Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family

by Cynthia Moss

Cynthia Moss has studied the elephants in Kenya's Amboseli National Park for over twenty-seven years. Her long-term research has revealed much of what we now know about these complex and intelligent animals. Here she chronicles the lives of the members of the T families led by matriarchs Teresia, Slit Ear, Torn Ear, Tania, and Tuskless. With a new afterword catching up on the families and covering current conservation issues, Moss's story will continue to fascinate animal lovers.

"One is soon swept away by this 'Babar' for adults. By the end, one even begins to feel an aversion for people. One wants to curse human civilization and cry out, 'Now God stand up for the elephants!'"—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

"Moss speaks to the general reader, with charm as well as scientific authority. . . . [An] elegantly written and ingeniously structured account." —Raymond Sokolov, Wall Street Journal

"Moss tells the story in a style so conversational . . . that I felt like a privileged visitor riding beside her in her rickety Land-Rover as she showed me around the park." —Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, New York Times Book Review

"A prose-poem celebrating a species from which we could learn some moral as well as zoological lessons." — Chicago Tribune

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Africa, Nature, Science, Memoir, Natural History

364 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2000

About the author

Cynthia Moss is an American conservationist, wildlife researcher and writer, who specializes in African elephant family structure, life cycle, and behavior. She is director of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in Kenya, where she has studied the same population of elephants for over 40 years, and is Program Director and Trustee for the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE).

Reviews

[Scott Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I can remember elephants have fascinated me. Their sheer size, their flapping ears, the rumbling and trumpeting noises they make, the slow and methodical way they walk and their amazingly beautiful tusks combined to furnish my young mind with the wonders of a world an ocean away.

As I grew older and read more, I began to appreciate elephants for their intelligence, the complexity of their lives and families (immediate and extended) and their ability to endure drought and human cruelty. I made sad comparisons with my own unhappy family and asked myself why humans consider themselves to be superior beings. I saw no empiric evidence for a universally accepted belief. In elephant families I learned of tenderness, trunks that reach out and gently caress a nervous infant and a fierce dedication to defend their families in face of overwhelmingly superior force.

Cynthia Moss' "Elephant Memories" gathers almost two decades' worth of studying the elephants of Amboseli into a very readable, moving, occasionally amusing and not overly wonkish book. "Elephant Memories" is important for breaking decades-old assumptions about elephant behavior and helped to facilitate a much more informed approach to saving the elephant and finding better ways to support efforts that would see Africans living successfully side by side with these amazing non-humans.

The book ends on a promising note that would prove to be misguided. This is so mostly because "Elephant Memories" was completed prior to the greedy initiatives to dismantle or cripple the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1997, which was followed by a massive increase in poaching and the ivory trade.

Since 1997, elephant populations have plummeted across Africa and many populations are no longer feasible in any long-term sense. Moss does make mention of this event in her afterword but she would not have been able to predict the scale of catastrophe that was to follow.

V. S. Pritchett once wrote:

"If the elephant vanished
the loss to human laughter,
wonder and tenderness
would be a calamity."

My fear is that day may be coming soon and childhood wonders and adult respect will be lost upon an extinct species. My heart breaks and my rage boils over at the thought.

[Marcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt like I was in the Land Rover with Cynthia Moss as she described in great detail the behaviors of elephants. In her thirteen years observing elephant behavior, Cynthia watched the younger and older elephants sparring, rolling and bathing in mud. She learned that elephants are quite tactile, touching and leaning against each other. Their greeting ceremonies are elaborate. The grumble, lift and spread and flap their ears, trumpet, scream, spin, urinate and defecate. Greetings among elephants last as long as ten minutes! These greeting ceremonies prove the bonds among the many family members have for one another. When one animal is dying, others in the family try to hold the elephant up, finally burying the dead elephant with branches and earth, leaving her behind only when necessary.

