Award-winning filmmaker, Martyn Colbeck, has filmed wildlife for over 20 years, capturing our planet’s most incredible species with his lens. But it was Echo and her family of elephants that inspired Martyn to devote, not one, but three films to them. NATURE had the opportunity to find out how exactly this family captured his heart.

What were your first impressions among the elephants?

It was an amazing moment as I had never seen an African elephant before. In 1989, I went to Amboseli for the first time to film a segment for David Attenborough’s Trials of Life. The producer I was working with for that segment had known Cynthia Moss for some time and she had always wanted to go out with Cynthia to see her elephants.

So Cynthia took us out in the car into the park. In the middle of this herd of elephants, she stopped her car, turned off the engine and she just started to talk about this family of elephants. This was not Echo’s family by the way. But Cynthia just started describing each of these elephants. She knew each one. She just started talking to us about them as individuals. It was almost as if we were at a party and she was describing everyone to us.

What was most amazing was that we were in the middle of Amboseli National Park. We were surrounded by Kilimanjaro. It was a stunning environment. But the individual personalities of the elephants were what stood out. It was quite a revelation to me.

How was Echo selected?

The producer’s idea was to do a film like an elephant soap opera. It would be a long-term project and was actually based on the documentary Seven up! The idea was that because elephants are so long-lived, we could follow them as the years passed.

Of course the next step was deciding who to follow. That was up to Cynthia. She was studying 53 elephant families in Amboseli. But Echo’s family came up at the top of the list, mainly because Echo was the first elephant who had been darted and radio collared back in 1972. So she was one of the first elephants studied. Also, Echo and her family were relatively predictable. And she was quite a homebody, which was a good thing. We didn’t want a family who would constantly be on the move and disappear on us through the filming. We couldn’t follow along with their life events if we lost them.

How crucial did it turn out that Cynthia had chosen Echo?

Echo is a remarkable elephant. She was an extremely good choice. She was around on a regular basis virtually every day. In order for the film to work, you just can’t go off and film a replacement family. Echo’s story is the main thread of the series.

But she was also a good choice because, over the years, the most extraordinary things happened to her and her family. For instance, in 1990, I had started to film in January and very little was happening with Echo’s family. But by February, the most incredible thing happened to Echo. She gave birth to a crippled calf. It was truly an extraordinary, very rare event. And this was the only time such a birth had been documented. And then we were able to film the most incredible events after that. We filmed them sleeping. We filmed the kidnapping.

What was Echo and her family’s perception of you?

It’s hard to know. I think there may have been an element of knowing that if we were around, there was a safety aspect. I think they accepted us as part of the family. Elephants have this extraordinary and complicated greeting display — they use this to greet each other when they’ve been apart. And occasionally, Echo actually greeted our car when we arrived. She would make a terrific greeting with the car. We spent so much time with her in that car; she must have recognized the style of the car.

Why are there misconceptions of elephants being raging creatures?

I think there is a misconception about elephants. And the incidents of elephant rage come from elephants in a disturbed population or in conflict with people. I’ve found that if you give them the benefit of the doubt, they are not generally an aggressive species. They are naturally gentle and trusting. When you betray that trust, they get aggressive. I’ve seen that with tourists. They drive fast. They rev up their engines. They act inappropriately. Some of this is to get a reaction from the elephants. And basically it just irritates the animals. Elephants are not aggressive animals. They have been made to be aggressive. Even if they are irritated with you, they will give you some warning. They are not like rhinos who just charge without warning and flatten you. If they do, there’s a historical reason — or a serious threat.

Do you think elephants can recognize people and understand their intentions?

I think they identify individuals. It is so hard to quantify though. Some scientists might be cynical. They would say you need real data. If you spend a lot of time with a particular animal — like I do with elephants — you will get a sense of what they’re thinking. There is a level of understanding with spending so much time with animals.

One of the things with filming elephants is you have to be able to anticipate behavior. You have to understand what they’re going to do. Not just acting on instinct. They are actually making a decision. I’ve seen instances of elephants having a discussion and clearly two elephants are disagreeing. And then one makes a decision and the other follows that. It is very interesting to watch. In order to know that, you have to know the individual. You have to have spent a lot of time with them.

