This weekend Yvette Taylor, Executive Director International of The Earth Organization drew my attention to an article "The elephant man" in The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009.

David Adam tells the fascinating story of Lawrence Anthony's work from rehabilitating elephants on his game reserve Thula Thula in South Africa (see previous post Elephants free captive antelope) to rescuing the animals from the Bagdad Zoo during the Iraq War. This story, outlined in Babylon's Ark, a 2007 book which Anthony wrote with journalist Graham Spence, has attracted the attention of Hollywood, with a major film, Good Luck, Mr Anthony, in the works.

"I knew Baghdad had the biggest zoo in the Middle East and I couldn't stand the thought of the animals dying in their cages. I contacted the Americans and the British and said, 'You have any contingency plans?' Nobody was interested. I couldn't get any support from anybody so I thought, I'll just go. I went there for the animals."

The article includes a link to a picture gallery and the recording of David Adam telling the story.
Listen here.