65 pages • 2 hours read
Lawrence AnthonyThe Elephant Whisperer
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Lawrence Anthony
Lawrence Anthony is the author of the book and the head of Thula Thula, the reserve the book is set in. Anthony’s grandfather was a miner who emigrated to South Africa from Scotland in the 1920s. Anthony’s parents moved to Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal in the 1960s, and Anthony grew up wandering the African bush and befriending local kids. He moved to the city as an adult and worked in real estate until eventually returning to the wild in the 1990s, when he bought Thula Thula.
Anthony’s work with animals is not restricted to the elephants at Thula Thula. His concern is extended to all living beings, so much so that he puts his own life at great risk in moving to an active war zone to save the animals in Baghdad. This attitude is reflected in the book, where he takes on the herd despite their difficult past, his own lack of resources, and issues like poaching already plaguing the reserve. From the moment the herd arrives, Anthony forms a connection with them, and his efforts are directed toward not just keeping them safe but also rehabilitating them into the wild again. He dismisses the wildlife dealer’s offer to take the herd off his hands despite the trouble the elephants cause him because, to him, they are not a liability—they are his herd. The focus of Anthony’s efforts on building a relationship with the herd is to help them overcome their hatred and distrust of humans. Once this objective is met, he is happy to let the elephants run wild and free, ceasing further interactions with newer generations of the herd.
While Anthony’s work with animals is extremely fruitful, the larger scope of his work is nevertheless impacted by a number of other factors, explored in the theme The Challenges of Conservation. Besides the issues of poaching and finances that plague any reserve, Anthony’s work is further complicated by local customs, beliefs, and politics. The fact that he is white is an added obstacle at times, especially when working on the Royal Zulu project. However, he is extremely aware of and receptive to local feelings about both himself and conservation in general, and he takes great care to educate and involve local communities in his work. Here, too, he demonstrates great compassion and sensitivity, as he works to show how conservation can benefit not just the animals and the environment but people, too, by generating jobs for them.
Anthony is not a scientist. By his own assertion, he is a conservationist, and his narration is a personal and anecdotal one. Though he does reference some scientific evidence on occasion to explain phenomena such as communication among elephants, he does not claim to offer objective or verifiable explanations for his relationship with his herd. His bond with the elephants is, in some ways, miraculous and inexplicable, with the elephants seeming to understand and respond to him positively. There are multiple instances previously unheard-of that are recounted in the book, such as elephants breaking out of a charge when they recognize him and even breaking another elephant’s charge to save his life. Thus, although Anthony insists that the book’s title refers not to himself but to the matriarch, Nana, who taught him to listen, he is understandably known as the “elephant whisperer” by those around him.
Françoise Malby
As the book begins, Françoise is Anthony’s fiancée and co-owner of Thula Thula. Over the course of the book, the two get married on the reserve. Originally from France, Françoise settles in Thula Thula when the reserve is bought, and she helps Anthony run the place. Setting up a luxury lodge to generate income is Françoise’s idea, and she voluntarily oversees the gourmet restaurant that is established there as a special attraction.
Françoise is a supporting and involved partner, and though the book focuses largely on Anthony’s experiences in the wild, Françoise, too, accompanies him on occasion and helps out with the animals. She is present beside Anthony during the significant event when Frankie pulls out of a charge when she recognizes Anthony. She is also greatly involved in taking care of baby Thula after the rangers bring her in for medical attention.
Following Anthony’s death in 2012, Françoise has been carrying on the conservation work at Thula Thula and has founded and created multiple conservation initiatives. These include the Thula Thula Rhino Fund in 2012 after one of the rhinos was shot at by poachers and the South African Conservation Fund in 2016, a non-profit organization incorporating the Rhino Fund with other conservation projects, including the expansion of the reserve for elephant habitat.
Françoise’s experiences with the elephants are not featured heavily in the book; however, they have made their way into two books she has penned in the years after she took over Thula Thula. The first, An Elephant in My Kitchen (2018), is a sequel to The Elephant Whisperer. The second book, The Elephants of Thula Thula, was published in 2022.
The Herd
The elephant herd that Anthony adopts in 1999 is central to the narrative of the book. The original herd comprises Nana, the new matriarch of the herd; her teenage daughter, Nandi, and two-year-old son, Mandla; Frankie, the new second-in-command of the herd; Mabula and Marula, her 13- and 11-year-old son and daughter; and Mnumzane, the teenage bull mothered by the previous matriarch.
Over time, as the herd gets used to Anthony, he is able to observe their individual quirks and personalities. Of the seven, Anthony appears to bond most with Nana, Frankie, and Mnumzane. Since Nana is the matriarch of the herd, the rest of the elephants follow her lead; thus, Anthony focuses his initial efforts on bonding with Nana. Nana’s trust in Anthony is established early on. Frankie, however, takes some convincing; as the second-in-command, she acts as the guardian to the herd and is more aggressive than Nana. Even when Nana grows calmer around Anthony in the boma, Frankie remains angry and hostile. However, she remains in tune with the matriarch’s attitude, as despite the fact that she charges Anthony and Françoise, she breaks out of it when she recognizes Anthony.
Over time, Nana and Frankie both serve as Anthony’s protectors when ET, a young, female elephant who is traumatized by the loss of her family, is introduced onto the reserve. ET charges Anthony multiple times, and Nana and Frankie break her charge on separate occasions. Both elephants also bring their newborns to be introduced to Anthony of their own volition—a sign of remarkable progress from how they first started at the reserve.
Mnumzane’s relationship with Anthony is a unique one, born of the elephant’s loneliness at being ostracized from the herd. While Anthony is delighted by the trust that Mnumzane bestows on him, he also understands it to be unnatural and not entirely in the elephant’s best interest in the long term. Eventually, Mnumzane matures and establishes himself as the alpha of the herd, yet his relationship with Anthony remains largely unchanged, and they are as close as ever.
This bond saves Anthony’s life, as Mnumzane eventually grows dangerous and ill-tempered because of an undetected and painful tusk infection. His attitude toward humans and vehicles also changes for the worse after some rangers interact with him against Anthony’s instructions. It is only Mnumzane’s bond with Anthony that saves the latter when, on one occasion, the elephant charges and flips over a vehicle with Anthony and some guests inside it. Anthony is able to snap the elephant out of its rage, and once Mnumzane recognizes Anthony, he immediately calms down. Even more miraculously, the entire herd appears to herd Mnumzane away so that the rangers can come to Anthony’s rescue. Eventually, Mnumzane has to be put down, much to Anthony’s heartbreak, as he becomes too unruly and dangerous to both humans and other animals alike.
By the end of the book, the original herd has doubled in number. There are 14 elephants as the final chapter comes to a close, with many of the young ones having been fathered by Mnumzane. Anthony makes a conscious effort not to interact with the younger elephants, and so while the original herd still knows and acknowledges him, the younger ones run wild and free, just as Anthony had envisioned from the beginning.
