Elefanten: Das Leben der Riesen zwischen Geburt, Familie und Tod

by Hannah Mumby, Heide Lutosch (Translator)

Wie viel haben wir mit Elefanten gemein? Eine junge Wissenschaftlerin gibt – auf den Spuren einer verborgenen Welt – berührende Einblicke in die Psyche der Elefanten.Was ist ein Elefant? Ein Säugetier, ein religiöses Symbol, eine Jagdbeute und Quelle von Elfenbein? Die Lieblingsfigur aus einem Kinderbuch, das Aushängeschild für modernen Naturschutz, eine Touristenfalle oder ein Statussymbol? Zu bestimmten Zeiten ist er all das auf einmal gewesen, und die Vielfalt der Bilder zeugt von der komplexen Geschichte, die uns mit den grauen Riesen verbindet. Klug, voll Witz und Selbstironie verknüpft die Verhaltensbiologin Hannah Mumby ihre ausgezeichnete Forschung mit persönlichen Erlebnissen in Kenia, Südafrika, Nepal und Myanmar. Ihr Buch eröffnet einen einzigartigen Einblick in das Leben und Sterben der Elefanten – und in ihre oft verborgene Welt.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Animals, Science, Audiobook, Memoir, Biology

381 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 12, 2020

About the author

Dr Hannah Mumby is a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist. She is currently Branco Weiss – Society in Science Fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Drapers’ Company Research Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge and College for Life Sciences Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin. She leads a research group named the Bull Elephant Network Project and conducts fieldwork with Elephants Alive in the Greater Kruger Biosphere in South Africa and Mozambique.

Reviews

[Fern A · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, gave up half way through. I really like elephants and was excited to read this. Unfortunately I found the writing style really didn’t work for me. Rather than being a book largely about elephants, as I had expected, it turned out to be a book about a woman (who stated at the beginning that she herself was an elephant before also comparing herself to various other animals), who studied elephants. A lot of it was spent pointing out how hard she had worked and the obstacles (first person in her family to go to university, vomiting before interviews, not feeling she was competitive enough etc) but then got it all anyway. It was sort of a waffling humble brag for a few hundred pages. I kind of just wanted to read about elephants and science (there really wasn’t much science). However that being said other readers shouldn’t be put off, if I had expected to read a memoir rather than a book about elephants, I might have felt differently.

[bird · Rating 1 out of 5]

not enough elephants

[Beverly Hallfrisch · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an okay memoir about the author. I was expecting more elephant science and was disappointed of the lack within.
Some of the author's memories did nothing to connect the reader to elephants. I was completely ambivalent to stories about moving to Colorado
, etc.

[By Book and Bone (Sally) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm delighted that my local library has a copy of this audiobook. Hannah Mumby's memoir has just enough of herself, the elephants she was lucky enough to study and the science behind it all.
I love that she mentioned studies by other people and their relevance as well as the struggles she had nailing down what she was studying.
She compares elephant lives to our own without trying to pin them into an anthro-box. I learned about elephant societies and how they intertwine with ours in different ways across different countries.
I like how Mumby doesn't shy away from the less flattering parts of data collection, conservation or even her own discomfort with it.

A fantastic, very personal scientific memoir.

[Gemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incredibly interesting read, and I certaiy learnt a lot from it.

It did start to feel a bit like a scientific study in places and it was quite technical at times too. The information on Individual elephants was getting less personal towards the end aswell

[Chantal Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a lot of popular science books about elephants on the shelves, and I've read a fair few of them. I'm glad to say that Hannah Mumby's book felt new and fresh.

Don't go into this book expecting a camera lens view that stays fixed entirely on the elephants. Instead, the author weaves together different strands - the start and the development of her scientific career; encounters with individual elephants; her findings, and the findings of other scientists; the tradition of timber elephants in South East Asia; the potentially life-limiting disease she was diagnosed with in her twenties; elephant-human conflict in Africa and Asia; and musings on what it means to be a scientist, or to be objective, or to find a balance by not anthropomorphising elephants, while not denying their undeniable sentience and emotional lives.

