger elephants.”
Like Tolstoy, Tim’s massive tusks were so long they grazed the ground.
Three Super Tuskers have died since I began this blog in 2020, Tim, Ulysses and now Tolstoy. Each death represents a significant reduction in the gene pool of these large-tusked elephants unique to Amboseli. It’s hard to describe how awe-inspiring it feels to be in the presence of these giants. One of my goals in writing The Wisdom of Elephants is to raise awareness about the importance of protecting these animals. When we lose wild spaces, we lose wildlife.
Elephants are keystone species in an ecosystem. It is essential that communities and conservation organisations work together to create land-use plans that consider both the needs of humans and wildlife to reduce human wildlife conflict in the future. Without protection, elephants will be extinct in this century. A world without elephants is unimaginable.