How long are you out there shooting to document the life of an elephant family?

Each of the three Echo films took eight months to shoot. During those eight months, I would be out from dawn to dusk every day. Ideally one would film longer but budgets and other restrictions limit you. But of course, the longer amount of time you spend out there, the more likely you will capture unique events because we are actually distilling small bits of their behavior.

What was it like to be a character in this film?

It gave me the opportunity to tell people how I felt about elephants. Usually when you make a film, you have a narrator who is not involved in the film telling the story to the audience. But with this film, I had the chance to tell the story. It was quite nice to tell audiences that I’ve been with these elephants for 20 years. I’ve spent a lot of time with them. I know these animals. And this is how I feel about them. Of course it is slightly unnerving to put yourself on the line. But I had the benefit of expressing sentiments that scientists can’t.

Will there be another Echo film?

It’s an ongoing story. I don’t feel like I’ve completed the filming because these animals are so complex. I still look forward to spending time with them. We’re learning more about them all the time. They communicate on such complex levels, and we’re only scratching the surface. We’re sure to discover so much more. The more people understand about elephants, the more people understand how much they’re worth conserving.

Are elephants your favorite animals?

No doubt. They would have to be. I’ve done a lot of filming of primates as well. But elephants continue to surprise me. There is just so much more to learn.

We have seen them dressed in costumes and dancing at circuses, living solitary lives at zoos or giving our children a thrill with a ride on their back. But the largest land animals live a life that is completely foreign to us when left to their own in the wild — one complete with battles and births, kidnappings and camaraderie. More than fifteen years ago, Martyn Colbeck began to document in film and photos the lives of African elephants. For the better part of two decades, he has grown particularly close to the elephant matriarch, Echo, and her close-knit family, who have never failed to astonish, amuse, and inspire him.

The family seems to accept Colbeck into their world, and perhaps even considers him one of their own. The result is that he can record unimpeded the gentle love, and tight bonds that elephants feel for each other. Colbeck’s film gives us a glimpse into the complex world of elephant society. We meet Echo and begin to understand the importance of such a majestic matriarch to her devoted clan. He shows us their language and ways of communication. And he captures remarkable scenes such as the rare birth of a crippled calf that the family desperately and collectively tries to help to its feet. The film causes us to question if this could be about more than simply survival. Is there a deeper emotion we have just been privileged enough to witness through Colbeck’s lens?

In scene after moving scene, Colbeck makes us fall in love with Echo, Erin, Enid, Ely, and the rest of this loving family. He conveys through his film and in a special interview with NATURE what complicated, powerful, tender, funny — and, yes, unforgettable — creatures elephants are.

To order a copy of Unforgettable Elephants, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Unforgettable Elephants was originally posted April 2007.

In a Tanzanian jungle, a scientist and a medicine man follow a chimpanzee in search of a cure for a deadly disease. On the plains of Kenya, a woman learns a powerful lesson about family — from a pair of elephants. And in the Florida Keys, an eight-year old boy with a genetic illness utters his first words, for a chance to swim with dolphins.

From the ancient world to the modern, human lives have been influenced by animals in matters that reach far beyond the food chain. Wisdom of the Wild illustrates some of the surprising ways in which animals help teach, heal, and strengthen people, in body, mind, and spirit.

To order a copy of Wisdom of the Wild, visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for Wisdom of the Wild was originally posted December 1999.

Animals and Earthquakes
http://animalsandearthquakes.com
Learn more about scientific studies on animal behavior preceding earthquakes. Read interviews with James Berkland and Motoji Ikeya, both featured in the film.

Infrasound
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound
Get the lowdown on low sounds from Wikipedia.

Fauna Communications
http://www.animalvoice.com/
Learn more about Liz von Muggenthaler’s studies on animal commmunication.

Elephant Rumbles
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1308/segments/1308-2.htm
Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell, featured in the film, tests an elephant’s ability to “hear” with her feet.

Four Ears to the Ground
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_3_111/ai_84545901
Explore elephants’ abilities to “hear” and communicate with infrasound.

