Elyssa Kellerman, Wildlife Photography - Artist's Statement on "Behaviors"

As a wildlife photographer I am a keen observer of animal behavior. To capture animal interaction, I often just watch for the first few days of a shoot in order to get a feel for the range of behaviors a particular species demonstrates. I have observed how an animal relies on a host of behaviors to survive and go about her daily existence. I have watched the extraordinary patience of a predator stalking, launching an attack, and killing - or more often - missing its prey. I have witnessed how an animal uses its environment to survive through camouflage and through an innate knowledge of where it can find food.

Perhaps the behaviors that have touched me the most are the moments of bonding between animals in a group and the moments of tenderness between mothers and babies. I have observed monogamous pairs of macaws preen each other for hours to solidify their life-long bond. I have observed elephants gently and repeatedly touching each other with their trunks to enhance the bond within the group. I have observed Mountain gorillas carefully groom each other for hours to establish friendships and also to establish their social rank among each other.

But the moments I have witnessed in the animal world that speak to me most profoundly are the moments I have observed between mothers and babies. I have witnessed lioness' carefully and so very gently, carry their newborns in their mouth to transport them to a place of safety. I have observed mother sea lions leave their young pup for the grueling and long search for food in the vast ocean, only to come back and miraculously find her pup among the mass of pups waiting patiently on the beach. To watch a gorilla or a chimp suckle her young, while holding her baby's little hand, or while scratching under her baby's underarm, or to watch a newborn elephant walk and hide under his mother's enormous body and then stop to nurse, takes my breath away. These moments remind me of how crucial it is to insure and insist that all wildlife has a place to be free, to be protected, and to be allowed to live in harmony with humans in perpetuity.