One thing I really loved, apart from the individual elephants and anecdotes, was reading about the process of the science. It was a fascinating insight. Add to that the author's honest and eloquent writing style (plain, in a good way), and you have a book that is very easy to read, and a joy to read too.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up after attending a seminar given by Hannah that reviewed her work to date and I was intriqued to learn more. This book does that to a certain extent, although it does also inlcude a good amount of biographical text and personal insights, which I hadn't expected but did enjoy. I would've liked a bit more focus on the research that she did and its outcomes but then again it was interesting to hear how her career developed and how it changed over time as she learned more about these amazing animals.

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

No one can accuse Hannah Mumby of being dispassionate about her work. She is a champion of elephants and has devoted years of studying their habitats, behavior, and intelligence. I was amazed at how smart these giants really are, illustrated by their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror, an ability most animals don't possess. They are herd animals, but they have a sense of community that is much more akin to human beings than cattle. And yes, they do have amazing memories too.

One of the key takeaways from this book is how endangered elephants are. I noticed a similarity with their vulnerability and that of the giants who swim the oceans, the whales. Because they need so many resources to maintain their size and weight, large animals are easily threatened by even the slightest disruption to their habitats. It's no surprise that human beings are their worst enemy, especially considering how we have made the planet so anthropocentric. As we span the globe, we leave very little room for wildlife, and the bigger they are, the greater our negative impact.

I would have preferred a little less methodology and a bit more "cool stuff most of us don't know" about elephants, but Ms. Mumby is first and foremost a scientist -- and a devoted one. She has an almost humorous fascination with dung and spends a lot of time talking about it, describing it, explaining its importance in research, and looking for it (sometimes going straight to the source with a gloved hand right up the elephant's exit ramp). The poor woman apparently also has a weak stomach, causing her to vomit frequently, which must have been exacerbated by some of her fieldwork. Surprisingly, elephant poop didn't cause her to retch, unless it was infested with worms. Obviously, some parts of this book are not going to be enjoyed by most of us lay people; however, it is thoroughly researched and incredibly informative.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, I think it's even harder to see yourself in another human being than in an elephant. Because that human can be so different to me: their life, their experience, their language, their perspective. People can make choices I don't like, and maybe we even have different ideas about what can be chosen in life. But if you care about elephants, I would say, please, see other people.

This book is not solely about elephants, but also weaves in Mumby's own story of researching elephants and spending time with these magnificent creatures. In some way, it straddles memoir and true non-fiction, and because of that, I wasn't a huge fan. The writing dragged in places and I found myself struggling to stay awake. Even though I love elephants and was eager to learn more about them, I'm not sure how much more I got from this book. Though getting the book for the pictures alone was definitely worth it! Elephants mean so much to this world and I'm so glad we have dedicated scientists like Mumby to research and learn more.

[KATHRYN L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely write reviews, but this book (I listened to the audiobook) spoke to me. It is beautifully written and explores both what it it is to be an elephant, while also looking at what it is to be human. How our two species interact and are, on a multitude of levels, similar. There was a serenity it listening to the narrator and the author did a wonderful job painting vivid pictures of places and the individuals, both human and animal. This book portrays both the joys, sorrows and challenges of what it is to be an elephant in a human world.

[Nick Fanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially liked learning about the elephants that help with logging!

[mrs ss pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book based on true events. I love elephants and really enjoyed this non fiction book. Following a scientists journey through researching elephants in Asia and Africa looking at male relationships and female groups. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the life of elephants .

[Chantal Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a lot of popular science books about elephants on the shelves, and I've read a fair few of them. I'm glad to say that Hannah Mumby's book felt new and fresh.

Don't go into this book expecting a camera lens view that stays fixed entirely on the elephants. Instead, the author weaves together different strands - the start and the development of her scientific career; encounters with individual elephants; her findings, and the findings of other scientists; the tradition of timber elephants in South East Asia; the potentially life-limiting disease she was diagnosed with in her twenties; elephant-human conflict in Africa and Asia; and musings on what it means to be a scientist, or to be objective, or to find a balance by not anthropomorphising elephants, while not denying their undeniable sentience and emotional lives.

