The African elephant is one of the most majestic creatures on Earth, yet it faces an uncertain future. Walking Thunder is a superb tribute to the remarkable beauty of these endangered creatures. Striking duotone images by award-winning photographers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson capture not only the awesome strength and size of the African elephant, but also its gentleness and human-like emotions. Accompanying the photographs are quotations, myths and stories from the past 400 years, from folklore and from explorers and tribal members, presenting both Western and indigenous perspectives. At once entrancing and thought-provoking, this is the perfect book for anyone passionate about the conservation of our planet.
'They're the last individuals' Romain Gary wrote in his magnum opus The Roots of Heaven 1956. Today, more than twenty years after the 1989 ivory ban, the elephant population is crumbling under the menace of trophy hunters, collectors and poachers who are ransacking the last great herds of the family of Abu for trinkets. WALKING THUNDER In the Footsteps of the African Elephant is the first black and white book of its kind dedicated entirely to a single species in the wild. For the Maasai, the elephant represented a model for human society.For the Samburu, the elephant is a totem they have revered for centuries. WALKING THUNDER is a visual and poetic alarm call from both the Western and Indigenous perspective that sees in the elephant, our peer, a central pillar of existence. Beneath their skin, their minds and ours are inextricably linked. Their future is our fate. WALKING THUNDER is not merely a wildlife book, it is a testament and manifesto to the future of the elephant and humanity's relationship to the biosphere.' - Cyril Christo