Lawerence Anthony is a great loss to the conservation world who died March 6 at age 61. He is known as The Elephant Whisperer and gained worldwide respect for his amazing rescue of the animals in distress at the Baghdad Zoo during Iraqi invasion in 2003. His human friends are not the only people mourning the loss. At Thula Thula, the private wildlife park in South Africa where he was the director of conservation, the entire herd of elephants who knew him and loved him, came to his home to say farewell.

His wife Francoise wrote On the Facebook page of Thula Thula: “Tonight at Thula Thula, the whole herd arrived at the main house, home to Lawrence and I. We had not seen them here for a very long time. Extraordinary proof of animal sensitivity and awareness that only a few human can perceive. And Lawrence was one of them.”

His son Dylan went on to say that there are two elephant herds at Thula Thula reserve. They were all his father’s beloved elephants which both herds arrived at the house after his death. They had not visited the house for a year-and-a-half and it must have taken them about 12 hours to make the journey. They all hung around for about two days before making their way back into the bush.”

Anthony and his wife, Françoise, became so close to the elephants that on some occasions they almost had to chase them out of their living room. Days after the elephant Nana gave birth to a son, she emerged from the bush to show off the newborn to Anthony. A few years later, after Anthony’s first grandchild was born, he returned the compliment.

May his soul rest in peace and his legacy will remain with the elephants and animals he helped protect.

Peace and Harmony, Furtemba Sherpa