Elephant Reflections

Elephant Reflections brings award-winning wildlife photographer Karl Ammann's gorgeous images together with a revelatory text by writer Dale Peterson to illuminate one of nature's greatest and most original works of art: the elephant. The photographs move from the purely aesthetic to the informative, depicting animals who are at once enigmatic, individual, mysterious, elusive, and iconic.
In riveting prose, Peterson introduces the work of field scientists in Africa and explains their recent astonishing discoveries. He then explores the natural history and conservation status of African elephants and discusses the politics of ivory. Elephant Reflections is a book that could change the way the world thinks about elephants while we still have some measure of control over their fate.

"This is a stunning book, combining Dale Peterson's lucid, compelling writing with Karl Ammann's magnificent photographs. It is the best ever book about that most majestic of animals, highlighting the elephants' intelligence, love of family and delight in the good things of life. The ideal book for anyone who loves animals, nature, and the wonder of creation."—Jane Goodall, Founder of The Jane Goodall
Institute and UN Messenger of Peace

"Elephant Reflections is a seamless and breathtaking blend of mind-boggling photos and compelling prose. This book will make a significant difference in how these passionate beings are understood, appreciated, and treated in the future. Read it carefully with an open heart, share it widely, and most importantly, do something to improve the dismal plight of these sentient giants."—Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals

"This book is beautifully written and illustrated; its prose colorful, precise, and hard-hitting; and its images spectacular. By portraying elephants as compassionate, socially conscious mammals with the social finesse to understand precisely what's happening when their immediate and/or extended family are killed, it challenges old notions. African elephants may well be experiencing their most imperiled time in history. This book goes a long way towards helping us appreciate the complex ramifications of that fate."—Samuel K. Wasser, Director, University of Washington Center for Conservation Biology

"Peterson and Amman's intimate portrait beautifully captures elephant relationships with each other, with people, and with their sensuous tropical world. This graceful elegy shows why elephants have always inspired awe, and how much we have learned recently about their societies and their minds. It provides the kind of inspiration that might just keep them on the planet."—Richard Wrangham, author of Primate Societies

"Nothing induces as much respect in us as an animal that is both many times larger than us, yet so incredibly gentle that its young safely run around between its legs. Elephants always amaze, and this book beautifully conveys in both text and photographs the awe we feel close to these intelligent creatures."—Frans de Waal, author of Our
Inner Ape

The Barnes & Noble Review

Most of us know elephants only from the circus and the zoo. Happily, there isn't a barking ringmaster to be found in Elephant Reflections, although some zebras, giraffes, and baboons make appearances. This breathtaking book of photographs by Karl Ammann shows African forest and savanna elephants as they live in nature -- playing, walking, eating, bathing, mating -- and the effect is mesmerizing. The collection includes instructive shots that illuminate elephant behavior as well as some more arty closeups, many of which make aesthetic studies of that improbably thick, wrinkly, cracked skin. In a gorgeous accompanying essay, Dale Peterson covers topics from elephant history to their habits and emotional ties (yes, they have them). He also writes passionately about the politics of the ivory trade and the conservation efforts it has stirred. Photographer Ammann contributes his own short piece, positing that the unregulated trade in elephant meat now drives more poaching in Central Africa than the trade in ivory. A perfect marriage of photograph and text (the two have collaborated once before, on Eating Apes), Elephant Reflections makes the case for safeguarding strange, intelligent creatures who, in Peterson's words, should challenge "our sense of entitlement and superiority, and who should, indeed, caution us, tell us to be careful, keep still, have respect." --Barbara Spindel

Karl Ammann has photographed wildlife throughout Africa,
India, and Southeast Asia. His remarkable work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Outdoor Photography, Natural History, African Geographic, and elsewhere. Dale Peterson is the author or editor of fifteen books, including the recent Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man. Ammann and Peterson's previous collaboration, Eating Apes (UC Press), was named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist and the Globe and Mail, and a Top Science Book of the Year by Discover magazine.