When Roger Henneous became senior elephant keeper in 1971 at what was then known as Washington Park Zoo, he took over a herd whose lives were very different from what their descendants and successors now experience.

The zoo was busily building a reputation as “the nation’s premier Asian elephant breeder,” as a Syracuse Post-Standard article put it in 1990, with 24 births in 28 years. The zoo’s researchers were the first to understand the 16-week estrus cycle in female Asian elephants, which was crucial information for breeding. And Henneous was introducing a new style of elephant-keeping, one that revolved around observing elephant behavior and using what he learned to work cooperatively with the animals.

Henneous’ career and legacy are at the center of the new book “Elephant Speak: A Devoted Keeper’s Life Among the Herd” (300 pages, $17), by Melissa Crandall. Published by Portland State University’s Ooligan Press and relying heavily on interviews, newspaper and magazine stories and research articles, the book is a no-holds-barred, intimate look at Portland’s pachyderms during Henneous’ three decades in charge.

Take all those elephant births: The resulting calves didn’t always thrive. Some were born with fatal deformities; others, to mothers that didn’t fully understand how to care for their newborns after years in captivity and, sometimes, isolation.

In this 1979 photo, Roger Henneous, elephant keeper at Washington Park Zoo, shares a playful moment with Khun-Chorn, the 19th baby born to Portland's pachyderms. The elephant was in quarantine prior to being sold to another zoo. Born May 19, 1978, he weighed more than 1,200 pounds.Randy Wood/The Oregonian

The elephants that did survive waged a near-constant battle against foot and leg problems that could turn deadly. Crandall notes a particularly bad run for the zoo in the 1990s, when elephants euthanized for medical reasons included Rosy, the zoo’s first elephant; Me-Tu, mother of current herd member Rose-Tu; and Belle, mother of Packy, the first elephant born in captivity in the U.S. in 44 years.

There were successes, too, most notably the bond Henneous developed with his charges, whose intelligence, brawn and instincts he learned to love, fear and respect. They found joy together in simple things: a shared plug of tobacco, a prank involving knocking, a healthy calf.

After retiring in 1998, Henneous stayed away from the zoo, which in the latter years of his career had become the source of much sorrow. But in 2017, he couldn’t turn down an invitation to tour the zoo’s newly opened 6-acre Elephant Lands. The occasion prompted him to muse: “I used to think elephants in zoos were a good idea and then I spent thirty years with them. Now I just don’t know. … But if not zoos, then where?”

Crandall presents her fascinating, thought-provoking nonfiction debut in three Oregon appearances:

· 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St., Portland.

· 6 p.m. Friday, March 6, Roundabout Books, 900 N.W. Mount Washington Drive, #110, Bend.

· 5 p.m. Saturday, March 7, Sunriver Books and Music, 57100 Beaver Drive, Sunriver.

awang@oregonian.com; Twitter: @ORAmyW

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