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| Elephant Destiny: Biography Of An Endangered Species In Africa | 
| Author: Martin Meredith
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 838485
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 36
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1586482335
Dewey Decimal Number: 599
EAN: 9781586482336
ASIN: 1586482335
Publication Date: June 29, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Thankyou for looking at Bookscorner1. May have a remaindermark and shelfwear.
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| Customer Reviews:
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 A must read for Elephant Lovers!!! February 11, 2008
This is one of the most informative and complex book I have read about Elephants so far, and I've read a lot! It is an easy read, which is great for all the info that's inside.
This is for people who are interested in learning a bit more about the history of the elephants and how and when it all started that humans used these majestic animals for wars and started hunting them for ivory.
The book ends with some wonderful thoughts about the future co-existence between humans and elephants and what's at stake.
Thorough account of the African elephant December 16, 2007
_Elephant Destiny_ by Martin Meredith is a well-written and fast-reading account of the human and natural history of the African elephant. Roughly two-thirds of the book is an account of human interaction with this species, what impact it has had on art, culture, and its uses in human warfare, its role in providing an impetus to the exploration of Africa and most importantly of all the ivory trade. The other third provides interesting information on its biology, particularly its behavior and interaction within elephant herds.
Elephants were long sought after by various ancient civilizations. As early as 3000 BC the Egyptians had developed different hieroglyphs to distinguish between wild elephants and trained ones, and when elephants disappeared from Egypt they organized a number of expeditions southwards to Nubia and beyond (the land they called Punt) in large part to acquire ivory, which was used in everything from combs to gaming boards to especially goods to fill the graves of the pharaohs. In ancient Israel ivory was so revered that in 1000 BC King Solomon ordered the construction of a great ivory throne, overlaid with gold. The Greeks in the fifth century BC even developed a type of statuary known as chryselephantine in which ivory represented the flesh of a figure while gold stood in for clothing and hair. To help fill the insistent Greek demand for ivory local specialized Ethiopian elephant fighters known as Elephantomachoi arose. Two rival dynasties arising from the death of Alexander the Great both used war elephants, though while the Seleucids were able to obtain new elephants from India, the Ptolomies had to undertaken epic supply trips to get African elephants. Later the Carthaginians, particularly under Hannibal, were big advocates of war elephants, something that was at first successful against their Roman adversaries but later was countered by new Roman tactics. Though the Romans did not use African elephants in warfare they were fond of their use in entertainment, either trained elephants to be put on display or combatants to fight other animals or gladiators. The Romans also had an insatiable demand for ivory, particularly as insignia of office, to decorate temples and palaces, and in a wide range of luxury goods.
Much of the human history portions of the book are accounts of the discovery of new elephant herds in different parts of Africa, of how perhaps the natives did not know the value in overseas markets of the ivory in their vast elephant herds, and the "ivory rushes" that occurred as European and Arab hunters, traders, and others flooded in to take advantage of the new resource, be it the veldt of southern Africa, the jungles of Central Africa, or the game plains of East Africa. Though well-written and one cannot discount the bravery of many of the ivory hunters (Meredith provided many contemporary, first-hand accounts of the great difficulty in hunting elephants, often on foot as horses could not survive in much of Africa), it was somewhat depressing to see such magnificent animals suffer (even some of the hunters seem to realize this, if only for a moment) as well as to see the many associated unsavory aspects of the ivory trade. One observer, a British mariner by the name of Alfred Swann, wrote after encountering a huge caravan of slaves bearing ivory "Ivory! Always ivory! What a curse the elephant has been to Africans! By himself the slave did not pay to transport but plus ivory he was a paying game!" Sometimes it seems the slave trade would not have existed had there been no ivory in the region, slaves were often used primarily to transport ivory from the interior to the coast, and even in areas where the Africans were not enslaved any ivory they possessed was outright stolen and they were often forced to fulfill quotas of ivory (and punished severely if they failed).