One thing I really loved, apart from the individual elephants and anecdotes, was reading about the process of the science. It was a fascinating insight. Add to that the author's honest and eloquent writing style (plain, in a good way), and you have a book that is very easy to read, and a joy to read too.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I enjoyed reading the author's description of her experience, and how humans intertwined with elephants, I was disappointed that there was not a lot of detail about elephants. I was expecting this book to focus on a herd or more, and the author would write her observations. The author would detail an elephant, and than go on a tangent. Although I recognize how the author organized the book (herd behavior, self-recognition, etc), I was hoping there would be more elephants. The people involved seemed to get more attention, and I was hoping this would be a narrative about wild elephants.

[Danielle Mccoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely account of studying elephants. It made Miramar sound so amazing. The differences in African and Asian elephants are not things I normally think about but this book brought it to life. Hannah has an interesting and funny view of the world and I greatly enjoyed seeing the elephants though her eyes even the hard deaths and pouching truths.

[Amy L. Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not gonna lie, the "I'm an elephant" thing was distracting for me.

Two stars and a waffle.

[Audiobook Accomplice (Gillian) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unwieldy wordsmithing, a LOT of time hopping, odd segues, leave this a very near miss
My Full Review →

[Daniela Anders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mehr wissenschaftliche Abhandlung als Erfahrungsbericht über das Leben der faszinierenden Riesen

Hannah Mumby schreibt über ihre Forschungsreisen in die verschiedenen Regionen der „Elefantenwelt“, berichtet über Elefantenpenisse, mit denen die Riesen sich auch mal am Bauch kratzen, über den bakteriellen oder wurmbesiedelten Kothaufen, über Größe, Gewicht, Wachstum und körperliche Besonderheiten der Riesen und über Wilderei. Sie führt Versuchsreihen an, schreibt über Wissenschaftskollegen und Kongresse und bringt auch ihr Privatleben mit ein.

Hannah Mumby ist Wissenschaftlerin (Verhaltensbiologin) – und so ist auch ihr Buch. Es quillt über vor eher trockenen Themen wie die Vermessung von Elefanten, die Beschaffenheit des Kots und über durchgeführte Forschungsarbeiten wie das Sichten von jahrealten Aufzeichnungen bisheriger Elefantenbeobachter. Zum Glück ist immer wieder eine gehörige Portion Humor eingestreut, sonst wäre es eine sehr dröge Angelegenheit gewesen.

Für meinen Geschmack war jedoch diese Theorie, das Wissenschaftliche, wenn auch interessant, doch zu viel des Guten. Der Untertitel „Das Leben der Riesen zwischen Geburt, Familie und Tod“ hat mich ein anderes Buch erwarten lassen. Ich hätte gerne mehr über das Zusammenleben der Elefanten erfahren, über die Interaktionen untereinander, über das Leben und Sterben in einer Elefantenfamilie. Gefreut hätten mich persönliche Erfahrungsberichte, gerne auch zu Einzelfällen und das meinetwegen auch mit wissenschaftlichen Thesen unterstützt. Doch davon gab es sehr wenig. Auch haben mich die vielen Erwähnungen von Forscherkollegen und Kongressen eher gestört – hier sollte es um die Tiere gehen, nicht um die Menschen. Streckenweise fand ich den Lesefluss auch eher nicht so gegeben, da die Autorin immer mal wieder Sprünge macht, die für mich nicht schlüssig waren und die mehr abgelenkt haben als dass sie sinnvoll waren.

Es gibt 11 Kapitel, die letzten beiden beziehen sich auf den Artenschutz – wobei mir dieser irgendwie nicht befriedigend genug behandelt wurde. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass ich mir immer wieder dachte, das Geld der vielen hier erwähnten fremdfinanzierten Forschungsreisen wäre zum Schutz der grauen Riesen besser angelegt gewesen (es gibt ja viele Organisationen vor Ort, die sich einsetzen und großartige Arbeit leisten, die direkt den Elefanten zugutekommt). Zumal bei den Forschungen eigentlich nichts herauskam, was zum Überleben der bedrohten Elefanten beigetragen hätte. Die enthaltenen 27 Farbfotos gefallen mir gut.

