Family Ties
The Elephants of Samburu
By David Quammen
National Geographic Contributing Writer
Photograph by Michael Nichols
National Geographic Photographer
'Of the 900 elephants that pass through Samburu National Reserve, scientists David Daballen and Daniel Lentipo can each recognize about 500 individuals on sight. Having watched births, matings, deaths, and group behavior over time, they also know the family histories.
Daballen can tell you, for instance, that this magnificent female on the south bank of the river, so huge she looks like a bull, is Babylon, matriarch of the Biblical Towns;
that she's nearly 50 years old; and that her breasts are full because that's her young calf standing nearby, along with her older daughter and her granddaughter.
He can point out a youngish female limping piteously on three legs and explain that she's Babel, of the same family, probably crippled when she was mounted too young by a bull; but that the other Biblical Towns, taking their cue from old Babylon, move slowly so that Babel can stay with them.'
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This I found extremely touching.
Did you?
Why don't you go and read it here
And love it.
- E
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