AFRICAN ELEPHANT

A portrait of the big flappers as parents and “ecosystem engineers.”

Ihwagi, a zoologist who works for an elephant conservation organization, opens with a gallery of necessary gear for elephant observers—including an elephant GPS collar (“Elephant GPS collars are HUGE. You will need a vehicle to transport them”)—and then goes on to survey his subjects’ physical features, matriarchal social organization, behaviors, moods (including useful cues to when an elephant is “unhappy” and thus to be well avoided), threats from poachers and other hazards, and migratory habits. He closes with a look at the many ways elephants affect their habitats, from thinning forests by knocking down trees to creating water holes in dry seasons to providing plenty of poop to spread seeds and fertilize seedlings. Books on elephants are plentiful, but Ihwagi’s commentary is insightful, spread in digestible blocks through Jones’ painterly illustrations, which are crowded with stately pachyderms eating, drinking, fleeing hastily from bees (local farmers have found fences strung with beehives to be an effective deterrent), nuzzling calves, and posed in sociable groups. A view of silhouetted poachers pointing rifles in one scene is the only break from the cheery overall tone. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Similar profiles abound, but this is a particularly engaging one.