Elephant Don: The Politics of a Pachyderm Posse

by Caitlin O'Connell

Meet Greg. He’s a stocky guy with an outsized swagger. He’s been the intimidating yet sociable don of his posse of friends—including Abe, Keith, Mike, Kevin, Torn Trunk, and Willie. But one arid summer the tide begins to shift and the third-ranking Kevin starts to get ambitious, seeking a higher position within this social club. But this is no ordinary tale of gangland betrayal—Greg and his entourage are bull elephants in Etosha National Park, Namibia, where, for the last twenty-three years, Caitlin O’Connell has been a keen observer of their complicated friendships. In Elephant Don, O’Connell, one of the leading experts on elephant communication and social behavior, offers a rare inside look at the social world of African male elephants. Elephant Don tracks Greg and his group of bulls as O’Connell tries to understand the vicissitudes of male friendship, power struggles, and play. A frequently heart-wrenching portrayal of commitment, loyalty, and affection between individuals yearning for companionship, it vividly captures an incredible repertoire of elephant behavior and communication.  Greg, O’Connell shows, is sometimes a tyrant and other times a benevolent dictator as he attempts to hold onto his position at the top. Though Elephant Don is Greg’s story, it is also the story of O’Connell and the challenges and triumphs of field research in environs more hospitable to lions and snakes than scientists. Readers will be drawn into dramatic tales of an elephant society at once exotic and surprisingly familiar, as O’Connell’s decades of close research reveal extraordinary discoveries about a male society not wholly unlike our own. Surely we’ve all known a Greg or two, and through this book we may come to know them in a whole new light.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, Science, Wildlife, Africa, Biology

273 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2015

About the author

Dr. Caitlin O'Connell is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and a world renowned expert on elephants and vibrotactile sensitivity. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed nonfiction science memoir, The Elephant's Secret Sense (2007, Simon & Schuster--Free Press), which highlights a novel form of elephant communication as well as their conservation plight. Her narrative nonfiction photo book An Elephant's Life (2011, Lyons Press) uses a graphic novel approach to revealing subtle and intimate aspects of elephant society. Her co-authored nonfiction children's book, The Elephant Scientist (2011, Houghton Mifflin Children's Books) won five awards, including the Robert F. Sibert Honor and Horn Book Honor for 2012. A Baby Elephant In The Wild (2014, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers) was a Junior Library Guild Select and winner of the 2015 NSTA award for Outstanding Science Trade Book for students K-12. Her second science memoir, Elephant Don: The Politics Of A Pachyderm Posse (University of Chicago Press) came out in 2015. Her debut novel, Ivory Ghosts, also came out in 2015 with Alibi, an ebook imprint of Random House. The sequel to Ivory Ghosts, White Gold, came out in February, 2017 and the first issue of the comic came out in May, 2018. Bridge to the Wild was published in August, 2016 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers. In her latest nonfiction book, Wild Rituals, 2020, O'Connell highlights the importance of ritual to all social animals including ourselves. O'Connell is the co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization, Utopia Scientific (www.utopiascientific.org), dedicated to research and science education. She is also co-director of Triple Helix Productions, with a mandate to develop more accurate and entertaining science content for the media. She has taught Science Writing for Stanford University and The New York Times Knowledge Network.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Proof that an incredibly fascinating subject can be made dull with flat writing. I wanted this to be so much more - especially with a tagline like "Politics of a Pachyderm Posse"!

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so close to perfect that I could not fail to give it 5 stars. The section on the cognitive studies of other species as they related to elephants was probably a 4 star or 4.5- but that did not deter my enjoyment. That small section might not entrance readers who find reading scientific description of trial premise, method and result, NOT as enjoyable as I do.

But in the field work! Detail by detail description is at least 80% of the book, and that is stellar survey. Stellar too as the orange glow of sunset at the water hole with the birds and other animals being scattered by our huge fellows coming to Mushara in "society". Over years of field work (she mentions 17th at one point)we follow Greg and his posse as the focal crux. But they are just the Biggest Boys Club, there is SO much more in the telling. The author and small crew live each field season in a towered to 3 level contraption of posts and cloth surrounded by thinly rolled electrical fencing. Lion, hyena stories of splendor, as well. But the A team movers and shakers Big Boys are the 30-50 or more named and identified gray mountains. Females and the matriarchal groups not being ignored, the studies she and her crew accomplish are yet cored with recording Testosterone levels and dominance language movements/patterns. But that is merely the broader description of the activities for purpose.

Highly, highly rec this one. Even if you don't want to know the steps in taking dung pile samples or the chemistry involved for DNA relationship by genes status or cortisol levels. Nor want to contemplate urine sheath dribbling or temporal gland musth tosses or penis signaling- there is still some enthralling information and description here.

