Yet, in some strange fashion the elephant has been the thread connecting many of these diverse themes-for example, the interaction between elephants and tropical plants, parasite loads in relation to mate choice, and the use of stable carbon isotopes in studying the elephant’s feeding habits as well as in reconstructing past climate change. During the past 20-odd years, my own work as well as that of my research group has actually extended beyond elephants to communities of small and large mammals, rain forest birds, parasites, tropical plants, and even paleoclimate. Actually, I think that the defection of the few biologists who study creatures such as elephants and tigers to disciplines such as the classification of beetles would make little difference to our knowledge of beetles but considerably erode our understanding of elephants and tigers, creatures that could act as flagships in conserving beetles and the diversity of our tropical forests. The recent genetic evidence for two species of African elephants, and the claims of a possible third or even fourth species of African elephant, would alter the articlesto-species ratio, but the Proboscidea would still maintain its top slot. The message of his article was that the study of the vast diversity of smaller-size organisms was being neglected in favor of the larger vertebrates. In an article entitled “How many species are there on earth?” in the September 16, 1988, issue of the journal Science, the eminent and influential scientist Robert May (now Lord May) observed, almost with a tinge of regret, that the Order Proboscidea topped the list of the number of articles per species of various animal groups that were published annually during 1978–1987. The living elephants : evolutionary ecology, behavior, and conservation / by Raman Sukumar. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sukumar, R. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved.
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