by Lauren Porter

Humans and neurons are alike. Neither one can exist in isolation. ~ Lou Cozolino

The impact of trauma on our children and our societies is ever-present and devastating. Family violence, social breakdown, criminal behavior, mental illness… the list goes on. With nurturing experiences, we learn to nurture and we sustain healthy connection. With traumatic experiences, we succumb to stress, an inability to connect and a predisposition to continue the pattern of aggression. By realizing our invisible yet undeniable connection to others we can learn new lessons and new ways of being. The lessons are often surprising. And sometimes the teachers not even human.

There is no creature among all the Beasts of the world which hath so great and ample demonstration of the power and wisdom of almighty God as the Elephant.~ Edward Topsell

All across Africa, India and parts of Southeast Asia, elephants are helping us to learn the lesson of trauma and come to our senses. Although known throughout history as peaceful, social animals living in cooperative coexistence with humans and other animal species, elephant life has dramatically changed. Years of culling, poaching, and habitat loss have altered elephant society and jeopardized its very survival. These wise and social creatures are striking out, attacking humans, destroying villages, killing each other and raping other species. And these are not random events. In the late 1990’s, elephant researchers had to create a new statistical category, ‘Human-Elephant Conflict’ (HEC) in order to monitor the problem. The details are harrowing. Between 2000 and 2004 in one Indian state alone, 300 people were killed by elephants. In one month in 2003, three male elephants were responsible for the rape and murder of 63 rhinos. And in some areas, 90% of male elephant deaths are caused by other male elephants, as opposed to the past norm 6%. It is a culture defined by trauma and driven by the lasting psychophysiological effects on the brain and behaviour. The elephants are losing their battle with humankind, but, as a testament to their highly developed sensibilities, their strong sense of family and their excellent memories, they are not going quietly. Instead they are leaving in their wake the evidence and experiences that are forcing us to pay attention.

By nature, elephants are profoundly social creatures. They are renowned for their close relationships. A herd of elephants is basically one massive elephant – a single living organism beautifully interconnected, interwoven and interdependent. Young elephants are raised in constant contact with their mothers, typically staying within 15 feet of her for the first 8 years of life. There is also an ever-present network of extended female family and friends, the ‘allomothers’ who assist in the raising, support and community building of elephant life. When elephants reach adolescence, young females are socialized into the network of matriarchs while young males go off for a time into an all-male social group before coming back to the herd as mature adults.

Even in death, elephants retain their emphasis on connection and loving memory. When a family member dies, the survivors take part in intense mourning and burial rituals, conducting weeklong vigils, caressing the body with their trunks and taking turns rubbing their trunks along the lower jaw of the deceased, mimicking the greeting living elephants use with each other. Elephants visit the remains of the bones for years afterward, returning to the gravesite to practice ongoing mourning, never forgetting either the place or their loved one.

Elephant communication further exemplifies their embedded sense of cohesion and connection. An elaborate system of varied vocalizations allows them to communicate at close range and across long distances, transmitting good news, sudden changes or imminent threats. They use trumpeting, high-pitched screams, low-frequency rumbles and even subsonic vibrations in order to maintain consistent and intimate contact and awareness.

When I stand before thee at the day’s end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my healing. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

This is amazing stuff – and the reason elephants have maintained a stance of beauty, fascination and even worship among humans. Yet it is all unraveling. With years of habitat loss, poaching and systematic culling of herds, elephant culture is now one that seems structured around trauma.

The elephant elders are fewer and fewer, resulting in a lack of leadership, security and framework for the society. As a result, calves are being raised by younger and more inexperienced females who lack the support and community of allomothers and teachers. These young mothers show poor mothering skills, infant rejection and elevated cortisol levels and are at high-risk for many disorders. Even the fetuses show negative effects of prenatal stress that occurs during the cullings. Similarly, young males, without the older bulls to assist them with the transition from adolescence to adulthood, evidence hyperaggression and abnormal hormonal cycles often leading to unabated violence and sexuality. Male socialization of elephants begins in infancy, just as with the females, and they spend their young life in the close care of their mother. Then, in adolescence, males leave the birth family to become a part of older all-male groups that provide the structure and knowledge to return to the family as a stable, caring and protective father. Older bulls quell their aggression and socialize them for community life. It is no coincidence that every young male who has been known to rape and kill rhinos was also a young elephant that witnessed the violent death of his parent.

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.~Albert Einstein

This is an animal nation shaped and defined by trauma. Abnormal startle responses, depression, unpredictable social behavior and hyperaggression, all unnatural features of elephant life, are now prominent responses in these elephant herds. For humans and elephants, trauma affects society directly through an individual’s experience and indirectly through social transmission and the breakdown of the social fabric and traditions. With trauma comes an enduring legacy. Suddenly, entire families and communities are vulnerable to PTSD and predisposition to violence in adulthood. Profound disruptions to the attachment process – central to avoiding such stress reactions and protecting individuals against trauma – are commonplace. Maternal separation, deprivation and exposure to traumatic events without the compensatory structures of older generations and healing communities, all upset psychobiological and neurological regulation, functioning and development.

As with humans, early healthy experiences with the mother lead to greater resilience, good stress regulation, social communication and empathy. But with the mothers gone and society’s fabric torn apart, elephants are experiencing psychological and social breakdown. While humans have damaged our own communities with violence, abuse and aggression, we have done the same to the elephants. The elephants, with their massive size and amazing power, are giving us an opportunity. By refusing to go quietly, by fighting back and allowing humans to bear witness to their pain and devastation, we have been given a window into our own souls. And the elephants are giving us hope, too. Just as experiences that offer compassion and connection can rewire the human brain and create healing, the same is true for elephants. One elephant in Kenya’s Queen Elizabeth National Park tells this story.

In the early 1980’s the elephant population of Queen Elizabeth National Park was at fewer than 150 elephants, down from nearly 4,000. During the war with Tanzania, soldiers from both armies grabbed all the ivory they could get their hands on in such brutal fashion that the word ‘poaching’ is woefully inadequate. The animals faced mass destruction as soldiers threw hand grenades into groups, bringing down entire families. After the war, the remaining survivors clung to each other in a tight bunch. Only one elder female remained and she was estimated to be about 62 years old. This matriarch gathered the survivors from the hideouts and forest fringes and led them back – together – to the open savannah. She kept the group united until her death in the early 90’s, giving them time to heal and rebound. That one mother-savior, named Lady Irene, gave them the time and love they needed to get new families growing and emerging. The love of one mother was enough for a second chance, even if not for complete healing.

Many of us have not had a mother that strong. We grew among generations of trauma, histories of illness, stories of sorrow. Just as our own mother grew. Still others of us have had such a mother. Or father. Or allomother. Someone who brought us out of our hiding and into the open savannah. Whatever our experiences, there will always be dark places of hiding and patterns we must work to unravel. Like the elephants, we cannot acquiesce to that which is against our nature. We are creatures of love and connection. The footsteps of one do not thunder. But together we make rain.