Overwhelming all that good stuff, she has the most articulate sense of humor and intuitive abilities! Her naming all these giants and why- that fact and nuance is worth the reading by itself. Greg, Tom Trunk, Mike, Willie Nelson, Ozzie Osborn, Beckham, Conga, Tim, Abe, Captain Picard, Malfoy, Frankie, Prince Charles, Kevin and numerous others. And what happens in the dry years, as opposed to the wet years? And what is all that putting my trunk in your mouth truly about? Is it just like a handshake? And is there really MORE politics than there is with dolphins or primates? And what happens to you if you ignore the Don or step to the head of the water hole before he's vacated the spot? Are musth states related to mating patterns or dominance? What brings them on? What suppresses them? When a 9 year old who is less than 1/2 the size goes Rambo, what do the big boys do?

I just didn't want to see this book end. There's more anticipation in reading if Smokey will show back up after 3 or 4 years (from a distant territory yet) than in the highest level intense fiction read. These guys and their mentors, let alone those who study them- ride roller coasters of emotion, and not always having to do with musth either- to witness it, stunning! And that's way beyond the day the lion comes in under the fence. Or the night when 9 or 10 female hyena decide to give a male hyena what for next to the electrical circuit.

Come to Etosha National, Nambia to the Mushara water hole for some spectacular tales of the largest henchmen in societal court.

I'll go back and read her earlier "The Elephant's Super Sense" for sure. And I won't have to eat squash in 1000 recipes or canned curry or beans at each meal to do so, either.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A high two stars, or low three stars, at your discretion.

Felt a bit like i'd wandered an informal science talk, one that had begun half an hour ago, with a speaker who clearly knew her stuff but occasionally digressed into personal anecdotes or brief explanations of scientific terms or study tendencies. The eponymous "elephant don" does get the elephant's share of the book, but it didn't feel like the intent of this book was to inform the reader about elephant social dynamics.

To be fair, the author is writing about a topic not yet fully explored, and real life rarely if ever falls along the lines of a traditional narrative -- so much less so when we're talking about wild animals in their native environment. But it still felt a little disorganized, repetitive in places, and not nearly as informative as i would have liked.

[Daphne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although a bit slow-paced, I really like the observations and descriptions of the behaviors of musth elephants. This books gives insight into the behavior of bull elephants and brings readers away from the stereotypical ideas of solitary bulls and matriarchal females. I especially love the character of Greg; he is such a memorable character, both as a leader and as an elephant.

[Bari Boswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating observations of elephant Society.

A wonderful, insightful look at elephant society. Maybe elephant don, Greg, was the Winston Churchill of the Estonia Park, Mushara watering hole boys club. The kind of brilliant leader that comes around once a century.

[saradevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining in a Jane Goodall sense.

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jo-jean Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly interesting book with well documented details of elephant behavior. I knew elephants were intelligent but had no idea of their interactions!

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following her work recorded in The Elephant’s Secret Sense, O’Connell continued to study the elephants in Etosha National Park in Namibia. This recounts her work from 2005-2013 studying the bull elephants and the dynamics of how they interact and the hierarchy of the group. I enjoyed the sections of her observations and thrill of seeing the same elephants from one year to the next. The sections that were an analysis of her findings, or making correlations with other animals, were tedious. But overall I enjoyed it and found myself wondering at the end what happened in subsequent years with these animals.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed this book I couldn't shake the feeling that each chapter joined in on a conversation already in progress. It's clear that the author has a wealth of knowledge and understanding of elephant behaviour and social groups, of which I became very intrigued by, however it was her writing style that I think made me enjoy this book less then I hoped. Each chapter were taken from her field notes (I presume) and seemed choppy and disjointed. I would have loved an introduction at the beginning of the book explaining her background and previous insights to pachyderm culture.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am happy to report that this is the book I was hoping it would be. O'Connell keeps the focus of the book off the researchers and on the wildlife--especially the incredible African elephant herd they're observing.

Reading a book like this, in which the personalities, intelligence, and motivations of these complex animals are on full display, it boggles the mind that so many people still believe all nonhuman beings are mindless automata.

[Kyleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is scholarly information in a format readable for the layperson, but not necessarily for the reader with a casual interest in elephants. I realize I'm really not the target audience for this but I still found it interesting. For me, reading about field work can feel repetitive even if the researcher is able to prove theories through that repetitiveness!

[Sherri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was interesting. i didnt have time to readall of it though.

[Kim Stallwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially a series of anecdotal accounts from observing male African elephants in the wild.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit repetitive. Some good parts.