While observing a family of elephants in the wild, Caitlin OConnell noticed a peculiar listening behaviorthe matriarch lifted her foot and scanned the horizon, causing the other elephants to follow suit, as if they could hear the ground. The Elephants Secret Sense is OConnells account of her groundbreaking research into seismic listening and communication, chronicling the extraordinary social lives of elephants over the course of fourteen years in the Namibian wilderness.
This compelling odyssey of scientific discovery is also a frank account of fieldwork in a poverty-stricken, war-ravaged country. In her attempts to study an elephant community, OConnell encounters corrupt government bureaucrats, deadlylions and rhinos, poachers, farmers fighting for arable land, and profoundly ineffective approaches to wildlife conservation. The Elephants Secret Sense is ultimately a story of intellectual courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

I was transported by the authors superbly sensuous descriptions of her years spent studying the animals. . . . Conjures a high-class nature documentary film in prose.Steven Poole, Guardian

A ride as rough and astonishing as the roads of the African floodplain.Joan Keener, Entertainment Weekly

A successful combination of science and soulfulness, explaining her groundbreaking theory of how elephants use seismic communication. . . . OConnells account is studded with sympathetic insights and well-turned phrases.Publishers Weekly

This fascinating book reads like a fast-paced detective story of a scientific discovery and adventure set in contemporary Africa. . . . By the end, OConnell takes her rightful place among the leading biographers of the African elephant.Iain Douglas-Hamilton, author of Among the Elephants