Hippos and Infrasound
http://acp.eugraph.com/elephetc/hippo.html
Learn how hippos communicate above and below water via infrasound.

Indonesian Tsunami Infrasound
http://www.aip.org/149th/garces.html
Listen to the infrasound generated by 2004’s Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Can Animals Sense Earthquakes?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1111_031111_earthquakeanimals.html
The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for centuries.

Shark’s Sixth Sense
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQK/is_3_10/ai_n13778822
Find out more about shark behavior prior to Hurricane Charley in August 2004.

Books:

Hickman, Pamela. ANIMAL SENSES: HOW ANIMALS SEE, HEAR, TASTE, SMELL AND FEEL. Minneapolis: Kids Can Press, 1999.

Hough, Susan Elizabeth. EARTHSHAKING SCIENCE: WHAT WE KNOW (AND DON’T KNOW) ABOUT EARTHQUAKES. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Ikeya, Motoji. EARTHQUAKES AND ANIMALS: FROM FOLK LEGENDS TO SCIENCE. Osaka: Osaka University, 2004.

Kaner, Etta. ANIMAL TALK: HOW ANIMALS COMMUNICATE THROUGH SIGHT, SOUND AND SMELL. Minneapolis: Kids Can Press, 2002.

O’Connell, Caitlin. THE ELEPHANT’S SECRET SENSE: THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE WILD HERDS OF AFRICA. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.

Tibballs, Geoff. TSUNAMI: THE MOST TERRIFYING DISASTER. New York: Carlton Books, 2005.

Turner, Matt. ASIAN ELEPHANTS (ANIMALS UNDER THREAT). New York: Heinemann Library, 2005.

On December 26th, at about 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning, the elephant trainer brought two elephants back from the forest to the camp. Those two elephants cried, felt uneasy … something was unusual. I was sleeping in the house and I heard the elephants cry. I thought, “Why would the trainer hit the elephants so early in the morning?” I wasn’t able to sleep at all, and they cried for a long time.

At 8 a.m., I came to work at the camp and I asked the trainer, “Why did you hit the elephants?” The trainer said that he did not hit the elephants; they cried on their own. Why the elephants cried for a long time, he didn’t know. Then from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., we opened for business as usual.

From 10 a.m. to 10:05 a.m., those two elephants that had cried at dawn showed some unusual behavior, were irritated and anxious to run away. At the beginning, I didn’t pay any attention. Later on, they pulled and broke the chains and ran to the mountaintop. The trainer and I ran after the elephants and called them to come back.

What happened just five minutes before the tsunami?
The two chained elephants at the back here started to get irritated and felt uneasy; they wanted to run away, they tried to pull the chain. They pulled and broke the chains and ran away. These two [ran] away first, and there was one more here who followed those two to the mountaintop. But there was another one chained over here and it tried to run away also, but it could not. And those two elephants that broke the chain went up to the hill and the trainer and I ran after those two elephants and tried to call them to come back. The trainer didn’t know that the wave was coming. No matter what we did, the elephants would not return. … After a while there was a strong wind and sound from water, broken trees. I turned around and saw that water was coming, so I went back to the camp. I wanted to observe and see what was going on and why the elephants ran away, until the water was about to reach me. … I ran and followed the trainer to the mountain.

But at about 10 o’clock I had a group of five Japanese tourists arrive to go on an elephant ride. The elephants started walking from this point along the road and then up along the mountainside. The two elephants that carried the tourists heard the noise just like the other two at the campsite. The two elephants that brought the tourists up to the mountain seemed like they were in a hurry to bring the tourists to the mountaintop, to a higher place. At that moment it was hard for the trainer to control the elephants.

The tsunami came about 10 minutes after 10 o’clock. In 10 minutes, they could not walk far. It was a short distance. When the wave came, the elephants that carried Japanese tourists heard the noise and the trainer looked back to find out what was really happening. After seeing the water, the elephants just brought the tourists up to the mountaintop.

