Elephants Mourn Elephant Whisperer
His human friends are not the only people mourning the loss of Lawrence Anthony, the man known as the elephant whisperer. At Thula Thula, the private wildlife park in South Africa where he was the director of conservation, the entire herd of elephants who knew him and loved him, came to his home to say farewell.
On the Facebook page of Thula Thula, Lawrence Anthony’s wife, Francoise, wrote:
Tonight at Thula Thula, the whole herd arrived at the main house, home to Lawrence and I. We had not seen them here for a very long time. Extraordinary proof of animal sensitivity and awareness that only a few human can perceive. And Lawrence was one of them.
Thank you for your wonderful messages. Lawrence’s legacy will be with us forever at Thula Thula.
Known internationally for his intervention at the Baghdad Zoo during the invasion of Iraq, and his books Babylon’s Ark and The Elephant Whisperer, Anthony was just completing another book, The Last of the Rhinos, about his pursuit of rhino poachers across southern Africa and then on into the Congo and Sudan, trying to prevent the extinction of the Northern White Rhino.
“Thankfully,” he often said, “the Earth has an incredible capacity to sustain life. So perhaps something can still be done about it.”
Lawrence was the founder of The Earth Organization and the Lawrence Anthony Foundation.