Elephants Of Thula Thula
A strange procession was underway. Two separate elephant herds, independent of each other, had by some unknown and mysterious mechanism figured out that their human friend and savior had just died. They were making a 12-hour silent march towards the home of the legendary Lawrence Anthony located in the Thula Thula game reserve in South Africa. After hanging about his home for 2 days the herds left. They had not visited for past 18 months and nobody can explain how these two elephant herds, independent of each other, figured out the death of Lawrence Anthony, and decided to pay a last farewell visit to their friend.
Many years earlier, a herd of elephants, had arrived on a game reserve 600 miles from Thula Thula and were considered a nuisance. An elephant welfare organization called Anthony with a request: would he be willing to take these elephants? Anthony faced a tough decision. These elephants were escape artists and dangerous. But he was their only hope, if he refused they would be shot.
Anthony agreed to accept them and soon they were sedated and shipped to Thula Thula. As soon as they arrived the matriarch of the herd began testing the 8000 volt electric fence on the perimeter of the enclosure. This was created to hold them temporarily before they would be released to the reserve proper. That night the elephants escaped. They had worked as a team and pushed a tree on the fence and charged out. Before Anthony could get to them they managed to get out of the reserve too. Somehow they had found the generator that powered the outer fence of the reserve and smashed it to pieces and walked out of the reserve. Anthony knew that he was racing against time. The word was already out and the locals were also after these elephants too. They were now considered fair game as they were outside the reserve proper. Somehow Anthony managed to get to them first and get them back to safety. But this made them only angrier. The matriarch looked at him with hostility and resentment. It was matter of time before they would break out and he wondered on how could he save them?
Suddenly it occurred to him that he had to stay amongst the elephants and build a connection with them and calm them down. To most of us it seems like a reckless idea, a plan to stay amongst rogue and dangerous elephants that are mad at you, but it worked! Anthony was able to build a connection with the elephants and they soon realized that he meant them well and the attempts to escape stopped. As the news of success spread Anthony was offered another herd with a similar problem. He was successful with these too and the story of his work with elephants became the subject of the book The Elephant Whisperer.
Now somehow these two herds had converged unbidden to the home of Lawrence Anthony to pay their last respects. How did they learn of his passing? Nobody can explain. But this extraordinary event demonstrates the power of connection and love that we can create with living beings around us.
You can find more details of this story with pictures here.
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