Do you think if humans had known that the elephants breaking the chains and running up the hill was a sign of coming danger, was a warning sign, this could have saved human lives?
I think so. You first simply observe ants: when they move their living quarters, it means that is going to rain heavily in the near future. On that day, we did not observe what it really was, what the elephants tried to run away from. If we would have known that when they cried and cried for a long time, it meant that disaster was near, of course we would not remain here, we would had gone also.

What was it about the tsunami do you think they were specifically detecting: was it sound, pressure?
I think the elephants have their own sense more than anything else. Because before dawn they cried for so long, and the way they cried was different. They cried differently from when they play in the rain. But there is no rain in the summertime. They just cried.

For me, I believe that every animal has his own senses, feelings. They have more sense than humans. From what I [have] seen, I raised a lot of chickens here, but none of my chickens died. I think animals have an extraordinary sense that humans do not have.

What happened the morning the tsunami hit?
We set out at about 6 a.m. on the morning of December 26. At about 7:30 a.m. we noticed the elephants started to run. Not a single animal would stop. They had their tails raised up and some were running very close to our jeep. We were traveling very slow. All the elephants and wild boars and other animals were all running away from the sea towards Galkanda. I could not imagine what was the cause. Others in the group were asking what was the reason for the animals to run, but we did not know what was happening. By the time we reached the turnoff to Patnamgalla bungalow, we saw a huge wave of water coming from the sea. It was about 30 feet high and was rushing through the trees and uprooting some of them. The huge wave was rolling along very fast. I stopped the jeep and turned it around. We waited for about 15 minutes. Then another wave came. I started the jeep and drove along the road. By this time the wave had receded. There were a lot of fish on the road. We moved them aside with sticks. At that time we heard a hoot from the direction of the bungalow. A jeep that was taking two tourists had toppled by the force of the wave. The driver was clinging onto a branch of a tree. There was no sign of the tourists. The bungalow had been flattened and there was no sight of the occupants. We brought down the driver. He had injuries all over his body.

We put him in a jeep and since that road was impassable, we sent him to Yala through another road. All the traffic that entered from this side had to go through Katagamuwa and Situlpahuwa. After that we hurried away from the place and reached Katagamuwa. Only at Katagamuwa we learned about what had happened. There was no trace of the occupants of the bungalow. Their bodies were never recovered. My brother had a son. His body was recovered the following day, but the body was decomposed. In that water, a body turns black and decomposes immediately.

Why did you think the animals were running away?
I thought that a large number of hunters had come and therefore the animals were running away. There was nothing else I could think of. Every day when I take this route, the animals are there and they don’t pay any attention to us. The visitors in the jeep were … asking whether it was normal for the animals to run away like that. I said it has never happened before and that they must have been disturbed by something. It is my belief that they sensed or felt something, like getting some news. Although we humans did not feel or sense anything, the animals felt it; they smelled something. I have been here more than 40 years; but never have I witnessed anything like this.

How do you think they knew when to run?
It is my belief that the animals either sensed something or felt something. Otherwise they never run like that. Because of this special quality in animals, not a single animal died or was injured. Whatever the scientists may say, the animals were able to sense something or they smelled something. Otherwise they would have perished like the humans. But not a single animal perished in this Yala sanctuary. We go everywhere and we know if there were animals dead. Not a single deer, sambhur, wild boar, tiger, bear, or elephant died here. We saw many dead humans, but we did not see a single dead animal. There were rows of people dead, hundreds of them. Sri Lankans and tourists were among the dead. We stacked the bodies in the vehicles and took them.

Whatever the specialists or experts may say, I say that the animals sensed something. All the animals escaped because they went up towards the hills, the higher land. Towards Sithulpahuwa.

Do you think animals have a “sixth sense?”
It is like this: when it is going to rain, the peacocks, pheasants, and other birds, they sense it, but we humans have not the slightest indication. So similarly, here also they sensed something. You can inquire and see. Not a single animal perished. Human beings, vehicles, and all others were washed away, but no animals were washed away. … I do not know how it happened. It may be they sensed something, they felt some vibration or something. But somehow they knew something was going to happen.

Sunrise, December 26, 2004.

