"An Elephant Crackup" by Charles Siebert is an essay which delves into the struggle between elephants and human beings and the steps which are being taken to strengthen their bonds. The Sheldrick Trust was established as a rehabilitation center where elephants and humans could become closer through shared experiences and love. Through this process humans and elephants become something of a family to one another. To the elephants, humans became their “allomothers”. Rehabilitation has placed those of these species involved in this process, in a new close knit family. Through love and care these beings have created something more than what they had before. They created an “interspecies culture”. It is more complex and vast than any of their cultures alone. This new culture has come from the best of both their worlds as the foundation of this new “family” which both humans and elephants can be a part of. Elephants and humans were already in many aspects similar, but now being part an “interspecies” family has just fortified this claim.
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