Cynthia Moss

This is the type of book that one wants to be reading endlessly. Although a scientist, Moss talks about 'her' elephants with empathy and a deep concern for their well-being, even using that forbidden word 'love' in describing the emotions they evoke. As a wildlife biologist, she is prepared to face the prospect that some interventions will be more disruptive than others, but she shows that her heart is in the right place as she sets her face firmly against as heartless a process as 'culling' to manage population densities. She is also right in saying that such islands of wild biodiversity cannot be preserved unless the adjacent human communities are taken into account and support the cause. Her study is of elephants in their family and clan groups, and she shows how individual connections and friendships are often a matter of life and death to these royal masters of the wilderness. A deep understanding of individuals and their temperaments, and of group cohesion and behavior, will surely be of immense help to all managers tackling similar problems of managing wild populations all over the world.… (meer)