Fazit: für Wissenschaftsbegeisterte sicher ein Leckerbissen, für Elefantenliebhaber, die mehr über diese faszinierenden Tiere erfahren möchten, wohl zu trocken. Ich vergebe daher – meine Enttäuschung über meine unerfüllten Erwartungen außen vor lassend, da das ja mein persönliches Pech ist – gute 3 Sterne.

Die ausführliche Rezension inkl. LESEPROBE findet ihr wie üblich in meinem Blog LESEZAUBER_ZEILENREISE: https://lesezauberzeilenreise.blogspo...

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elephants and humans are quite far apart on the evolutionary tree of life. Yet, somehow we have a lot of similarities. We are both mammals, bear live young, and live to be about eighty years old. Elephant offspring are helpless when born and need to be cared for, they enter into adolescence in their early teens, and have their first babies when they are around twenty - all very similar to humans.

In her book, Elephants, Hannah Mumby brings both the Indian and African varieties to life through her words and descriptions. She has traveled the world studying elephants and makes a convincing case that they are sentient creatures who deserve our attention and respect.

When I picked up this book I was expecting a scientific study of elephants. Instead I found a book that is quite a bit about the author. We learn about her family, her medical issues, her education and mentors, and her travels and research. At first I was put off by this writing style but the more I read it, the more I saw that Mumby’s goal was share her own love of elephants so that we could appreciate them that much more.

In Disney’s 1967 movie The Jungle Book there is a great bit about the “dawn patrol”, elephants marching in formation, a young elephant learning the routine, and the squad led by the old, male, elephant war veteran. So, you can imagine my surprise when I learned in this book that male elephants leave the family when they become adolescents and that the multigenerational family group is made up of only females. Males stop in only for reproduction and then head off again. Of course, in most Disney movies the mother is often killed off so it should not have been a surprise that the movie puts men in charge.

I read a hard cover copy of this Mumby’s book which included fourteen pages of wonderful color photographs. There is no doubt that elephants truly are majestic giants and Mumby does an excellent job of showing you how truly special and unique they are.

The last section of this book is about the ivory trade, the horrific slaughtering of these majestic animals, and the need for their protection. Just as humans are destroying the environment, they are also driving elephants toward extinction. In a way Mumby is asking the question who is the beast in this picture, the elephant or the human.

[Gemma · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was such a disappointment, although looking at some of the reviews, I am not the only one who thought so. I love elephants, as anyone who walks into my home would know instantly, so was excited to read this but it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Hannah Mumby takes us along on her journey of observing and researching elephants. There are a lot of personal details about Hannah and her background and experiences which felt like unwelcome tangents away from the topic that made me pick up this book in the first place - elephants.

I don't want to undermine Hannah's knowledge and enthusiasm however there was a noticeable lack of insightful information about elephants, so the title just doesn't fit. I feel like anyone with more than a passing interest in elephants would already know most of the things included in this book e.g. how to tell the difference between African and Asian elephants. The blurb promises answers to fascinating questions but I must have missed those as they got buried in the convoluted writing which seemed to lack structure and focus.

This feels like a wasted opportunity to publish an accessible and well organised book that is genuinely about the lives of elephants. I wouldn't have minded a few personal observations thrown in from Hannah, but it became more a book about her than elephants. I will end on a positive note though by saying that the photographs included in this book are beautiful.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not know much about elephants before reading Elephants. I knew that they were poached for their Ivory. That is about it.

Elephants by Hannah Mumby exceeded my expectations. As I was thinking about what to write as a review for the book I thought I could write about some of the things I found surprising about elephants that I learned in the book.

I was surprised to learned that if a baby elephant is orphaned that it can be dangerous to feed it cows milk.

Elephants can eat for up to 18 hours a day. They don't need 8 hours of sleep. Elephants if they have menopause don't have it until late in their life. Elephants can live 50, 60 or more years.

In addition to Ivory elephants are also killed for their skin. And the result of elephants being killed for their tusks is elephants with smaller tusks. That never occurred to me. Then I thought about it and isn't that evolution at work. Elephants with small tusks would have a better chance of survival.

Oh, and one more thing that surprised me is that 400 people a year are killed be elephants in Africa or was it Asia. I am not sure. I had never thought that elephants would kill so many people in a year.

