The Elephant's Secret Sense - by Caitlin O'Connell (Paperback)

About the Book

From an internationally renowned field scientist comes this fascinating story of her unexpected discovery of a RsecretS new mode of elephant communication. This unforgettable journey takes readers into the wilds of Africa where naturalists do their difficult work in a troubled land.

Book Synopsis

While observing a family of elephants in the wild, Caitlin O'Connell noticed a peculiar listening behavior-the matriarch lifted her foot and scanned the horizon, causing the other elephants to follow suit, as if they could "hear" the ground. The Elephant's Secret Sense is O'Connell's account of her groundbreaking research into seismic listening and communication, chronicling the extraordinary social lives of elephants over the course of fourteen years in the Namibian wilderness.
This compelling odyssey of scientific discovery is also a frank account of fieldwork in a poverty-stricken, war-ravaged country. In her attempts to study an elephant community, O'Connell encounters corrupt government bureaucrats, deadly lions and rhinos, poachers, farmers fighting for arable land, and profoundly ineffective approaches to wildlife conservation. The Elephant's Secret Sense is ultimately a story of intellectual courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

"I was transported by the author's superbly sensuous descriptions of her years spent studying the animals. . . . Conjures a high-class nature documentary film in prose."-Steven Poole, Guardian

"A ride as rough and astonishing as the roads of the African floodplain."-Joan Keener, Entertainment Weekly

"A successful combination of science and soulfulness, explaining her groundbreaking theory of how elephants use seismic communication. . . . O'Connell's account is studded with sympathetic insights and well-turned phrases."-Publishers Weekly

"This fascinating book reads like a fast-paced detective story of a scientific discovery and adventure set in contemporary Africa. . . . By the end, O'Connell takes her rightful place among the leading biographers of the African elephant."-Iain Douglas-Hamilton, author of Among the Elephants

Review Quotes

"A successful combination of science and soulfulness, explaining her groundbreaking theory of how elephants use seismic communication. . . . [O'Connell's] account is studded with sympathetic insights and well-turned phrases."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Effective communicators of science are scarce and O'Connell provides a valuable contribution in the form of a realistic and compelling description of international field work. Those interested in Africa or elephants in general will be rewarded."--Jason Munshi-South "Journal of Mammalian Evolution"

"This fascinating book reads like a fast-paced detective story of a scientific discovery and adventure set in contemporary Africa. . . . By the end, [O'Connell] takes her rightful place among the leading biographers of the African elephant."--Iain Douglas-Hamilton, author of Among the Elephants

"A ride as rough and astonishing as the roads of the African floodplain."--Joan Keener "Entertainment Weekly"

"Our author sleeps in blinds, pores through elephant dung, darts and collars elephant matriarchs, puts zoo elephants on force plates to send vibrations to their feet, even cuts up a frozen elephant to search for vibration-sensitive cells in its toes and heels. . . . A compelling memoir of how a small but fascinating biological discovery is made, from a momentary observation to a fully presented theory."--Anthony Doerr "Boston Globe"

"I was transported by the author's superbly sensuous descriptions of her years spent studying the animals. . . . Conjure[s] a high-class nature documentary film in prose."--Steven Poole "Guardian "

About the Author

Caitlin O'Connell is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head, and Neck Surgery at Stanford University. Her discoveries have been published in various periodicals, including Science, Science News, Natural History, National Geographic, the Economist, and Discover.