While observing a family of elephants in the wild, Caitlin O’Connell noticed a peculiar listening behavior—the matriarch lifted her foot and scanned the horizon, causing the other elephants to follow suit, as if they could “hear” the ground. The Elephant’s Secret Sense is O’Connell’s account of her groundbreaking research into seismic listening and communication, chronicling the extraordinary social lives of elephants over the course of fourteen years in the Namibian wilderness.
This compelling odyssey of scientific discovery is also a frank account of fieldwork in a poverty-stricken, war-ravaged country. In her attempts to study an elephant community, O’Connell encounters corrupt government bureaucrats, deadly lions and rhinos, poachers, farmers fighting for arable land, and profoundly ineffective approaches to wildlife conservation. The Elephant’s Secret Sense is ultimately a story of intellectual courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
“I was transported by the author’s superbly sensuous descriptions of her years spent studying the animals. . . . Conjures a high-class nature documentary film in prose.”—Steven Poole, Guardian
“A ride as rough and astonishing as the roads of the African floodplain.”—Joan Keener, Entertainment Weekly
“A successful combination of science and soulfulness, explaining her groundbreaking theory of how elephants use seismic communication. . . . O’Connell’s account is studded with sympathetic insights and well-turned phrases.”—Publishers Weekly
“This fascinating book reads like a fast-paced detective story of a scientific discovery and adventure set in contemporary Africa. . . . By the end, O’Connell takes her rightful place among the leading biographers of the African elephant.”—Iain Douglas-Hamilton, author of Among the Elephants
1 Listening Through Limbs
2 The Caprivi
3 Wet Season Elephant Wars
4 Making Sense of the Elephant
5 Tiptoeing Elephants
6 The Dry Season
7 The Mother of All Elephants
8 Elephants on the Move
9 Cracking the Elephant Morse Code
10 Ivory Ghosts
11 The Wheels of Conservation
12 Donna the Dancer
13 Back to Mushara in Style
14 Keeping an Ear to the Ground
15 Wynona's Last Stand
16 The Gentlemen's Club
17 The Sails of Mushara
Acknowledgments
Index
"Our author sleeps in blinds, pores through elephant dung, darts and collars elephant matriarchs, puts zoo elephants on force plates to send vibrations to their feet, even cuts up a frozen elephant to search for vibration-sensitive cells in its toes and heels. . . . A compelling memoir of how a small but fascinating biological discovery is made, from a momentary observation to a fully presented theory."-Anthony Doerr, Boston Globe
"I was transported by the author's superbly sensuous descriptions of her years spent studying the animals. . . . Conjure[s] a high-class nature documentary film in prose."-Steven Poole, Guardian
"A ride as rough and astonishing as the roads of the African floodplain."-Joan Keener, Entertainment Weekly
"A successful combination of science and soulfulness, explaining her groundbreaking theory of how elephants use seismic communication. . . . [O'Connell's] account is studded with sympathetic insights and well-turned phrases."-Publishers Weekly
"This fascinating book reads like a fast-paced detective story of a scientific discovery and adventure set in contemporary Africa. . . . By the end, [O'Connell] takes her rightful place among the leading biographers of the African elephant."-Iain Douglas-Hamilton, author of Among the Elephants
Caitlin O’Connell is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head, and Neck Surgery at Stanford University. Her discoveries have been published in various periodicals, including Science, Science News, Natural History, National Geographic, the Economist, and Discover.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Imprint: University Of Chicago Press
Distributor: Chicago Distribution Center
Publication Date: 09-01-2008
Pages: 264
Measurements: 9.00in X 6.00in
