Page Two

“GENERALLY the only time an elephant takes this position [ears spread wide] is when it is alarmed and about to charge.”​—Cynthia Moss, in “Portraits in the Wild.”

It is also time for the object of its attention to be alarmed​—seven tons of fury pounding toward you is imminent.

But man is a far greater threat to the elephant than the elephant is to man. The price of ivory has skyrocketed, the biggest bulls carry over 400 pounds (180 kg) of it, and laws don’t stop the poachers. They take the tusks and leave the rest to rot. How cruel. How sad.