Elephants

The grandmother leads and protects her herd, the elephant calf is born and takes its first steps. Watch elephants young and old trumpet, feed, splash and play. Learn to distinguish between African and Asian elephants. Find out about the many ways in which elephants use their trunks. Watch Asian elephants working with people and discover why people still hunt African elephants and what is being done to stop them.

James Prunier was born in 1959 in Oran, Algeria. His father’s job as a pilot meant grew up overlooking Lake Constance in Germany, looking out onto the Atlantic in the Landes in France, and then finally in Provence, also in France. A few years later, as an adolescent, he is marked by the discovery of the industrial landscape of Lorraine, in which he identifies a type of poetry. He goes to the Epinal Art School and then to study Fine Arts at Nancy. After winning an art competition organised by the Centre for Cultural Action at Angoulême in 1981, Paris beckons. In 1982 he publishes his first illustrated book with Gallimard which offers him the chance to be more widely known. A decade later, he is named the “Official painter of the skies”, after the publication of his History of Aviation series. In 2000, The French mail service commissions him to carry out “Aerial adventures”, a work inspired by the four stamps that he designed between 1997 and 2000, based on around the theme of the airmail service. Following his illustrations of “The Little Stories of the Great Louvre Museum”, edited by Gallimard, James Prunier has recently illustrated the life of Leonardo da Vinci as part of the “Following in the Footsteps of…” series. James Prunier is the illustrator of Dinosaurs, Trees, Trains and Elephants in the My First Discovery series.