Awards: Scientific book of the year 2024
They are amazingly similar to us and yet so different: elephants, the largest living mammals on earth, fascinate us with their intelligence, their emotions and their caring social life. Their ability to recognise themselves in the mirror, their proverbial elephant memory, their charisma, their individual characters and talents or their interaction with the deceased: We have much more in common with them than the elephant’s physique would suggest.
At the same time, elephants live in a completely different sensory world: with their gigantic trunks, they can not only feel, they also have the best sense of smell of all mammals. The sounds and vibrations they perceive and emit remain largely hidden from us humans.
The internationally renowned elephant researcher Angela Stöger takes us on a journey of discovery into the amazing world of African and Asian elephants and the little-known forest elephants. We get to know Abu and Sabi, Bubbles, Valimosa, the baby elephant Mongu and many other animals – and with them the challenges they have to face: from tender moments with each other to their fights, their lives and their fate. We learn how they communicate, how they think, how they feel.
Thanks to the latest scientific findings, this book also helps us to understand how they perceive the world with their senses. And how we can hopefully use their and our intelligence to ensure their survival.
Brandstätter publishing house
Science book