Yet another learning message from our animal kingdom.

As I wrote in Monday’s post, this week I was going to “Enjoy the beauty of the world around me and offer a few essays on the meaning of life.”

Hopefully the subsequent essays on Carl Sagan and how our beautiful planet can change our consciousness, under the title of To see is to understand, have partly achieved that aim.

We hear so much that is unsettling that it is easy to lose sight of the core qualities of a sustainable society.  And one of the most fundamental requirements is that of trust.

A loving dog owner will most likely take their dog’s trust for granted.

However, think of the incredible differences, at so many levels, between man and dog.  Then reflect on how a dog learns to trust a human.

This picture is of Dhalia taken less than a couple of months ago.  She was found by Jean in 2005 running wild in the Mexican desert with a companion dog.  As Jean explains,

With friend, Suzann, I was driving out to a fishing village to medicate and feed the many starving dogs.  The two dogs were in a very desolate part of the desert prowling the roadside for road-kill. We stopped to feed them and give them water.  One of the dogs ran off but as I put down food, I saw the smaller brown dog walking slowly towards me.

She was emaciated and full of mange. She looked up at me, ignoring the food.  I reached out with my hand and she gently nudged it with her nose.

The food was irrelevant to her at this moment. She just seemed to know that I was there to help. I scooped her up and took her home, curled up in my arms as we drove away.

No better example of a dog instinctively trusting a human, almost immediately.

OK, from dogs to elephants.

I recently became aware of Lawrence Anthony.  Here’s a brief extract from WikiPedia:

Lawrence Anthony (17 September 1950 – 7 March 2012) was an international conservationist, environmentalist, explorer, and bestselling author.

He was the long-standing head of conservation at the Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand, South Africa and the Founder of The Earth Organization, a privately registered, independent, international conservation and environmental group with a strong scientific orientation. He was an international member of the esteemed Explorers Club of New York and a member of the National Council of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science, South Africa’s oldest scientific association.

Anthony had a reputation for bold conservation initiatives, including the rescue of the Baghdad zoo at the height of the US lead Coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, and negotiations with the infamous Lord’s Resistance rebel army in Southern Sudan, to raise awareness of the environment and protect endangered species, including the last of the Northern White Rhinoceros.

Lawrence Anthony died of a heart attack at the young age of 62.  In just a short time that will be a year ago.

In doing research for today’s post, I quickly came across this story.

Lawrence Anthony, a legend in South Africa and author of 3 books including the bestseller The Elephant Whisperer, bravely rescued wildlife and rehabilitated elephants all over the globe from human atrocities, including the courageous rescue of Baghdad Zoo animals during the US invasion in 2003.

On March 7, 2012 Lawrence Anthony died. He is remembered and missed by his wife, 2 sons, 2 grandsons and numerous elephants.

Two days after his passing, a remarkable thing happened! The wild elephants showed up at his home led by two large matriarchs. Separate wild herds arrived in droves to say ”goodbye” to their beloved man-friend. A total of 20 elephants had patiently walked over 12 miles to get to his South African house. [my emphasis.]

Was this true?  A quick web search came across this video, (overlook the last few seconds!)

Françoise Malby-Anthony, wife of the late Lawrence Anthony, talks about the entire herd of elephants returning to the main house to pay their respects to their rescuer and friend ‘The Elephant Whisperer’.

oooOOOooo

We humans have so much to learn from our animals.