Elephant Reflections
Dale Peterson (Author), Karl Ammann (Photographer)
University of California Press, $39.95
A day in the life of a Kenyan elephant is utterly exhausting for the youngest of the herd-parading to watering holes, running from lions, learning to balance an enormous weight on four wobbly legs. The smallest among them are often spotted lying against their mothers' legs to rest, as this tiny calf is doing in Amboseli National Park. He seems to perk up for his close-up, watching as the wildlife photographer and conservation activist Karl Amman snaps what will ultimately become one of many delightful portraits in Elephant Reflections, a collaboration with the writer Dale Peterson. Amman and Peterson's last joint effort, Eating Apes, was named a top science book of the year by Discover magazine in 2003. Now, with elephants as their focal point, the pair travels the African continent, capturing in both pictures and prose the kind of stories about other living beings that remind us that we are not alone in this world. There are exquisitely sentient beings all around us.