I also liked learning about Hannah's career and how she started studying elephants.

For me Elephants was a page turner. Now I know a little more about elephants. And I am glad.

[Harikrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by elephants. I see elephants as gentle giants and symbols of power, cooperation, communication and strength. The book 'The Secret Lives of Elephants' by Hannah Mumby invigorates and further reinforces my understanding of elephants. Hannah is an elephant lover and an accomplished scientist/researcher who is also actively involved in elephant conservation efforts. Reading the book was like watching a documentary on the life of elephants neatly intertwined with the author's personal experiences. I was amazed to learn a lot more about elephants including the matriarchal society built by them, the uniqueness in their use of olefaction, their ability to pick up vibrations through their feet and so on. The book also touches upon poaching and illegal ivory trade and its detrimental impact on the lives of elephants. The book reasserts that human activities and land use choices have had a huge impact on the number and nature of the gentle giants and the onus is on us humans to treat biodiversity as a necessity and not a luxury as we often deem it. Hardly ever do you get to read books about elephants and considering that, this book is definitely worth a read.

[Mason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Painfully little actual info about elephants, lots of weird, rambling, off-putting personal anecdotes. The author mentions in the introduction that she received advice from multiple people that she should insert herself more into the account about elephants. Whatever their helpful intentions may have been, I think this amounted to terrible advice, because she’s unfortunately really not a good narrative writer. I’m sure she’s a perfectly good scientist, which is an entirely different set of skills than the ones writing this book called upon. There are tons of passages that I’m genuinely surprised ever made it past a HarperCollins editor. I got this book for research purposes, for which it is almost entirely useless, but it does at least have a decent references list of other things I can go read instead.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad very entertaining, but it’s focus is not 100% on elephants like the title would suggest. It’s more about the author’s experience about researching these gentle giants and why killing elephants for ivory is damaging the species not just in numbers but behavior as well. She also compares and contrasts humans and elephants frequently which adds a lot of flavor to what is being discussed because she makes it relevant to the reader. If your looking for information on elephants in this book it doesn’t really start till chapter 3 so if u want 100% elephant information you might want to look elsewhere where.

[Melita T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting book about Elephants. Hannah Mumby shows her great knowledge and research about elephants in this memoir. She details her own research and meetings with elephants who she had relationships with. She also details what she learns from Elephants and how she sees herself as an elephant.

The book covers the birth to death of elephants, it interweaves stories that are not in chronological order to support these chapters. The book covers the Science in a in-depth way which can be technical for the non scientists, I also found this to be a bit dry. The thing I loved in this book was the passion behind the personal encounters and what we can learn from elephants.

[Terri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to stop after a few chapters. I’ll usually push through a book until the end but I couldn’t stomach the writing style any longer. She bounced around, no clear story telling. I’d turn the page and have to go back and read the last page thinking “wait, wasn’t she just talking about something else and never finished that thought?” Too much about herself and not enouh about the elephants. And what she did write about elephants was just repeating the same thing over and over (females and family groups). She does have a passion for elephants and I’d love to see her try to write a book again one day when she has more experience and maturity.

[Bernie O Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a long-standing interest in elephants, and I think they are truly complex fascinating animals. I had the pleasure of seeing African and Desert elephants in Namibia- an amazing experience. I quite enjoyed this book , and liked that I learned more about them .. I didn’t know that females didn’t have an equivalent menopause, for example.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book and really informative. The details in this was absolutely amazing. Though, there is a graphic description of a dead elephant, so be cautious on that. Elephants are some of the most amazing creatures on this planet for me, so I was absolutely happy to read this, getting an up and personal glimpse of them. Ms. Mumby is absolutely wonderful in her descriptions.

[Olivia Monaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really struggled to get through this book. I love the images Mumby creates with her words (and the actual photos), as well as the science of elephant's lives. However, a lot of the book seemed to be more of a memoir and those were the bits I got bored at and wanted to just get back to learning about elephants.

[Matthew Sartor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a solid memoir, and appreciated the insight of emotion into how her career developed. My favorite part of the book was her discussion of data with elephants in Myanmar, which I think was the most unique part of her book. Wish she went into more of the science, but understand its hard when its meant to be a popular science book.