ELEPHANTS

A veteran nature photographer best known for studies of smaller creatures sets his (camera) sights on the largest land animals alive.

Showing his usual ability to get the money shots, Bishop puts together a sharply focused gallery of photogenic pachyderms in the wild, ranging from cute calves flapping outsized ears to a huge old African tusker—with memorable views of competing males with trunks intimately intertwined, matriarchal family groups at waterholes, and more. Using anthropomorphic but not inaccurate language in the equally engaging commentary, Bishop describes how gatherings of herds allow younglings to “find new playmates and make friendships that last a lifetime,” notes that individual elephants display intense emotions and have their own personalities, and, along with explaining how elephants communicate with posture and scent as well as sounds, claims they “have a type of language and can even discuss things.” In a lively closing note about how he got some of his shots, he mentions help from a scientist and a Maasai guide, but there are no humans in the photos here. The only real bobbles are the perfunctory index (“African savanna elephant” is listed on nearly every page, for instance, with no subcategories to indicate what is being covered) and the two-item bibliography, so for further information on anatomy or ways elephants are being threatened, pair this title with the likes of Katherine Roy’s How To Be an Elephant (2017). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Personable and informative.