Elephant Speak: A Devoted Keeper's Life Among the Herd by Melissa Crandall July 2020 LTR
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1LyndaInOregon
Disclosure: An electronic copy of this book was provided for review by Ooligan Press, via LibraryThing.
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Melissa Crandall’s intelligently-written and sympathetic tale of elephant-keeper Roger Henneous and his 30-year association with the Oregon Zoo, is both engaging and informative.
Between 1900 and 1980, 28 elephants were born in North American zoos. Nineteen of them were born at the Oregon Zoo in Portland. Roger Henneous’ fascination with the animals began when as a young man, he and his family went to see the then-newly-born Packy. Six years later, leaving a skilled labor job he had grown to despise, Henneous joined the zoo, rising to head elephant keeper in three short years.
Through Crandall, Henneous relates many episodes – frightening, funny, and heartbreaking in turn – rising from his study and care of the intelligent and often frustrating beasts. They emerge as fully-formed characters, each with their crotchets and peculiarities. The reader looking for interesting tidbits about Asian elephants will find them here, from their dietary intake (up to 600 pounds of vegetation per day) to their poop production (250 pounds a day) to an explanation of the infrasound “the silent speech of elephants; a wave frequency too low for humans to hear” which can travel several kilometers and which appears to play an important part in the species complex social structure.
The book also provides a quick overview of zookeeping practices of the era, as efforts were being made to create a more natural and healthy environment for the animal residents, and the very heart of zookeeping was challenged. It briefly visits the importance of elephants in the wild and traces efforts to allow them to coexist in their habitat with humans.
But it’s more than an amusing and informative animal book, as the story also takes a look at the character of Henneous – the Iowa farm kid who always felt he didn’t quite measure up in his father’s eyes, and who carried that conviction of unworthiness throughout his life, even as he achieved the respect of his peers. His decision to retire from the job he loved came only after a series of devastating losses in both his two-legged and four-legged families, and the pain he went through on the way to that parting is told with sensitivity and compassion. It will be a rare reader who can get through Henneous’ parting with the matriarch Belle and not shed a tear.
Highly recommended.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Melissa Crandall’s intelligently-written and sympathetic tale of elephant-keeper Roger Henneous and his 30-year association with the Oregon Zoo, is both engaging and informative.
Between 1900 and 1980, 28 elephants were born in North American zoos. Nineteen of them were born at the Oregon Zoo in Portland. Roger Henneous’ fascination with the animals began when as a young man, he and his family went to see the then-newly-born Packy. Six years later, leaving a skilled labor job he had grown to despise, Henneous joined the zoo, rising to head elephant keeper in three short years.
Through Crandall, Henneous relates many episodes – frightening, funny, and heartbreaking in turn – rising from his study and care of the intelligent and often frustrating beasts. They emerge as fully-formed characters, each with their crotchets and peculiarities. The reader looking for interesting tidbits about Asian elephants will find them here, from their dietary intake (up to 600 pounds of vegetation per day) to their poop production (250 pounds a day) to an explanation of the infrasound “the silent speech of elephants; a wave frequency too low for humans to hear” which can travel several kilometers and which appears to play an important part in the species complex social structure.
The book also provides a quick overview of zookeeping practices of the era, as efforts were being made to create a more natural and healthy environment for the animal residents, and the very heart of zookeeping was challenged. It briefly visits the importance of elephants in the wild and traces efforts to allow them to coexist in their habitat with humans.
But it’s more than an amusing and informative animal book, as the story also takes a look at the character of Henneous – the Iowa farm kid who always felt he didn’t quite measure up in his father’s eyes, and who carried that conviction of unworthiness throughout his life, even as he achieved the respect of his peers. His decision to retire from the job he loved came only after a series of devastating losses in both his two-legged and four-legged families, and the pain he went through on the way to that parting is told with sensitivity and compassion. It will be a rare reader who can get through Henneous’ parting with the matriarch Belle and not shed a tear.
Highly recommended.
2reading_fox
I thought something similar:
Powerfully written it's a short biography of the man who became head-elephant keeper for a couple of decades at Oregon Zoo - Roger Henneous. Nowhere near as famous as similar biographies of people like Gerald Durrell he was caring fro animals in the same era, and like Durrell, many of the concepts of modern zoo-keeping simply didn't exist then, not even as ideas. Likewise it is clearly evident that Rodger did his utmost best to treat all the animals in his care as best as was possible, and with deep compassion and consideration.
It's evident that Rodger is a very self-contained person, and didn't easily relate much of the his personal experiences, although frequently mentioned his family barely features and never in detail, not even his fellow keepers have personalities in the snippets we get - it's all about the elephants. Some of this is simply the difference between an auto-biography and this biography from someone who had ask about events that happened a very long time ago.
It is touching in places and the care and devotion for the elephants is clear, but there's something missing along the way.
Worth reading if you enjoy biographies around naturalists, but there are better ones out there.
Powerfully written it's a short biography of the man who became head-elephant keeper for a couple of decades at Oregon Zoo - Roger Henneous. Nowhere near as famous as similar biographies of people like Gerald Durrell he was caring fro animals in the same era, and like Durrell, many of the concepts of modern zoo-keeping simply didn't exist then, not even as ideas. Likewise it is clearly evident that Rodger did his utmost best to treat all the animals in his care as best as was possible, and with deep compassion and consideration.
It's evident that Rodger is a very self-contained person, and didn't easily relate much of the his personal experiences, although frequently mentioned his family barely features and never in detail, not even his fellow keepers have personalities in the snippets we get - it's all about the elephants. Some of this is simply the difference between an auto-biography and this biography from someone who had ask about events that happened a very long time ago.
It is touching in places and the care and devotion for the elephants is clear, but there's something missing along the way.
Worth reading if you enjoy biographies around naturalists, but there are better ones out there.
