Elephant Don
The Politics of a Pachyderm Posse
Meet Greg. He's a stocky guy with an outsized swagger. He's been the intimidating yet sociable don of his posse of friends – including Abe, Keith, Mike, Kevin, Torn Trunk, and Willie. But one arid summer the tide begins to shift and the third-ranking Kevin starts to get ambitious, seeking a higher position within this social club. But this is no ordinary tale of gangland betrayal – Greg and his entourage are bull elephants in Etosha National Park, Namibia, where, for the last twenty-three years, Caitlin O'Connell has been a keen observer of their complicated friendships.
In "Elephant Don", O'Connell, one of the leading experts on elephant communication and social behavior, offers a rare inside look at the social world of African male elephants".Elephant Don" tracks Greg and his group of bulls as O'Connell tries to understand the vicissitudes of male friendship, power struggles, and play. A frequently heart-wrenching portrayal of commitment, loyalty, and affection between individuals yearning for companionship, it vividly captures an incredible repertoire of elephant behavior and communication. Greg, O'Connell shows, is sometimes a tyrant and other times a benevolent dictator as he attempts to hold onto his position at the top. Though "Elephant Don" is Greg's story, it is also the story of O'Connell and the challenges and triumphs of field research in environs more hospitable to lions and snakes than scientists.
Readers will be drawn into dramatic tales of an elephant society at once exotic and surprisingly familiar, as O'Connell's decades of close research reveal extraordinary discoveries about a male society not wholly unlike our own. Surely we've all known a Greg or two, and through this book we may come to know them in a whole new light
Contents:
Kissing of the Ring
Journey to Mushara
The Head That Wears the Crown
Introduction to the Boys' Club
Dung Diaries
Teenage Wasteland
Coalitions and a Fall from Grace
Male Bonding
The Domino Effect
Capo di Tutti Capi
Of Musth and Other Demons
The Emotional Elephant
The Don Back in the Driver's Seat
Closure
Sniffing Out Your Relatives
Where Are the Boys in Gray?
A Case for Dishonest Signaling
The Don under Fire
Black Mamba in Camp
Baying at a Testosterone-Filled Moon
Relentless Wind
A Deposed Don
The Don Returns
Scramble for Power
The Royal Family
Wee Hours
The Politics of Family
A New Beginning
Acknowledgments
Captions for Chapter-Opening Photos
Index
About the Author
Caitlin O'Connell is a faculty member at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, National Geographic, and Discover, among many others. She lives in San Diego.
Reviews
"In 'Elephant Don', O'Connell, one of the leading experts on elephant communication and social behavior, takes us inside the little-known world of African male elephants, a world that is steeped in ritual, where bonds are maintained by unexpected tenderness punctuated by violence. It is also the story of O'Connell and the challenges and triumphs of field research. And it comes at a critical time when the slaughter of these intelligent and long lived creatures is at an all time high. The more people learn about them, the more they are likely to help efforts to save them" – Jane Goodall, founder, the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
"Elephant bulls – those magnificent creatures now in the eyesight of hunters and poachers – were always portrayed as loners. O'Connell has changed this by showing their intensely social nature. Not only do bulls frequently associate, they have subtle ways of communicating status and to jockey for position. All of this is complicated by the 'musth' wild card characteristic of the species. A fascinating look into the politics of the largest land animal" – Frans de Waal, author of "The Bonobo and the Atheist"
"'Elephant Don' is truly a winner in many different ways. The best way to learn about the magnificent animals with whom we share Earth – or with whom we are supposed to peacefully coexist – is to meet them up close and personal, by name, by social relationships, and by their daily and sometimes hourly ups and downs. By reading the autobiographies detailing the roller coaster of emotions of a pachyderm posse we experience their own and other's life's challenges, and we see them as the unique individuals they truly are. In this landmark book we also learn about the ups and downs of doing extremely difficult, highly rewarding, and incredibly important field research. There surely is no one better than O'Connell to tell the stories of the animals she knows so well, to see how what they actually do meshes with extant models and theories, and what it's really like to conduct this sort of research with a team of incredibly dedicated researchers, all of whom also are unique individuals. I will share this book widely. It is that good" – Marc Bekoff, author of "Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals"