During the drought periods, Cynthia Moss carefully recorded elephant behavior in their relentless pursuit of water and food, watching how the once playful elephants became wary and thin, many losing their ability to feed their young. Half of the baby calves died during Cynthia's watch in 1974.

During better times, when water and grass was plentiful, Cynthia observed the estrous behavior of elephants. The larger bulls are what the female elephants tend to wait for, tending to run away from the younger males. When an older bull has set his smell and eyes on his female, and she has smelled his powerful smell with his secretions from afar, the male mates with her after she runs, and he chases and catches and mounts her, protecting her for 2-3 days until he tires of her and goes back to his "male" family to hang out. The other males know their place until the bull leaves.

The more aggressive females in the family lead the others to food. Their experience show the others how to survive. When a female has been "had" by her male, the others in the family surround the female and grunt and trumpet in celebration of "new life."

The elephants are pretty well protected in the Amboseli park. The Maasai only spear the elephants to show their strength, but otherwise leave them alone, showing animals respect. There are still hunters and poachers who shoot the elephants for their ivory.

Humans are identified by their teeth; Elephants can be identified by their ears, for their ears are distinct with tears and veins.

Cynthia describes watching the elephants as a "soap opera," for every day there are new discoveries in elephant behavior. This was an easy book to read, and VERY informative! I look forward to more reading before my daughter and I go on safari the summer of 2015!

[Maureen Moriarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been to Africa three times and once stayed in an "elle camp" outside of Victoria Falls where I once bathed an elephant which was truly a life highlight. What amazed me about the experience was how the elephant was communicating with me through his eyes and trunk. LOVE elephants and Moss helped me understand them,they have amazing emotional souls. How anyone can kill one is beyond me.

[Christie Bane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting because it’s always interesting to learn about the habits and behaviors of another species, especially one as grand and magnificent as the African elephant. The writing was competent, but not overly engaging. Many parts of this book read more like slightly beefed-up field notes than like a story of elephant life. I found myself reading it more out of a sense of duty (I started it, so I have to finish it) than because I couldn’t wait to get back into it.)

Still, I know a lot more about elephants and about the situation in that particular part of Kenya (Amboselli Park) than I did before reading this book. Not a waste of time, just not the best use of my reading time.

[Ivety · Rating 5 out of 5]

The format of scientific papers has always seemed quite odd to me. Of course it is important to attempt to make your research output as objective as possible and back up your claims quantitatively. However, the most important objective of scientific research is arguably its use in policy, other research and in raising awareness in the general public. For these purposes, I cannot really imagine anything worse than the impersonal, dense style of scientific journals. No one outside of the field will read them, not the general public, not policy makers and perhaps not even other scientists, unless it is crucial for their work.

If we consider the scientist as the source, and the reader of their work as the end point, the worst part is that both the scientist and the reader probably have a lot of passion and interest for this topic of study. The medium of the journal requires the scientist to strip off all that passion, leaving just the skeleton, and the reader is left to fill in for themselves the parts that make the topic interesting, memorable and even comprehensible.

I have read many scientific articles which describe key aspects of the behaviour of elephants in a scientifically rigorous way, but none can give you such a holistic picture of what an elephant's day would look like and what kinds of things constitute realistic elephant behaviour. I, for one, could not put the book down. While I realise that the topic of elephant behaviour is quite niche and not for everyone, I think Moss has successfully managed to convey her passion for these extraordinary animals, without losing her scientific authenticity. For researchers, policy makers, park authorities, conservationists and laypeople, I could not imagine a better or more informative book. Scientific research should take a page out of Elephant Memories.

[Brooke Majkowicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

She did a great job telling the story of both her research and the lives of the elephants. I definitely got invested in the T families and their lives over these 30-odd years!

Also I liked the way she laid out the chapters on different topics - semi-fictionalized intro with the elephants then her research.

[Allisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Elephant Memories," by Cynthia Moss is a very enjoyable read. It started of extremely well, describing the life of these elephants, explaining how they ate, slept, exercised, played, nurtured their young, and how dominance and socialization played out in their groups. Although a good amount of the book was describing the lives of these elephants day by day, a large sum of the book described the lives of elephants in general, like a scientific report. In several of the parts it seemed it was getting a little dry, but as soon as I noticed it, the topic was quickly changed. Thus, the book was able to hold my attention for its entirety. I did observe that some could think of it as dry, and perhaps not enjoy it as much as they thought they could, perhaps looking for just a non-fiction story of sorts. I enjoyed both parts, as the discoveries an scientific passages she wrote helped me understand elephants in general, so much more.

I knew elephants were very complex, smart creatures, but by reading it, it enlivened my memory and made me feel even closer to this wonderful creature. The story of the elephant families carried me through it's up and downs, and it touched me when it explained how each elephant reacted, during play, sleeping, socialization, arguments, domination, foraging for food, births, and deaths. How every member of the family reacted to a baby, carefully guarding and taking care of it. How they buried their loved ones, guarded over their bodies, and how they sometimes frantically trying to raise them back up to stand.

There were two most touching moments for me. When one of the old matriarchs died towards the end, after she had led her family for so many years, she had not been with them during her last moments. And then another, which touched me even more, when Cynthia described how she collected an old matriarch's lower jaw for scientific purposes, and then witnessed a surprising scene. The matriarch's family had passed by the camp, and they stopped when they smelled the lower jaw. They investigated it, but one of the calves took the most interest. It was the deceased matriarch's son. He fondled the lower jaw, observing and touching it with his trunk. Cynthia described how she believed the calf knew it had been his mother.

In all, this book should be a very interesting, touching story that is both truthful and informative.

[Debbie Ethell · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who has ever wondered about the magic and mystery of elephants this book will definitely whet your appetite. Cynthia's stories about Echo and the wild elephants she follows in Amboseli in Kenya broke my heart, made me scream with joy, and above all opened my eyes to these unbelievable creatures in ways I never thought possible.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I learned a lot about elephants from this book. It's written by Cynthia Moss, who spent 13 years living alongside several families of wild african elephants. I was drawn to it because elephants are very intelligent creatures with complex social lives, but are unlike primates in some ways. When I read about chimpanzee behavior it never seems like there's much difference between them and us, other than the amount of time we spend rationalizing what we do.

I enjoyed this book a lot, it was informative without feeling cold and scientific. The author gets the necessary bits of biology in but the focus always remains on the living elephants and their story. Even though the protagonists aren't human, and in some ways differ from us(i'd say their male/female relationships are unlike ours, but that depends on who you are), their intelligence, playfulness, and outpouring of emotion is easy to relate to.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cynthia Moss tells us about 13 years living among and studying the elephants in Amboseli National Park in Kenya in the 1970s and 1980s. (After I finished reading this book I looked her up on the Internet and she's still there, still on the job.) A lot of interesting stuff about elephants and their habits, their society, and their life cycle. The book sometimes seems like it's about to get rather dry, but it never quite does. I found myself enjoying the book more and more as I get deeper into it. Not only was it interesting to learn about the elephants, but also about what's involved in researching animals in the wild. And, if such things interest you, the opening of the fourth chapter, the one on mating, was the most pornographic thing I've ever read about elephants.

This was the eleventh of nineteen consecutive books that I plan to read about Africa.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cynthia Moss uses her years of observation and data on the Amboseli elephants, especially one particular family, to describe elephant behavior such a migration, mating, birth, and social interaction. There is an incredible amount of information packed into this book, including whole lineages of elephant families spanning decades. I suppose it could get tedious for some, but I think it was beautifully done. Cynthia Moss comes across as an almost ideal wildlife researcher; she's capable of objective observation and systematic research, and she discusses difficult topics like conflicts between humans and elephants, the ivory trade, and culling in a very rational way that considers all viewpoints and possible solutions. She does not romanticize or anthropomorphize elephants. But she is also recognizes them as unique individuals and is unashamed of her love for them.

