“Animals are indeed more ancient, more complex and in many ways more sophisticated than us. They are more perfect because they remain within Nature’s fearful symmetry just as Nature intended. They should be respected and revered.”
“The sensation I was feeling on the clifftop was some sort of reverberation in the air itself. The whale had submerged and I was still feeling something. The strange rhythm seemed now to be coming from behind me, from the land, so I turned to look across the gorge . . . where my heart stopped.
“Standing there in the shade of the tree was an elephant, staring out to sea. A female with a left tusk broken off near the base.
“I knew who she was, who she had to be. I recognized her from a colour photograph put out by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry under the title The Last Remaining Knysna Elephant. This was the Matriarch herself.
“She was here because she no longer had anyone to talk to in the forest. She was standing here on the edge of the ocean because it was the next, nearest, and most powerful source of infrasound. The under rumble of the surf would have been well within her range, a soothing balm for an animal used to being surrounded by low and comforting frequencies, by the life-sounds of a herd, and now this was the next-best thing.
“My heart went out to her. The whole idea of this grandmother of many being alone for the first time in her life was tragic, conjuring up
the vision of countless other old and lonely souls. But just as I was about to be consumed by helpless sorrow, something even more extraordinary took place.
“The throbbing was back in the air. I could feel it, and I began to understand why. The blue whale was on the surface again, pointed inshore, resting, her blowhole clearly visible. The Matriarch was here for the whale! The largest animal in the ocean and the largest living land animal were no more than a hundred yards apart, and I was convinced that they were communicating! In infrasound, in concert, sharing big brains and long lives, understanding the pain of high investment in a few precious offspring, aware of the importance and the pleasure of complex sociality, these rare and lovely great ladies were commiserating over the back fence of this rocky Cape shore, woman to woman, matriarch to matriarch, almost the last of their kind. I turned, blinking away the tears, and left them to it. This was no place for a mere man.”
― Carl Safina, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
World Wildlife Day is being celebrated today, on March 3, and this year’s theme is Sustaining all life on Earth. No more needs to be said.
©Rolf Dobberstein-Pixabay