unlikely friendships brochure
TRANSCRIPT
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JENNI FER S. HOLLA ND
47 remarkable stories from the animal k ingdom
Unlike
ly Friendships
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I t i s n ’ t u n u s u a l f o r h u m a n b e i n g s t o c o n n e c t
with other animals—consider that well over half of all U.S.
households keep pets. Less common than a human-pet con-
nection, and at rst glance more surprising, is a bond between
members of two different nonhuman species. A dog and a donkey.
A cat and a bird. A sheep and an elephant. This book represents
just a small sample of the unexpected animal pairings that peo-
ple have reported around the world. I describe the unions as
friendships, knowing that we can’t truly explain what emotional
strings bind our nonhuman kin, but assuming that there is
some parallel to our experiences. To me, friendship is as simple
as seeking comfort or companionship from another to improve
one’s own life experience. Even if it’s had only briey, friendship
is a plus. And in all of the cases that follow, the animals involved
are arguably better off—more condent, physically stronger, in
higher spirits—after nding each other than they were before.
Why do unlike creatures get together? Often biologists can
point to an obvious benet to one or both animals—related to
spotting predators, keeping parasites at bay, staying warm, nd-
ing food. Scientists label such relationships with terms like com-
mensalism or mutualism. This book is concerned with cases that
are a little less tidy. Some involve an animal taking a parental
or protective role toward another, probably instinctively. Others
have no obvious explanation. Perhaps the need for a good friend
is not just a human thing after all.
—From the introduction
Unlikely Friendships
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z q
A t just six months of age, themba the elephant
suffered a terrible loss: His mother fell off a cliff while
moving with their herd through the South African nature reserve
where they lived. At such a critical time for mother-son bonding,
veterinarians hoped another female in the herd would adopt the
baby, but none did. So they decided to nd a surrogate outside
the elephant family to help Themba.
Staff at the Shamwari Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in East-
ern Cape had been successful keeping a motherless rhinoceros with a sheep. Hoping for a similar triumph, wildlife managers
moved Themba to the rehabilitation center and borrowed a domes-
tic sheep named Albert from a nearby farm.
{south africa, 2008}
The Elephantand the Sheep
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Why a sheep? They might not seem like the
brightest of animals, but in truth their intel-
ligence falls just below that of pigs, which are
quite smart. They can recognize individuals
over the long term, can distinguish among dif -
ferent emotions based on facial expressions,
and will react emotionally to familiar faces
of various species. So bonding with another
kind of animal might not be as unlikely as it
rst may seem—especially with elephants, who are unquestion-
ably bright and expressive, and rely heavily on social bonds.
Still, the attempt to pair the two species didn’t start out well.
When rst introduced, Themba chased Albert around the water-
ing hole, apping his ears and lifting his tail to look as large and
threatening as possible. Albert ed, as sheep instinct demands,
and hid for hours. Over three days of wary gestures and tentative
touches the pair nally accepted each other, and the result proved well worth the stressful beginning.
“I still remember the day Albert took the rst leaves
off a tree where Themba was feeding,” says Dr. Johan
Joubert, the center’s wildlife director. “We knew they
truly bonded when they started to sleep cuddled up
together. I must admit we were concerned that Themba
would lie down on top of Albert and crush him by
mistake!”
q
D O M E S T I C S H E E P
K I N G D O M : A nimaliaP H Y L U M : Chor dataCL A SS: M ammalia
O R D E R : A r tiodacty laF A M I L Y : Bov idae
G E N U S: O v isSP E CI E S: O v is ar ies
A F R I CA N
E L E P HA N T
K I N G D O M: A n i m
a l ia
P H Y L U M: C h o
rda ta
C L A S S: Ma m ma l ia
O R D E R: P r
o b o s c ida e
F A M I L Y: E l e
p ha n t ida e
G E N U S: L o
x oda n ta
S P E C I E S
: A f r i ca na
z
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Once the bond took hold, the elephant and sheep were insepa-
rable. They’d nap in tandem, horse around together, and Themba
would rest his trunk on Albert’s wooly back as they explored
their enclosure or went in search of snacks. Though keepers
expected Themba to imitate the elder Albert, instead the sheep
became the copycat, even learning to feed on Themba’s favorite
leaves—from a thorny acacia plant not typically in a sheep’s diet.
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Johan Joubert and his staff
had always planned to reintro-
duce Themba to his family in the
reserve where he was born. Butduring preparations for his re-
lease, Themba became ill from a
twisted intestine and veterinar-
ians were unable to save him. He
was just two and a half years into what might have been a seventy-
year lifespan.
The staff at the wildlife center
were heartbroken, though Albert,
fortunately, was able to forge new
interspecies friendships among
the reserve’s zebra foals and
wildebeest.
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T here is a sacred forest in the town of ubud, on
the Indonesian island of Bali, where monkeys roam freely
over the stones of a Hindu temple built centuries ago. The pri-
mates are long-tailed macaques, and many local villagers believethey guard the religious site against evil spirits.
One monkey recently brought its protective instinct to a more sec-
ular task—safeguarding a kitten that had strayed into arm’s reach.
Anne Young was on vacation and visiting the Sacred Mon-
key Forest during the animals’ crossing of paths. “They had beentogether a few days, and whenever the park staff tried to capture
the kitten, it would just run back to the monkey,” she says. The
monkey, a young male, would groom his feline friend, hug and
{indonesia, 2010}
b 8
The Macaque and the Kitten
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
J
ennifer S. Holland is a journalist who has spent most of her
career writing for popular science and nature publications.
Currently a senior writer for National Geographic magazine, where
she has worked for ten years, Jennifer specializes in life science and
natural history (reptilian, mammalian, avian, amoebic—you name
it, she’s covered it). Jennifer lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with
her husband, two dogs, and dozens of snakes and geckos. To her
knowledge, and dismay, the dogs have yet to befriend any of the
geckos.
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SPECIFICATIONS
Paperback with french aps
$12.95 U.S./$15.95 Can.
No. 15913
ISBN 978-0-7611-5913-1
Full-color photographsthroughout; 7" x 8"
208 pages
Ships: June 2011
6-copy counter displayNo. 26508
ISBN 978-0-7611-6508-8
$77.70 U.S./$95.70 Can.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
BOOKSELLERSCraig Popelars
919-967-0108 ext. 15
MEDIA
Selina Meere
212-614-7505
THE GIFT OF FRIENDSHIP
Collected from around the world and documented in full-color
candid photographs—photographs you have to see to believe—
unlikely friendships tells one heartwarming tale after another of
animals who, with nothing else in common, bond in the mostunexpected ways. A cat and a bird. The hippo, Owen, and tortoise,
Mzee. The Indian leopard who slips into a village every night to
sleep with a calf. Written by Jennifer Holland, a senior writer for
National Geographic, each chapter tells the story of a most un-
usual friendship, and offers insights into how, possibly, it came
about—how that young, likely motherless leopard, for instance,
sought maternal comfort with the calf. It is an extraordinaryimpulse gift for every animal lover.
WORKMAN PUBLISHING225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4381www.workman.com
©2011 W k P bli hi C I
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