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Moss spent 13 years in Amboseli National Park, following elephants and observing their interactions, their behaviors, how they handle everything from birth to death. What happens during a drought?

Rather than a dry scientific paper, this is told with the emotion of a novel and you come to love her "friends," Slit Ear, Teresia, Tuskless and the whole crew. She suffered through the inevitable deaths and gave us a peek at the joyful births. At the end, you feel you really have a feeling for the lives of these magnificent creatures. There is quite a bit about ivory poaching, but since the book ends in 1986, with a postscript written in 1999 and much has been doing to try to eradicate poaching, that information is not really informative, other than historically. For anyone who loves elephants, I highly recommend this readable, fun, informative book.

[Bob Stocker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elephant Memories by Cynthia Moss describes her observation of wild elephants in Kenya's Ambroseli National Park between 1973 and 1986. Moss strikes a good balance of semi-fictional (but qualitatively accurate) narratives about elephant behavior, discussion of her scientific observations, and descriptions of her personal life while living at a camp in the park.

Elephants are fascinating creatures. Moss's observations of courtship, birth, death, communication, and social structure kept my interest to the end. The book's only shortcoming is that it was written nearly three decades ago. Moss's descriptions about how elephants are holding up under increasing human encroachment are now almost certainly out of date.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most excellent book that tells the story of elephant life in Kenya's Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Moss is the head of the long term study called "The Elephant Project". It is amazing that her name isn't common knowledge like Jane Goodall. A wonderful, enlightening book told in a way that presents the case for the Africian elephant in the best of ways.

[Linda Prieskorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would not reccomend that anyone pick up this book for pleasure reading. It is an interesting scientific study of the elephants of Amboseli National Park in Kenya. It does have interesting narratives about the life of an elephant - I did a lot of skipping around

[Nithya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elephants are more than just cute. The author has written this so well, covering all aspects of their life, conveying emotions of these elephants and the most important, the human-elephant conflicts that exists to the day. Her work and commitment is just brilliant!

[Siobhan O'Laoghaire-Sannes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hover between 2 and 3 stars for this book. I really wanted to read this book since I was familiar with her and her work. But frankly this book was dry dry dry and I abandoned it halfway through.

[Terri ducay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to learn about elephants and their behavior. Highly recommend.

[Isabella Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I was a little kid I remember being intrigued by the size and huge flapping ears of elephants, although the noise they make used to scare me, the appearance of elephants has always drawn me in. The title and cover image immediately drew me to this book ¨Elephant Memories¨ written by Cynthia Moss is a book that sparked my curiosity about elephants before I even began the read itself. I originally chose this book for the title page. The title made me excited to read it, and curious about what the book would entail in general. I never expected this book to be as heartfelt as it was, I was expecting a more general book on elephants, maybe a memoir of a conservationist or their impacts on human history, however this book went above and beyond my expectations.
One of my favorite things about this book (and I have many) was that chapters were organized by the year, to make everything super easy to understand. From chapter to chapter this book follows one extended family of elephants and begins each chapter with a narrative that introduces a phase of their lives to the readers. A few of the bigger topics include: mating, migration, social behaviors, births, calves and how they relate to elephant histories. This is the first book I've ever read about an animal where the entire book is about that animal, from their lives to their personalities, all the way to their struggles.
This biography takes place over the span of thirteen years in Kenya´s Amboseli National Park. From 1973 until 1986, Moss dedicated her life towards showing the world the real side of elephants in a way that showed us their own form of a community. Before reading this book I knew that elephants were extremely intelligent and communicated with others, but I wasn't expecting to learn this much about the lives of individual elephants. I personally really enjoyed the fact that even after reading this book that Moss was there for, we still don't know everything about her. She really focused on the lives of the elephant families and told them to us instead of making it about her.
There were of course like with everything else some boring times, like talking about their grazing patterns, or her extremely long descriptions of things, or her charts. These things are all still cool to see and read, however they aren't something I really care about because I'm not a specialist on the topic. Although I do really appreciate that she never dumbed anything down, but instead tried really hard to help the readers thoroughly understand these animals on a deeper level.
Overall, I would give this book a four out of five star rating because of the detail and work she included in this book, she went as far as to add a map and family tree in the beginning of the book which I feel like that made it much more interesting and easy to follow because it had that included. The only reason I deducted that one point was because it was a pretty slow beginning, and definitely still included some slow chunks of information.

