AS A CHILD IN SOUTH AFRICA, spending summers exploring the wild with his boyhood friends, Lyall Watson came face to face with his first elephant. This "entertaining and enchanting" work (Washington Post Book World) chronicles how Watson's fascination grew into a lifelong quest to understand the nature and behavior of this impressive creature. "Watson's insights and speculations are dazzling, but what lends them power is his extraordinary knowledge of evolutionary biology and animal behavior, ethnography and South African history" (Wade Davis, National Geographic Society). "Like a shaman, Watson conjures up the spirit of the massive beast" (Publishers Weekly), documents the animal's wideranging capabilities to remember and to mourn, and reminds us of its rich mythic origins, its evolution, and its devastation in recent history.

ACT ONE The Stone Age 9(94)
 CHAPTER ONE Seeing the Elephant 13(30)
 CHAPTER TWO Hearing the Elephant 43(27)
 CHAPTER THREE Finding the Elephant 70(33)
 ACT TWO The Iron Age 103(106)
 CHAPTER FOUR Losing the Elephant 107(32)
 CHAPTER FIVE Tracking the Elephant 139(32)
 CHAPTER SIX Knowing the Elephant 171(38)
 ACT THREE Coming of Age 209(46)
 CHAPTER SEVEN Imagining the Elephant 213(42)
 An Epiphany 255