By David Ellis.
THEY called him the “Elephant Whisperer,” a man who could confront an angry 6-tonne African bush elephant and by standing still and talking softly and calmly, get it to lower an enraged trunk and tusks, calm, and eventually turn and wander back off into the bush…
And more extraordinarily, when Lawrence Anthony, the “Elephant Whisperer,” died at his home deep in the KwaZulu bush in March of 2012, some 31 wild elephants walked from two different reserves over twelve hours away, to stand in mourning for two days outside his home.
They did not eat or drink during that time, and on the third day simply turned and walked off as mysteriously as they had walked in… leaving animal behavioural experts still mystified to this day as to how the beasts on separate reserves so far away would sense the “Elephant Whisperer” was dead, and make their way together to his home.
Lawrence Anthony was born in South Africa, and loving its wildlife bought the Thula Thula Game Reserve in the mid-1990s. It was soon after, that nine wild elephants escaped their enclosure and as they wreaked havoc on farms and in villages, owners demanded their shooting.
But Anthony objected and bravely confronted the matriarch of the herd that he had often “spoken” with as he sought to tame the wild beasts, its 30 followers shuffling agitatedly behind it. He wrote in his book The Elephant Whisperer how he had stood as calmly as possible, saying softly “don’t do it, Nana. This is your home now, please don’t do it, girl, they will kill you if you break out…”
He talked softly, calmly for what seemed hours, and eventually Nana lowered her trunk, relaxed her body muscles and, in Anthony’s own words “turned and melted into the bush,” her herd following loyally behind.
The Elephant Whisperer had been created…
Over 30 elephants walked twelve hours from their reserves to stand outside the home of the “Elephant Whisperer” to mourn his death, not eating or drinking for two days before turning and wandering twelve hours back to their reserves.