[The Curious Spoonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

To put it bluntly, I like animals. And I am fascinated by animal behavior. So, you would think that I enjoy reading books about animals and their behavior. But usually I do not. The explanation for this is that I have found most books written for the mainstream public about animals are either a) so romanticized that they are full of emotional descriptions of nature with very little science or b) so full of science that they read like a research paper and quickly start putting me to sleep or c) are billed as animal focused but really just go on and on about the egos of the humans involved when what I really want is to read about the animals.

It is rare that I find an “animal book” that doesn’t immediately fall into one of the three pitfalls mentioned above and Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years In the Life of an Elephant Family is one of those rare books.

And who better to write about the lives of elephants than someone who has dedicated her career to their study? So many of the things we now know to be true about elephant families and behavior come from the author’s extensive work.

Cynthia Moss is a zoologist and she writes like one. These pages aren’t filled with elegant prose or picturesque descriptions. But what they are full of is completely accessible and honest writing. She has found a way to present the gist of her studies in a form that the average reader can understand without leaving out the experience of day to day interactions that makes them so interesting. She conveys her love for these animals with such open and honest descriptions that you can truly begin to understand why they hold such an important place in her life.

What I enjoyed most about Moss’s writing, however, was how it left me feeling like I actually had some idea of what it really must be like to be an African elephant. Beyond just the typical facts I might find on an episode of PBS’s Nature, her descriptions of how elephants interact, where they choose to wander, and who they choose to interact with turn each elephant into its own, individual being. So much so, that when she reveals the death of a matriarch or the birth of a new calf you feel like you can begin to understand, not just what these events mean to her, but to each member of the elephant’s family unit.

The only real drawback of the book is that so many years have passed since its publication. There is an updated epilogue, but even that was added in 1999 so additional reading is necessary to discover the current state of the elephants of Amboseli. I would also recommend keeping the family trees and map included at the front of the book on hand while you read to help keep the multiple elephant names and places straight. And when you are done reading don’t neglect to visit the Amboseli Trust’s website and see how Cynthia’s work and the lives of these elephant families continue on today.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This recounts the first 14 years of the author's study of the elephants in Amboseli National Park in Kenya. She learned to identify the elephants, giving them names, and classifying them in families. The study is unique because of it following a single population for an extended period of time. Each chapter starts with a semi-fictionalzed account of the actions of a group of the elephants, followed by a discussion of the focus of that account: migration, daily life, social relationships, mating to name a few. This edition ends with an afterward written thirteen years later with information on what has happened with the population since the book was first published.
I enjoyed this and enjoyed following the various elephant families that she focuses on the most. Some of the analysis got a bit tedious and scientific but not overly so. As with other books of this sort that I've read, there always seems to be a chapter on conservation and the effects of poaching and culling. The final chapter is an extended discussion on the various threats to the population and the pros and cons of each approach. I could have done without the soapbox. I'm not saying the elephants should be destroyed. I just don't wish to read long, emotional cries for their preservation.