Wit Aniwat, whose family runs an elephant camp for tourists in Thailand, was awakened by an unusual alarm clock: the trumpeting and wailing of elephants.

It was a bit out of the ordinary, but Wit thought nothing of it as the sun rose. There was work to do.

Five minutes later, another oddity. “The elephants became very agitated,” Wit recalls in NATURE’s Can Animals Predict Disaster? Astonished, he watched as the huge animals broke their chains and stampeded up a nearby hill. He and another trainer gave chase. But they hadn’t gotten very far when a terrifying sound overtook them: the sound of a towering wave of water crashing ashore and overwhelming everything in its path.

Luckily, Wit survived the tsunami. More than 200,000 other people around the Indian Ocean weren’t so lucky.

The elephants? They were fine too. Wit and many others believe it’s because they knew the wave was coming. And scientists say there’s a possibility that Wit is right. That’s because elephants are among a handful of animals known to be able to hear “infrasound,” the extremely low-frequency rumbles that are produced by natural phenomena from earthquakes and volcanoes to heavy winds and avalanches.

In fact, studies have shown that they use infrasound — which can travel vast distances through the ground, air, and water — to carry on long-distance conversations. Researchers have homed in on these “invisible” communications in just the last few decades, as sophisticated microphones and recording equipment allowed them to listen in.

Now, infrasound researchers wonder whether some animals can hear danger approaching. For instance, big storms such as hurricanes produce their own distinctive infrasonic signature. Similarly, earthquakes can produce several distinct infrasound pulses that can travel thousands of miles and much faster than water. Thus, tsunamis, also triggered by earthquakes, hit the shores only after infrasound.

In Thailand, it’s possible that Wit’s elephants picked up these signals before the wave hit, prompting them to trumpet their fear and then flee. But we may never know for sure. Elephants carrying radio tags in the region may have offered important insight. Unfortunately, researchers lost contact with the tagged elephants eight hours prior to the tsunami. When they regained transmission an hour after the tsunami hit, they found the elephants in the same vicinity as they were prior to the tsunami — just a few hundred feet from the shore. It is impossible to know exactly what happened while the transmitters were down.

Studies in zoos show that even animals known to hear infrasound don’t necessarily become agitated when they hear the signals. But researchers also note that the animals in zoos are so frequently subjected to infrasound, from their urban setting, that they may be desensitized. Scientists say carrying out experiments in the wild that might settle the matter once and for all would be very difficult and expensive.

But researchers are learning more about infrasound through other kinds of studies. Alligator researchers, for instance, are cracking the code that these huge reptiles use to signal their mates. Among other things, they’ve learned that alligators can produce an array of infrasonic signals by vibrating air inside special sound-producing sacs in their chins.

Other researchers are studying the idea that infrasonic sound can produce emotions in people. To test this, they asked people at a concert to rate their emotional responses to several pieces of music, some of which had been secretly “spiced” with infrasonic noises. More than a quarter of the listeners reported that the infrasonic melodies produced “ghostly” feelings of anxiety, uneasiness, sorrow, fear, and chills down the spine. Infrasonic sound can also make people nauseous and sick.

Those physical and emotional reactions may explain why horror movies used to feature scary, low-pitched organ music, the researchers say. And perhaps why animals too get scared when they hear a mysterious, infrasonic pulse.

Journey with Meg Ryan to the jungles of Thailand in search of the white elephant, a rare creature coveted by royalty — and threatened by extinction.

To Americans, a white elephant is a metaphor for an encumbrance, a worthless possession. To the people of Thailand, a white elephant is a highly unusual creature to be venerated, one that, along with the darker-hued members of its species, is facing escalating threats to its survival. To the actress Meg Ryan, an encounter with one is the culmination of a lifelong dream. NATURE gets a rare glimpse of the unique pachyderm in The White Elephants of Thailand with Meg Ryan.

The film presents elephants in their everyday contact with the people of Thailand, whose treatment of them ranges from adoration to exploitation. At the same time, we see them through the eyes of an American movie star — as the larger-than-life, awe-inspiring embodiment of childhood dreams.

Online content for The White Elephants of Thailand with Meg Ryan was originally posted February 2002.