The story of elephant sadness is one of those real facts that defy fiction, in fact, some aspects of what happened still have no explanation, they just happened and we still don’t know why.
It all started with a man named Lawrence Anthony, born in South Africa in 1950, the son of a prosperous Scottish miner who had left his home country after falling in love with Africa. Lawrence inherited both the mining business and the love of nature. that marked his father so much.
- Lawrence Anthony became a biologist and ecologist.
- He had a particular attraction to elephants.
- One of the most endangered species in the world.
- So he began his efforts to take all kinds of actions to protect them.
- So begins the story of elephant sadness.
“Our perfect companions never have less than four legs. “-Colette-
Before continuing lawrence Anthony’s story, let’s talk a little bit about elephants, this species is best known for its circus shows, despite its extraordinary abilities, its place in evolution is comparable only to that of chimpanzees and dolphins.
Elephants have big brains. In fact, no other terrestrial animal has a brain of this size, which makes them very intelligent animals. Not only do they have an impressive memory, but the amount and complexity of their really very advanced social behaviors are also incredible.
One of the most surprising things about elephants is that they are one of the few species that mourn the dead. The sadness of elephants is expressed through various funeral rituals when an animal of this species dies. It doesn’t even have to be someone from the same herd. When they find a corpse or the bones of one of their own, they still remain there, surrounding it, in a kind of homage.
Now returning to Lawrence Anthony’s story, his name began to become famous for a fact that occurred in 1999, in a small town called Zuzulanda an unusual offer appeared: anyone who wanted could show up with a herd of elephants. It was just that it was a very conflicted group, to the point of being considered wild elephants, they broke things, they didn’t obey anyone and they ran away as soon as they could.
Lawrence Anthony decided to accept the challenge. He adopted the herd of elephants and went with them to the reserve he had built himself: Thula Thula, which means peace and quiet.
He noticed that Nana, the matriarch of the herd, was one of the most rebellious, had marks of abuse and fled as soon as he could, Lawrence decided to sleep every night in the middle of the herd, with his assistant David and his dog A fence lined up on the ground.
Every morning, Nana joined the other elephants. Their intention was to demolish the fence, but it tells the story of the sadness of the elephants, however, Lawrence told them of the danger they would be in if they left the reserve.
Nana began to be curious, which then gave way to affection, ceased to be a herd of rebellious elephants and became close friends with her caregiver.
Lawrence was finally able to appease these supposedly wild elephants; later, he also performed other exploits, such as rescuing several elephants from Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq War; he also rescued other elephants in the midst of the Congo War. books about their experiences and has been particularly interested in how elephants communicate.
On March 2, 2012 Lawrence Anthony died of a heart attack, so began the most astonishing episode in the history of elephant sadness, it turns out that two days after his death, all the wild elephants he had rescued came home from separation day Both herds were guided by a matriarch. They walked more than 20 kilometers to get there, for a total of 31 elephants.
They were all in one file. They surrounded the house and stayed there for two days, not accepting anything to eat or drink, perhaps it was their way of expressing their sadness, their way of saying goodbye definitively to their great friend, on the third day they left with it. solemnity with which they had come. No one can explain how they found out about Lawrence’s death.