Nevertheless the European, Arab, and Asian demand for ivory was impossible to satisfy. African ivory was prized above Indian ivory, as it was finer-grained, richer in tone, and larger. East African ivory was known as "soft" ivory and was white, opaque, gently curved, smooth, and easy to work. West African ivory was "hard" ivory and was less intensely white but glossier and more translucent. As Europe and the United States entered the industrial revolution not only did rising prosperity increase demand for such items as ivory combs, cutlery handles, and ornaments, the invention of new machinery made possible completely new mass-produced products such as piano keys and billiard balls (both required vast amounts of ivory, as each keyboard needed a pound and a half of ivory while billiard balls, in order for them to roll properly, had to be cut from the dead center of the tusk and thus a tusk could produce at most five balls). No other material responded so well to the industrial machinery of the Victorian era, as ivory could easily be cut, sawed, or etched, was quite flexible, and could be sliced into transparent paper-thin sheets; "[i]vory was in many ways the plastic of the era." Even shavings and scraps were used; boiled down to make gelatin, burned to make Indian ink, or used in fertilizer and in hair dye.
Of course the entire book is not just the ivory trade. Surprisingly the first scientific African elephant dissection did not occur until the 1940s! There was so little research on the species that scientists were surprised to find that elephant herds are organized into family units of closed related cows and their offspring (first suggested by researcher Irven Buss), not lead by "herd" or "sire" bulls and that elephants use long-distance calls made with sounds well below the range of human hearing to coordinate their movements.
The closing chapters of the book chronicle the ivory wars of the latter part of the 20th century and the ongoing and contentious debate over whether culling is needed in national parks and whether ivory is a sustainable resource or not.
Beautiful, heartbreaking, and compelling July 21, 2007
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the fate of endangered wildlife, not just elephants. And to anyone interested in Africa, for it is the story of much more than the elephant. Meredith has written a beautiful, captivating, and often heartbreaking and enraging account of the African elephant's encounter with mankind, and how the species has suffered from man's insatiable greed, in particular for the ivory of this beautiful animal. There is also an excellent account of efforts to reverse the catastrophic decline in the African elephant population, due to the ivory trade.
As readable as a fine novel, this book also offers a great introduction to the unique nature of the elephant--the largest land mammal, and yet one of the most intelligent, sensitive, and emotional. If you do not know much about elephants, you will never look at an elephant the same way again.
 If only it was more about the elephants themselves. April 26, 2005
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As other reviewers have pointed out, most of this book is not about the elephants themselves. I knew this going in, but as I enjoyed looking at history from the perspective of salt (Mark Kurlansky, "Salt"), I was hoping I would enjoy "Elephant Destiny" more than I did. The chapters on the elephants are toward the end (chapters 18-22), and are fascinating: it would be hard for them not to be, the social life of elephants is so interesting. For those of you who are not going to read this book, or parts of it, the two main researchers into elephant behavior are apparently Cynthia Moss and Joyce Poole, and Katy Payne has a book on elephant communication. Meredith mentions elephants swimming across rivers. Fossils of pygmy elephants have been found on some Asian islands, and it is speculated their ancestors actually swam to the islands.
PACHYDERMS ARE PRECIOUS... June 28, 2004
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful, well written, illustrated book about elephants and their role throughout history, as well as their present state in the world. I confess, I did not know much about elephants before reading this book. I now feel I know something about them, and what I have discovered is fascinating. I did not realize how complex and intelligent these magnificent creatures are, nor how dangerously close to extinction they have become. It would, indeed, be tragic were that to happen, for elephants are sociable, sentient, and intelligent.The author takes the reader on a tour throughout history, describing the elephant's interaction with humanity and its role in the affairs of mankind and its impact on the environment. The book traces the influence of the elephant and the various uses to which mankind has put this great creature. From being used as a conveyance in times of war, to being paraded as an object of wonder and curiosity, to being hunted down mercilessly for its ivory tusks, the elephant has had a somewhat checkered history in terms of its interaction with human beings. The author also carefully relates the elephant's own social structure, which is a sophisticated and complex one. Their mating rituals, their family life, and their handling of death are all addressed by the author, who paints a picture of a multi-faceted and remarkable society of elephants. It is only in the twentieth century that its complexity has begun to be understood by man. It is hoped that this is not a case of too little, too late. Unfortunately for the elephant, however, its positive qualities have taken a backseat to its value as a commodity. Elephant tusks may eventually bring about the demise of the entire species, if the world does not take heed. A portion of this book is devoted to the ivory wars that have decimated the great elephant herds of Africa, turning elephants into an endangered species. Were elephants to be driven to extinction by pure, unadulterated greed, it truly would be tragic. This book effectively drives that point home.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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