Overview

"While observing a family of elephants in the wild, Caitlin O'Connell noticed a peculiar listening behavior in which 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 path-breaking research into seismic listening and communication, chronicling the extraordinary social lives of elephants over the course of fourteen years in the Namibian wilderness.This 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 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."

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9780226616742

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Reviews

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 flood-plain. - Joan Keener, Entertainment Weekly A successful combination of science and soulfulness.... 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.... 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 Our author sleeps in blinds, pores through elephant dung, darts and collars elephant matriarchs, putz 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... biological discovery is made. - Anthony Doerr, Boston Globe

Author Information

Caitlin O'Connell is 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.

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