Title: Elephants, Ivory and Avarice
The demise of a giant
Author: Erich J Raubenheimer
ISBN: 978-1-920335-86-1
Price: R260,00

Free-roaming elephants on the African continent are racing towards extinction. This trend will continue unabated if human perceptions fail to change. The only goal of this book is to leave readers with a greater understanding of elephants and the pivotal role we play in securing the survival of this majestic animal on the African continent. The main emphasis is on the tusk – its development, growth, structure and the role it plays in establishing a social order in elephant societies. The unique pattern on polished surfaces of ivory, which sustained the perverted human greed for elephant tusks over millennia and the impact of ivory harvesting on the phenotypic expression of the African elephant are highlighted. The current status of African elephants is recapped and the main factors impacting on their survival discussed. The content of the book is a culmination of the laboratory research and field work performed by Erich Raubenheimer over two decades on the elephants in the Southern African region.

 

 

Erich J Raubenheimer MChD, PhD, DSc

In 2016 Erich Raubenheimer resigned from his position as head of an academic department and joined a private histopathology laboratory in South Africa. He is presently also appointed as an extraordinary and visiting professor at the University of Pretoria and the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. During his academic career of 34 years, he generated 140 peer-reviewed scientific publications, of which 18 were on the African elephant. In 1997 he was awarded a PhD degree on the structure and composition of the tusk of the African elephant and six years later a DSc degree by the University of Pretoria. Erich is married to Claudia and has four children and three grandchildren.