The Last Elephants

Title: The Last Elephants
Authors: Don Pinnock; Colin Bell
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Struik Nature
Cape Town, South Africa 2019
ISBN 9781775846840 / ISBN 978-1-77-584684-0
Softcover, 22 x 26 cm, 487 pages, throughout colour photographs

About: The Last Elephants

Elephants are among the most intelligent mammals on earth and pre-date us by millions of years. They have watched us grow from metre-high Australopithecines to rulers of the planet. Yet, in Africa, an elephant is killed every 15 minutes, each furtive, blood-soaked event contributing to the greater carnage that could result in total extermination of the species, all to support a human desire for ivory trinkets. The scale of the disaster in relation to the triviality of its purpose is preposterous and a terrible indictment of our species. The Last Elephants is, in part, a response to the Great Elephant Census report of 2016, which starkly revealed the steep decline in elephant numbers in most parts of the continent.

It has been written by game rangers, guides, scientists, activists, academics and poets across Africa as a plea and a call to action to save wild elephants before it's too late. It also contains the images of many of the continent's top wildlife photographers. This is our bid to prevent the extinction of one of nature's most sentient and worthy creatures. We condemn those who kill elephants. We rebuke those who use ivory. We call out to those who are indifferent. We celebrate those who protect elephants. We owe no less to our gentle grey companions on life's journey.

Don Pinnock is a historian, criminologist and environmental journalist who had the good fortune to work, first as a writer/photographer, then as editor of the travel magazine Getaway. For more than a decade he explored much of Africa with his camera and pen, meeting extraordinary people and writing what turned out to be prize-winning features. Along the way he fell in love with elephants. Don is the author of 17 books. He has won two Mondi Awards for his environmental columns, the City Press Non-Fiction Award for his book Gang Town, and his novel on Khoisan magic, Rainmaker, was shortlisted for the European Union Literary Award.

Colin Bell landed his first job as a safari guide in Botswana in 1977. Rhinos then ranged free and wild across much of northern Botswana and a cold beer came out of a wet sock tied to the side mirror of his Land Rover. In those days the elephants were skittish and aggressive, not surprisingly, because ivory poaching was relentless and widespread. But Colin discovered a passion for pachyderms, and it has never wavered. Now, 40 years later and in their hour of need, he has teamed with Don Pinnock to co-publish 'Last Elephants', this ode to their survival.

Content: The Last Elephants

Foreword
Preface
Elephants: a human-animal crisis
Counting elephants
Dr Mike Chase & Kelly Landen
Why elephants matter
Dr Ian McCallum
Imagining Africa's elephants
Dan Wylie
Eavesdropping on elephants
Will Travers OBE
Ritual elephants
Patricia Schonstein
A tale of two elephants
Audrey Delsink
The amazing Jane
Dr Marion E Garai
Last of the big tuskers
James Currie
A tribute to the giant tuskers
Colin Bell
Big trees, big elephants
and big thinking
Dr Michelle Henley
Conserving elephants and biodiversity in Africa's savannas
Dr Richard WS Fynn & Dr Timothy G O'Connor
Constant gardeners of the wild
Garth Thompson
Ensuring elephant survival through community benefit
Romy Chevallier & Ross Harvey
Funding elephant conservation
Dr Don Pinnock
Poaching networks of East Africa
Carina Bruwer
Managing cross-border elephant populations
Dr Jeanetta Selier
The illegal wildlife trade
Dr Don Pinnock
Arms and elephants
Kathi Lynn Austin
CITES and trade: is this the organisation to save elephants?
Adam Cruise
South Africa
Translocating elephants: are welfare
and conservation in conflict?
Dr Marion E Garai
Just Addo
John Vosloo
Botswana
Making a safe haven
Colin Bell
Botswana's sanctuary
Kelly Landen
Zimbabwe
Learning from Zimbabwe's 'presidential elephants'
Sharon Pincott
Mahenye community -
working with CAMPFIRE
Clive Stockil
Gonarezhou: a place for elephants
Hugo van der Westhuizen
Mozambique
Niassa's elephants
Greg Reis
Namibia
Desert-dwelling elephants of north-west Namibia
Dr Keith Leggett
Tanzania
Selous Game Reserve: paradise lost?
Colin Bell
The success of Singita Grumeti
Dr Neil Midlane
Kenya
Beneath Kilimanjaro: elephant conservation in Kenya
Dr Paula Kahumbu
Elephants of the north
Ian Craig OBE
The elephant and the kid
Luca Belpietro
Gabon
Urgent intervention needed to save forest elephants
Wynand Viljoen
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Garamba National Park: conservation on the continental divide
Naftali Honig
Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville)
Odzala-Kokoua National Park
Marcus Westberg
Central African Republic
The other African elephant
Andrea K Turkalo
Republic of Togo
Ivory and terrorism
Brent Stirton
Nigeria
The elephants of Yankari
Nachamada Geoffrey & Andrew Dunn
Chad
Zakouma: an elephant success story
Lorna & Rian Labuschagne
Mali
The desert elephants of Mali
Vance G Martin & Dr Susan Canney
The right time to die
Colin Bell
Appendices
Get involved: it does matter
Wayne Lotter: a remarkable man
Understanding elephant behaviour
About the authors
About the photographers
References
Bibliography