Following When Hippo was Hairy and When Lion Could Fly, this is a further collection of traditional wildlife tales. Twenty-five African fables about elephants are combined with factual information about elephants and their conservation, designed to appeal to both children and adults.

Combining tales from African folklore with fascinating facts about animals native to Africa's grasslands and rainforests. Supplementing each story is a table of statistics about the tale's leading animal. A map of the African continent shows where the animals live and migrate. Handsomely illustrated.

* Why do crickets have black teeth? * Why do chickens have beaks? * Why do spiders have small waists? The short answer is . . . Ananse did it! You can find the long answers to these and other intriguing questions in this collection of West African folktales. All twelve stories feature Kweku Ananse, the trickster, who is sometimes a man and sometimes a spider. Follow along as he works his mischief. On the way, you'll discover why spiders look the way they do, why termites are so angry and what happened to the crocodile’s ears.

In 1817 James Fraser Black, wanted by the Cape Government, arrives in the unexplored country of Chaka, the cruel and savage King of the Zulus. Allowed to stay, James and his family settle down to live and farm among the Zulus. Affected by the freedom of Zulu life, James begins to change until father and son clash over Nerissa, a beautiful Swedish girl who has been sold as a slave.

Collection of traditional folk tales introduces a host of interesting people and unusual animals — among them "The Cricket and the Toad," "The Tortoise and His Broken Shell," and "The Boy in the Drum."

Elephants have fascinated humans for millennia. Aristotle wrote of them with awe; Hannibal used them in warfare; and John Donne called the elephant “Nature’s greatest masterpiece. . . . The only harmless great thing.” Their ivory has been sought after and treasured in most cultures, and they have delighted zoo and circus audiences worldwide for centuries. But it wasn’t until the second half of the twentieth century that people started to take an interest in elephants in the wild, and some of the most important studies of these intelligent giants have been conducted at Amboseli National Park in Kenya. The Amboseli Elephants is the long-awaited summation of what’s been learned from the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP)—the longest continuously running elephant research project in the world. Cynthia J. Moss and Harvey Croze, the founders of the AERP, and Phyllis C. Lee, who has been closely involved with the project since 1982, compile more than three decades of uninterrupted study of over 2,500 individual elephants, from newborn calves to adult bulls to old matriarchs in their 60s. Chapters explore such topics as elephant ecosystems, genetics, communication, social behavior, and reproduction, as well as exciting new developments from the study of elephant minds and cognition. The book closes with a view to the future, making important arguments for the ethical treatment of elephants and suggestions to aid in their conservation. The most comprehensive account of elephants in their natural environment to date, The Amboseli Elephants will be an invaluable resource for scientists, conservationists, and anyone interested in the lives and loves of these extraordinary creatures.