350 



nOOSEVELT-MV LIFE AS A XATTRALIST 



A siiKill herd ot ('lfi)hant cows aiiioiij!' iniiiiosa trees and tall grass near the 'Nzoia River. — It \v;is 

 from this herd that I shot the two cows for the American Museum. This monarch of big game animals 

 has a highly developed emotional and intellectual nature through coordination with the trunk. As I 

 watched the herd test and move objects, gather small leaves and berries and eat them, guide and fondle the 

 calves, I realized as not before the handlike value of this trunk. The sense of touch is at least equal 

 to that of the hand of the higher apes. Elephants are not limited to the experiences of a single habitat. 

 They wander much and far and are at home in all sorts of country. It was good to find out that a 

 lion will flee from an elephant as fast as his legs will carry him 



Ivory hunters have very nearly killed out the elephant in Africa except in out of the way places. For- 

 tunately the species is now under protection. In British East Africa no cows can be shot except to safe- 

 guard life and property, and no bull with ivory weighing less than thirty pounds a tusk. That the great 

 beast might be represented in our American scientific institutions for generations to come, we brought 

 the two to the American Museum, and one to the University of California, in addition to those for a 

 group at the National Museum. (To be fit for scientific use a skin had to be removed at once, and its 

 preparation required ten days' steady work) 



