New release by Gareth Patterson: 'The Secret Elephants'

by Press Release 20 August 2009

Penguin Books SA has just announced the publication of Gareth Patterson’s 'The Secret Elephants' - a remarkable story of how these animals fought their way back from the brink of extinction without any help from humankind

The elephants of the Knysna forest have long been the subject of mystery and conjecture. Over the years they have taken on an almost mythical quality, with many doubting whether they existed at all.

In 1994, the local forestry department maintained that there was only one surviving Knysna elephant, the seldom seen female known as The Matriarch. The Knysna elephant was thus described as ‘functionally extinct’.

This was the official stance until September 2000 when forest guard Wilfred Oraai encountered and photographed a young bull from a distance of thirty metres. The question arose - who was its mother and, indeed, who was its father?

In 2001, Gareth Patterson began an independent study of the Knysna elephant. For the next seven years he covered thousands of kilometres on foot, following ancient elephant paths through the dense Afromontane forest and the surrounding mountain fynbos. He found abundant signs to suggest that, far from dying out, the Knysna elephants were quietly and secretly holding their own.

Patterson’s fieldwork, and his DNA research in collaboration with conservation geneticist Lori Eggert established that at least five young females exist, lending support to Gareth’s growing evidence that the Knysna forest and its surroundings are home to a small herd of young elephants.

This very personal narrative recounts the powerful impact of these most endangered elephants on Gareth’s life. He is an environmentalist, independent wildlife researcher and author who has worked tirelessly for more than twenty-five years for the greater protection of African wildlife.

Patterson’s love for the wild has spurred various projects surrounding animal rights. He is well known for his work on the African lion and he is author of 'Where the Lion Walked' (1991) and 'Dying to be Free' (1998).

Article and photo at: http://www.newsonline.co.za/article_detail.asp?Article_ID=1900

I wrote a post on I.Lederteil in another thread. She knows GP personally and she is very fond of him. They still are in contact - occasionally. Contrary to Tony Fitzgerald who has obviously only exploited the fact that he knew George Adamson and left his belonging in his Kora camp. But that opinion might be bias - but what she observed was contrary to what TF used to tell....