Customer Reviews

The Elephant's Secret Sense: The Hidden Life of the Wild Herds of Africa

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The Elephant's Secret Sense is a compelling journey of discovery, told with a clear and intimate voice that is rare in this genre of writing. Dropped into the middle of rural Africa straight out of graduate school, Caitlin O'Connell used her wits and the lessons learned from a tiny Hawaiian insect, to turn a difficult experience of keeping crop raiding elephants out of fields, into the discovery that elephants are communicating with seismic signals.

While this voyage of discovery, with its twists, turns and occasional brush with feisty lions kept me turning the pages, it was the inner layers of the book, about the complex and often difficult relationships between rural communities and elephants that gave the story its soul.

Caitlin O'Connell has spent thirteen long years working with elephants and it shows. Whether she was flying high above the free ranging elephant herds of southern Africa, or teaching a single female zoo elephant to communicate with her, she managed to share the unique sights, sounds and emotions of the moment that make a book like this so memorable.

Caitlin O'Connell finds that difficult balance between the scientific objectivity and compassion that is rare and much appreciated and I would encourage anyone with an interest in natural history and understanding our place in the world of animals to read this book.

I was very impressed with this book. Part of what Caitlin O'Connell experienced for long stretches of time is something the vast majority of us could not imagine. One particular chapter about the elephant Donna was a personal favorite, explaining in detail much of what this groundbreaking scientist (along with her husband Tim Rodwell) had to cope with in working with these gigantic subjects. Another chapter that detailed a African village experience was quite moving, especially as a dramatic event unfolded in a very unfamiliar, Third World setting. A must-read -- there are very few scientific, introspective books that have gone the necessary distance.

I read this whole book from start to finish on a series of flights that I took recently and I was totally taken with the story and the science behind it. I couldn't put it down and I haven't read a book in 10yrs! From a phenomenal underlying technological journey merges the principles of many scientific disciplines ranging from zoology, biology, acoustics, geophysics, chemistry, mechanics, electronics, mathematics, not to mention anthropology.

As a physicist, I loved the explanation of acoustic coupling and aliasing, a very impressive bridge, making connections between fundamental processes that are essential in tying together a very complex phenomenon.

There were tragic elements to the story that were horrific and left me in tears, but at the same time, a remarkable account of caring and human bonding. Congratulations to the author. I can't wait for her next book!

Anyone who is interested in African elephants and their rich and amazing lives will find this an interesting read. Caitlin has added hugely to the body of knowledge about Elephant communication. It is part adventure story, as most intrepid young scientists who venture into Africa for their PHD theses discover. It tells of the beauty and terror and difficulties of this most diverse land and her rich wildlife.

Caitlin's book tells of her discoveries, elephant communication research, years of working with people in the Caprivi region to combat Elephant/Human conflict as well as her memorable times in hides stalked by lion and all the other adventures.

The book is well written for the most part, does lose some momentum toward the end of the book but this would appraer to be editing rather than Caitlin's writing. I thoroughly reccomend it.

This is a frustrating book . . . just good enough to keep reading, but never really satisfying. If it had been a magazine article (say in "The Atlantic") centered firmly on the topic suggested by the book's title -- i.e., the unusual and surprising ability of elephants to sense and communicate via seismic vibrations -- I probably would have thoroughly enjoyed it (especially if it had also received the editing of a good magazine). Instead, the book goes well beyond the subject announced on its cover, so much so that it becomes more like a memoir of the author's 12+ years of research into elephant behavior, especially her 4+ years in the field in Namibia. Thus, the book is by no means limited to how she first formulated and then proved her hypothesis concerning elephants' seismic communication. In addition, we read a great deal about her work with African governments and villagers towards finding non-lethal ways of keeping elephants from destroying gardens and crops, about some quite personal experiences and anecdotes from her life in Africa, and, more generally, about other problems in contemporary Africa such as AIDs, poaching, and the nigh-intractable conflict between conservation and maximum economic return for natives. All of this is interesting; it certainly makes for a more exciting life than I have led over the past 14 years, and to a degree I envy Ms. O'Connell. But even so, I have better uses for my reading time, and in deciding how to allocate my reading time I wish I could rely on how publishers describe their wares. I purchased the book because I was interested in the subject of elephant communication, not because I wanted to read the memoir of a naturalist's career in Africa. To a certain extent, the publisher, Free Press, has engaged in a bait-and-switch.