[Daphne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! Cynthia Moss gave such great descriptions of her elephants and their behaviors, and it was so heartwarming to read about elephants playing and elephants giving birth! The pictures are so cute too; I wish I can be there to actually meet the elephants and observe them! She also talks about her life as an elephant researcher and her relationship with the other researchers and the nearby Maasai tribe, as well as how the ecosystem changed over the years and how the elephants have adapted to the cycles of drought and good rains. This personal reflection made me realize that there are many challenges that come with studying elephants, and elephants that steal food from the kitchens is a big one! This book came with many scenes that made me laugh, and it was overall pretty light-hearted despite the serious topic of elephant social and family life. I am really glad to have chosen this book for my English class independent reading book and definitely am now a bit more knowledgeable about my favorite animal.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating Long Term study of the Amboseli Elephants

When we went on our African Safari in Amboseli, I was so impressed by the large families of elephants , how they moved through the park, and how they gathered around to protected their young calves. I heard about the work of Cynthia Moss at that time, and vowed to learn more about her work studying the elephants in the park. She learned to recognize them immediately by their patterns, and she censused all of the ~600 elephants. She learned about the family organization, with the elder female as the leader. It was really interesting to read about their breeding patterns, and the fact that the females do not come into estrus during times of drought and malnutrition. This book was published in 1988, and I know her work continued thereafter, so I’m interested in learning more about these wonderful creatures.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elephant Memories isn't a smoothly written non-fiction novel nor a memoir, but rather a quasi-research report modified for the general public. Each chapter describes an aspect of elephant life, and then provides insight into the research work behind it. The author, Cynthia Moss--who according to "Beyond Words" by Carl Safina (2015)--was still working in the Amboseli at age 70, is an incredible source of information on elephants, and also someone with deep compassion for these incredible animals. The book contains an updated afterward, but Moss's other work in documentaries no doubt have provided better updates to this book. But it is well worth reading for understanding the ways elephants live and communicate.

[EstelleLiterature · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book on elephants I've read. I've never traveled to Africa, but I've traveled many times to India, a country that venerates elephants and exploits them for painful rides. Yet these animals stay faithful to their mahouts, the men that sell these elephants' services to tourists for living. One chapter in this book portrays the death of a female elephant, how she remembers her heathy days, her liberty, and her roaming in the wild nature. I couldn't stop crying; I had to put this book aside and then return to it at a later time. When you spend thirteen years with an elephant family, you become part of it for sure, but while reading Moss's poignant narrative, I also felt growing as a part of this elephant family.

[Vaidya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book! One of my fav reads this year along with Elephant Days And Nights: Ten Years With The Indian Elephant.

Tracks a family of elephants over 13 years over drought and rains, over births and deaths. It was magical reading about the family and their joys and travails. Such beautiful creatures! And towards the end, the author also has one chapter on the challenges faced by them in the form of poaching for ivory, and talks of culling to protect trees.

[Wendy Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be prepared to weep if you care at all about these magnificent animals who share our planet. Moss gets us right into the heart of the elephant communities she lived among for well over a decade. It's a wonder she's retained her sanity after witnessing the tragedies (mainly human-inflicted) these families suffer at times. I thank her for spreading the word about the tenuous existence of the African elephant, caught between modern development, civil wars, drought, the horrific and heartless ivory trade and the steady shrinking of the environment they depend upon to live their lives. There are really way too many of us humans around....

[jeanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elephants are amazing

It is really interesting to read the stories of scientists and researchers who spend much of their life out in the field. Such adventures!
After reading this book, I want to seek out videos to see the elephants of Amboseli. I never knew that elephants had such complex extended social networks. They are just fascinating. But now on top of everything else going on in the world, I am also feeling despondent about climate change and human encroachment on elephant territory.

[Steve Mayberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moss not only makes over a decade of research observations interesting, she fictionalizes entirely plausible backstories to round out the herds' experiences that were not witnessed firsthand. Her prose is at times literary (from the description of a parade of elephants on P1: "... the quiet sluff, sluff of their feet kicked up the fine alkaline dust and their outlines became hazy"). Definitely worth reading if you're interested about large mammal research and conservation, or want to be