Elephant Dance

I enjoyed Elephant Dance by Tammie Matson which is a non-fiction account of the author's scientific work studying elephant-human conflict in Africa and India.  Matson is an Australian woman who has a strong relationship with Africa, spending many years there and regarding that continent as her second home.  She is very knowledgeable about the African animals and has worked to find sustainable solutions to conservation problems.  In Africa she found the elephants were denied their natural pathways because of the development of populations and they were also endangered by poachers and wars.  In areas where resources were limited for both people and elephants, conflict between them was a problem.  One solution was chilli farms.  The crops could be sold by the people and as chillis are disliked by elephants, they could be used to protect other crops and homes.  When working for the World Wildlife Fund, Matson found similar issues in India where the elephants' forest habitat was being destroyed for human habitation.  It was an enjoyable and informative read.  If you love elephants, this is for you. 31/2/5