Is this sloppy inability to limit what is essentially a work of reporting to the subject at hand, instead allowing the writer to wander off into various and sundry other matters that were encountered as a reporter in the field, a by-product of the "New Journalism"? In any event, I have encountered the phenomenon all too frequently in recent years. I might add that the writing is rather ordinary, and the book could have benefited from a stronger editorial hand. That, too, is a phenomenon far too frequently encountered.

This book is filled with vivid characters both animal and human, heart-pounding adventure, and fascinating scientific and political information. Anyone intrigued with animal intelligence and personalities will be rewarded with this and much more. O'Connell recounts amazing adventures in a style that's both lyrically descriptive and gritty in details that bring the reader into the different world of today's Africa. Without an ounce of bragging, she reveals herself and her husband to be courageous, quirky and very smart action heroes that you'd enjoy seeing on the silver screen. Their heartfelt devotion to their quest - and each other - is compelling and very satisfying.

An intricate balance exists between humans and nature that undergirds even the most basic experiences. Ecological researcher, Caitlin O'Connell has spent her professional life exploring the lesser-known aspects of this relationship through her study of elephant behavior in sub-Saharan Africa, shedding light on their value within society and promoting the need for continued conservation and outreach. In THE ELEPHANT'S SECRET SENSE: The Hidden Life of the Wild Herds of Africa , O'Connell uncovers the fascinating and complex communication system of elephants, and conveys the deeper importance of this astounding discovery on modern African society.

This book is a fascinating look into the world of elephants and the scientists who study them. I was humbled by Caitlin O'Connell's courageous, intelligent, and compassionate approach to working with these complex animals and the people who must learn to share the land with them.

In reading the summaries and reviews for this book, I had gotten the sense that it focused on the science of elephant communication. However, it is more the author's personal memoir about her experiences in Namibia than about elephant communication. O'Connell does tell some fascinating tales of escapes from lions and elephant politics. In one incident, a female lion stuck its head into the author's bunker, and I was left reading the book on the edge of my seat (even though I know the author survived). She is also good at interpreting elephant emotions and giving real character to the matriarchs and young bulls in the elephant families. When her research team tried dart one female elephant from a helicopter in order to radio tag her, the elephant's colleagues and babies flapped their ears, tried to use their trunks to swat the helicopter, and even charged the helicopter. These stories are the best part of the book.

I thought O'Connell discussion of the science of elephant communication left much to desired. There was too little of it, and when she does discuss the science it was a bit too quick and without enough explanation. She recounts a few anecdotes about elephants using seismic communication, but never actually gives us an idea of whether these observations were considered statistically significant. At one point, she discusses how she learned about the anti-aliasing effect in geophysics but looking at a computer graphic, but fails to give readers a photograph of that graphic in order to help us understand what she is describing.

If you want a conservation biologist's adventure stories, this book will work well for you. In fact, I think it does a great job explaining the politics and frustrations, but also the joys of the field. However, contrary to the impression I received in reading the Amazon page, this book doesn't deal much with elephant communication.

The Elephants Secret Sense is a facinating look into what this young Dr. took as a hunch and followed it though to a ground breaking discovery. This discovery was so amazing to me. Just when one thinks that we have leanred all we can and all has been discovered. Her is were Dr. O'Connell found their secret sense right under the tips of their toes!!

If more reasearch scientists put this kind of effort into other hunches just imagine what could be discovered.

I look forward to reading and hearing more from this author on future discoveries.


Dr. O'Connell's book has inspired me to explore and not ignore the hunchs we face everyday.