Rattling the Cage- Steven M. Wise (2001): Explains how the failure to recognize the basic legal rights of chimpanzees and bonobos in light of modern scientific findings creates a glaring contradiction in our law while demonstrating the cognitive, emotional, and social capacities of these apes. Starting with the story of her revolutionary discovery that elephants use infrasonic sounds – sounds below the range of human hearing – to communicate, Payne shares what she learned from her fascinating field research in Africa. Research that reveals new insights into elephants’ social lives. When five of the elephant families she studies are the victims of culling, Payne’s approach to her research changes. She fights valiantly to protect the elephants. The Eye of the Elephantrecounts the Owens’ struggle to save these innocent animals from decimation. A journey not only to supply the natives with ways of supporting their villages. But to cultivate support around the globe for the protection of elephants. The Elephant’s Secret Sense: The Hidden Life of the Wild Herds of Africa- Caitlin O’Connell (2008): Catlin O’Connell’s fascinating story of her unexpected discovery of a previously unknown mode of elephant communication

All that eating means one thing, gang, an awful lot of poo! Each elephant creates about one tonne of poo per week, which keeps the soil fertileand disperses tree seeds. Elephants also digwaterholes and create footpaths, literally changing the landscape around them! To the Elephant Graveyard- Tarquin Hall (2001): A compelling account of the search for a killer elephant in the Northeast corner of India, and a vivid portrait of the tribe who live intimately with the elephants. It examines the elephant suffering taking place due to loss of their natural habitat. Elephants and Ethics: Toward a Morality of Coexistence – Christen Wemmer, Catherine Christen (2008): In Elephants and Ethics, Christen Wemmer and Catherine A. Christen assemble an international cohort of experts to review the history of human/elephant relations, discuss current issues of vital concern to elephant welfare, and assess the prospects for the ethical coexistence of both species.The Ten Trusts; What We Must Do to Care for the Animals We Love.- Jane Goodall, Mark Bekoff (2013): Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff have set forth ten trusts that we must honor as custodians of the planet. They argue passionately and persuasively that if we put these trusts to work in our lives, the earth and all its inhabitants will be able to live together harmoniously. The Ten Trusts expands the concept of our obligation to live in close relationship with animals — for, of course, we humans are part of the animal kingdom — challenging us to respect the interconnection between all living beings as we learn to care about and appreciate all species.

The book is so full of beautiful pictures of Elephants that shows they are full of personality and just how majestic they truly are. I love it and so do my family." Elephant Destiny: Biography of an Endangered Species in Africa – Martin Meredith (2003): Martin Meredith lays out the history of this majestic animal from the Egyptian pharaohs’ first ivory expeditions 2,500 years ago to today, and explores the elephant’s role in literature and popular culture. He shares recent extraordinary discoveries about the elephant’s ability to communicate, its sophisticated family and community structure, and the ways–rare in the animal world–in which elephants show compassion and loyalty to each other. Hannah’s Dream- Diane Hammond (2008): A story about a zoo caregiver and his lone elephant that he tries to give a better life, by sending her to an elephant sanctuary. These magnificent mammals spend between 12 to 18 hourseating grass, plantsand fruitevery single day! They use their long trunks to smell their food and lift it up into their mouth – yum!

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They have partnered with Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) to develop an Elephant Crisis Fund, which has funded 348 projects throughout Africa and Asia. I personally donate time and money to WCN and can attest to both their ethics and their effectiveness.

Topsy – Michael Daly (2014): In 1903, an elephant named Topsy was electrocuted on Coney Island. This book discusses the historical forces that conspired to bring Topsy, Thomas Edison, and those 6,600 volts of alternating current together.

Elephant Dance- Tammie Matson (2009): From the magic of Bushmanland, to the banks of Chobe River in Botswana, to the civil strife of Assam, India, Elephant Dance takes us to the heart of a conservationist’s fight to find a way for elephants to live peacefully in a world with too many people, too few resources and the increasing threat of climate change. Lawrence Anthony devoted his life to animal conservation, protecting the world’s endangered species. Then he was asked to accept a herd of “rogue” wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand. And people often ignore the calves left behind, who must now live out their lives as traumatized and fearful orphans. Wildlife photographer Joachim Schmeisser made it his mission to document the story of these abandoned baby elephants. In Mount Elgon National Park in Kenya, a group of elephants use their tusks to mine for salt in underground caves! They feel their way around with their trunks and eat the salts by breaking them off with their tusks.

And finally, if you are looking for a truly unique gift, consider buying something from Poo Poo Paper. They make surprisingly lovely notebooks, notecards, and craft paper from elephant, cow and donkey poo. Hey…it’s sustainable! More Books Featuring Animals An elephant never forgets, but Lexington Willow can’t remember what happened before a tornado swept her away when she was a toddler. All she knows is that it landed her near an enclosure in a Nebraska zoo. And there an elephant named Nyah protected her from the storm. Elephant Talk: The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication – Ann Downer (2011): (grades 3 and up) This book discusses the complex system of communication elephants use- including sounds humans can hear, nonverbal behaviors too low for human ears and what they mean. It is absurd for a man to kill an elephant. It is not brutal, it is not heroic, and certainly it is not easy; it is just one of those preposterous things that men do like putting a dam across a great river, one tenth of whose volume could engulf the whole of mankind without disturbing the domestic life of a single catfish. If you are a traveler, I would strongly discourage you from participating in tourism that involves washing, walking or riding elephants. Many of these programs have very fraught ethics and it’s difficult to tell the good from the bad.

An Elephant in the Garden – Michael Morpurgo (2013): (Fiction grades 5-9) Lizzie and Karl’s mother is a zoo keeper; the family has become attached to an orphaned elephant named Marlene, who will be destroyed as a precautionary measure so she and the other animals don’t run wild should the zoo be hit by bombs. The family persuades the zoo director to let Marlene stay in their garden instead. Elephants – Rob Laidlaw (2014) : (recommended grades 2-7) 5 Elephants will provide readers with some fascinating elephant facts and figures, as well as introduce some of the serious challenges that wild and captive elephants face. In 5 Elephants, you will read the stories of five famous elephants. I Just wanted to say how lovely your book 'Saving Elephants' is - I really enjoy looking through it".