Customer Reviews

The Astonishing Elephant

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The Astonishing Elephant by Shana Alexander is educational, well researched and written, and an absorbing book. If you love animals, though, it is heartbreaking to learn how cruel and unfeeling the human animal can be toward our earthmates--the animals.

The very things that elephants are admired for--their strength, intelligence, sensitivity, the female's maternal instincts and the elephants' propensity to live as families--are the very reasons the abuse of such animals (or any animal) is so horrific.

This book will increase your knowledge of the astonishing elephant, but may break your heart.

Astonishingly good book by a gifted writer. Journalist Shana Alexander recounts her personal experiences with elephants beginning with 'Packy" born at Portland Zoo, and continuing into late 1990's.

She was privileged to meet and work with many well known elephant people like the Douglas-Hamiltons, Moss, Poole, Rasmussen and others and tells of these encounters while describing the work they do and some of the interesting findings they have made.

The book covers some unusual aspects of elephant lore including a history and causes of the demise of male elephants in captivity. Parts of the reporting are gruesome.

In the latter portions she devotes a great deal of material to breeding and artificial insemination efforts, giving details of procedures as she witnessed them.

While keeping her writing at a professional level she lets her love of elephants comes through. Preservation of the species is an underlying theme of this work but it is not an 'in your face' assault on the reader.

I read it slowly over a one month period and my experience was akin to having her come for a chat every other evening and spend an hour or two telling me about elephants and her experiences. A wonderful book.

Our family read this book while on vacation and all of us found it to be not only entertaining, but very educational. Too often the things that go on behind the scenes of the animal and entertainment world are unrevealed. Not only did we open our eyes to many truths, we enjoyed the tale and the journey. If you love elephants this is a must read book. Thank you Ms. Alexander for sharing your experiences and knowledge with all of us!

I found this book comprehensive and informative. It was also enjoyable to read.
The graphic descriptions of killings by elephants and executions of elephants could have been deleted, without compromising the book.