The Last Elephant: African Quest

by JeremyGavron (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $3.36

  Of all the endangered species, elephants are the most intriguing. Like whales, they are huge and intelligent. Much is known about them - their close family ties, their care for their own dying, their interest in their dead, their complex communication. This book is a journey in the shadow of the great beast, a portrait of its character, nature, culture and life, but also taking the broader view, looking at the elephant in the political, natural and human context. It is a book about the researchers, conservationists, the ivory carvers and elephant artists, the white hunters and African poachers, and the elephant's hired protectors. It shows too, how the fate of the elephant is entwined with some of the key African themes: overpopulation, land shortages, political instability, corruption and the lopsided meeting between African tradition and the modern world.

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $3.36

  On the trail of the African elephant, Jeremy Gavron has woven a tale that is at once an adventurous journey, a philosophical investigation and an evocative portrait of Africa. This book reveals a creature that can feel pain and happiness, and that communicates in subtle ways with its own kind. But it also shows how the fight for the survival of the elephant, protected by some men, hunted down by others, has become a powerful metaphor for the battle of old Africa to survive in the modern world of automatic weapons and computers. It is this fragile environment, delicately balanced between progress and catastrophe, that Gavron captures.