1 September 2026

Last Wednesday I treated myself to the Great Elephant Migration proceeding now through 13 September down the Commonwealth Ave Mall in Boston from Fairfield to Dartmouth.  The handiwork of over 300 indigenous artisans of The Real Elephant Collective of the Nilgiri Hills in South India, these 100 elephants seem remarkably at home, though arrested in mid-amble, each a named replica of a real wild elephant in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, each one distinct in size, shape, and remarkably rendered personality.

The Migration is a unique opportunity to stroll safely among a herd of elephants, their progress juxtaposed with the elegant Victorian-era row houses of Com Ave, themselves each distinct Second Empire, French Renaissance, Italianate, and Beaux-Arts beauties.  The new Back Bay visitors are composed of a steel framework covered by Lantana camara, an invasive species that smothers elephants’ preferred vegetation, and were created to promote awareness of human-wildlife coexistence, support conservation fundraising, and highlight reuse of invasive plant materials.  They are free to observe, and absolutely delightful.

Touchable (and kiss-able and feed-able to all children), the elephants were not, however, climb-able, something of a challenge to parental control.