“As I watched Tonie’s vigil over her dead newborn, I got my first very strong feeling that elephants grieve. I will never forget the expression on her face, her eyes, her mouth, the way she carried her ears, her head, and her body. Every part of her spelled grief"    Joyce Poole

Living with and studying elephants since her childhood, wildlife researcher Joyce Poole dedicates her work to the controversial, and often heartbreaking, conservation effort in Kenya.

This is a National Geographic ‘Special’ about her research and views on elephant conservation and management and about these intelligent and majestic animals themselves.
With insight into the challenging and uncomfortable forces at work when the needs of animals and politics meet, watch Coming of Age with Elephants for more understanding of these great creatures.

Joyce Poole is an animal behaviourist who has devoted her life to the study of the African elephant in spite of adversity and tragedy. An American raised in Kenya, Poole is versed in several cultures: American, Masai, and elephant.
Her Americanism is obvious in her independence and ambition; the Masai taught her how to live in the bush; and the elephants convinced her of their great intelligence.
Her intensive involvement with these majestic creatures revealed that they are self-aware, startlingly empathic beings.

Joyce spent much of her childhood in Africa and found it a place of enchantment. As a young woman, she returned to Kenya’s Ambosili National Park to study elephants with Cynthia Moss.
Joyce coped with danger from both elephants and poachers, loneliness, sexism, rape by a gang of men and a devastating love affair.

Increasingly impressed with elephants’ intelligence, Poole embarked on a study of their vocalisation in 1985. Later she was active in the fight for a ban on ivory.
She became the director of elephant conservation and management for the Kenya Wildlife Service, training young scientists and making tough decisions on killing elephants.

Please follow these links for more details about Joyce Poole and her work among African elephants:
http://www.elephantvoices.org/about-elephantvoices/team.html
See also Joyce’s book on Amazon.

Please note:  This is a rare, imported DVD that does not come in a full-size case; the picture shown above is for illustration purposes only - please click on the following link to see a close-up photograph of the DVD in its case:

close-up photo of DVD

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