It is Wednesday morning in Newark, Ohio, 12/26/2012, I am looking out at freezing rain and snow, possible blizzard on the way, a lot of snow, due to the rain, snow and wind,, we will probably lose power, so I have flashlights, battery lights and candles ready. The thermos is filled with coffee, water jugs in freezer are frozen, the bathtub is full of water (so we can flush the toilet), so animal stories warm my heart. I know it took a long time to get there, so excuse all the wordage.
In case you needed another reason to care about wildlife, here’s one: If you devote your life to elephants, they might come to your funeral. Or anyway that seems to be what happened for conservationist and “elephant whisperer” Lawrence Anthony, who died in March. A few days after his death, two herds of elephants filed through the bush to their friend’s home, where they appeared to stand vigil for two days, according to Anthony’s family.
Anthony had spent time living with the elephants, in order to care for traumatized animals who were considered violent and unruly. But at the time of his death, of a heart attack, Anthony was living in a house on the Thula Thula game reserve in South Africa. The park’s elephants hadn't visited the house in a year and a half, but Anthony’s son Dylan says that the herds, from all over the park, traveled 12 hours to arrive shortly after his father’s death. They stayed for two days, and quietly left.
Elephants are well-known for their grieving rituals when family members die. If they thought of Anthony as a sort of tiny, weird-nosed cousin — and why wouldn't they, since he lived with and cared for them?
