Land of Elephants
Artwork Description
An iconic symbol of Africa’s wildlife. Elephants spend their lives in an extended family group that is headed by a matriarch, typically the oldest female, who serves as the central holder of history and knowledge.
As this elephant herd makes their way to water across the vast plain below Mt. Kilimanjaro, this family group senses danger in the distance. Forming a defensive shield around the young calves while the old matriarch rises her trunk to read the winds and determine the risk. Communication among elephants is varied and continuous. They produce sounds at frequencies below the range of human hearing, and these infrasonic messages can travel over great distances through the ground as well as the air, enabling families several kilometers apart, out of range of sight or smell, to track each other’s movements and condition. Elephants sense these sounds through their feet as well as hearing them, and much of the communication seems to be an attempt to convey reassurance and connectedness.
