Why Elephants are my Favorite

The book Elephant Whisperer is the nonfiction story of Lawrence Anthony, a man in South Africa who adopts, rehabilitates, and develops a strong bond with a small herd of elephants that would have been killed otherwise because they were troublesome. After a few years, he and his team noticed a strange phenomenon. On the day that he was due back from a trip, the elephants would travel hours across the reserve to the main lodge; they would be waiting to greet him at the house. One time, he missed his flight home and arrived a day later than planned. Apparently, at the exact moment that he found out he had missed his flight, the herd stopped partway on their way to the house, turned around, and went back the way they came. However, when he arrived the next day, they were there waiting for him. Anthony attributes this to the elephants’ ability to transmit and receive low-frequency rumbles, below human hearing range, that can potentially travel hundreds of miles, even through solid objects. This is just one example of elephants’ amazingly developed communication skills. Biologists still do not completely understand how elephants use these rumblings to communicate, but it is a strong indicator of their greater intelligence.

On the day that Anthony died, the elephants, which by then had split into two separate herds, all arrived at his home. They had not been to the house for over a year, yet they knew to come back. Elephants have been known to mourn the deaths of their fellow kind, and they spent two days near the house, mourning their friend’s passing. 

At the Elephant Sanctuary in Knysna, a teary-eyed keeper told us the story of a very sick man who was dying of cancer who came to see the elephants. Apparently, the younger elephants, sensing something was wrong, would not approach the man, but the matriarch came up to him and appeared to try to comfort him. The man wept the entire time. Later, his wife told the keeper that it had been his dying wish to touch an elephant. A few days later, the man passed. 

It has been proven time again that elephants are capable of a huge emotional range, including empathy, rage, playfulness, depression, tenderness, and even post-traumatic stress disorder. They are fiercely protective of their families and have social rules that guide interaction. Their low-frequency rumblings ensure that no elephant is ever truly alone.