WILD ELEPHANT CHASE: ADVENTURE IN THE LAKE CHAD REGION. By Heinrich Oberjohann.

(1953) 1953 reprint. 8vo (140 x 223mm). Pp189. B/w photograph plates. Gilt elephant motif to brown cloth.

"India and Africa with their immense and partly unexplored regions, are the home of the last of the great land mammals - the elephant. There, large herds of those grey giants continue to tramp through the dense jungles and over the vast plains - no one knows since when or for how much longer, but in all likelihood they will survive for a long time to come, for one of the remarkable characteristics of the elephant is his capacity to adapt himself to changes in his natural habitat and to the encroachment of man". Heinrich Oberjohann began working with elephants in captivity at the age of nineteen. This book is his account of elephants in the wild, when he spent four years collecting live specimens for various animal dealers, but mainly Carlo Hagenbeck of Hamburg. Chapters include: Departure for Lake Chad; Lake Chad; My first elephant and my first battle; The herd life of the Chad elephants; The rogue elephant; The elephant burial grounds; Scent and telepathy; Mother elephants sometimes kill their children; One adventure among many; The death of my baby elephants.