"A beautifully written travelogue."— Nikil Saval New Yorker
"The awe in which we hold elephants is amply fed by the stories and history in this fascinating book."— Frans de Waal, author of Mama’s Last Hug
"Shell’s research is extensive and meticulous."— Barbara J. King NPR
"The greatest strength… is its author’s clear-eyed pragmatism. Mr. Shell respects elephants without sentimentalizing them."— Tunku Varadarajan Wall Street Journal
"Human relations with animals have so often been brutally exploitative and cruel. At last, Giants of the Monsoon Forest describes a relationship with a fellow creature that—in Burma, at least—is more collegial rather than murderous or exploitative."— Yi-Fu Tuan, University of Wisconsin, author of Space and Place and Dominance & Affection: The Making of Pets
"An urgent, impassioned, and important reminder that relations between humans and nonhumans need not and must not be as disastrously dislocated as they usually are; that human dignity is increased if we recognize the dignity of our nonhuman cousins, and dangerously diminished if we do not."— Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast
"Thought-provoking.… Examining everything from the muscular miracle of the beast’s proboscis to the species’ wartime work, Shell also charts the threats facing Asian elephants, and the dearth of local voices in relevant policymaking."— Nature
"A deep dive into the surprisingly complex relationship between [elephants and humans].… Illuminating."— Rachel Love Nuwer Undark
"Shell’s narrative is skilled at sketching the sociological, geographic, and ethical complexities of human-elephant relationships."— Jessica Bell Rizzolo Science
"Among the most enjoyable parts of the book are the stories of individual elephants, some of whom provided distinguished service to humans.… Highly readable."— Rachel Dwyer Times Literary Supplement
A journey through the hidden world of elephants and their riders.
High in the mountainous rainforests of Burma and India grow some of the world's last
stands of mature wild teak. For more than a thousand years, people here have worked with
elephants to log these otherwise impassable forests and move people and goods (often illicitly)
under cover of the forest canopy. In Giants of the Monsoon Forest, geographer Jacob Shell takes
us deep into this strange elephant country to explore the lives of these extraordinarily intelligent
creatures.
The relationship between elephant and rider is an intimate one that lasts for many decades.
When an elephant is young, he or she is paired with a rider, who is called a mahout. The two
might work together their entire lives. Though not bred to work with humans, these elephants
can lift and carry logs, save people from mudslides, break logjams in raging rivers, and navigate
dense mountain forests with passengers on their backs.
Visiting tiny logging villages and forest camps, Shell describes fascinating characters, both
elephant and human-like a heroic elephant named Maggie who saves dozens of British and
Burmese refugees during World War II, and an elephant named Pak Chan who sneaks away
from the Ho Chi Minh Trail to mate with a partner in a passing herd. We encounter an eloquent
colonel in a rebel army in Burma's Kachin State, whose expertise is smuggling arms and valuable
jade via elephant convoy, and several particularly smartelephants, including one who discovers,
all on his own, how to use a wood branch as a kind of safety lock when lifting heavy teak logs.
Giants of the Monsoon Forest offers a new perspective on animal intelligence and reveals an
unexpected relationship between evolution in the natural world and political struggles in the
human one. Shell examines why the complex tradition of working with elephants has endured
with Asian elephants, but not with their counterparts in Africa. And he shows us how this
secret forest culture might offer a way to save the elephants. By performing rescues after major
floods-as they did in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami-and sustainably logging
Asian forests, humans and elephants working together can help protect the fragile spaces they
both need to survive.
1129598831
High in the mountainous rainforests of Burma and India grow some of the world's last
stands of mature wild teak. For more than a thousand years, people here have worked with
elephants to log these otherwise impassable forests and move people and goods (often illicitly)
under cover of the forest canopy. In Giants of the Monsoon Forest, geographer Jacob Shell takes
us deep into this strange elephant country to explore the lives of these extraordinarily intelligent
creatures.
The relationship between elephant and rider is an intimate one that lasts for many decades.
When an elephant is young, he or she is paired with a rider, who is called a mahout. The two
might work together their entire lives. Though not bred to work with humans, these elephants
can lift and carry logs, save people from mudslides, break logjams in raging rivers, and navigate
dense mountain forests with passengers on their backs.
Visiting tiny logging villages and forest camps, Shell describes fascinating characters, both
elephant and human-like a heroic elephant named Maggie who saves dozens of British and
Burmese refugees during World War II, and an elephant named Pak Chan who sneaks away
from the Ho Chi Minh Trail to mate with a partner in a passing herd. We encounter an eloquent
colonel in a rebel army in Burma's Kachin State, whose expertise is smuggling arms and valuable
jade via elephant convoy, and several particularly smartelephants, including one who discovers,
all on his own, how to use a wood branch as a kind of safety lock when lifting heavy teak logs.
Giants of the Monsoon Forest offers a new perspective on animal intelligence and reveals an
unexpected relationship between evolution in the natural world and political struggles in the
human one. Shell examines why the complex tradition of working with elephants has endured
with Asian elephants, but not with their counterparts in Africa. And he shows us how this
secret forest culture might offer a way to save the elephants. By performing rescues after major
floods-as they did in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami-and sustainably logging
Asian forests, humans and elephants working together can help protect the fragile spaces they
both need to survive.
Giants of the Monsoon Forest: Living and Working with Elephants
A journey through the hidden world of elephants and their riders.
High in the mountainous rainforests of Burma and India grow some of the world's last
stands of mature wild teak. For more than a thousand years, people here have worked with
elephants to log these otherwise impassable forests and move people and goods (often illicitly)
under cover of the forest canopy. In Giants of the Monsoon Forest, geographer Jacob Shell takes
us deep into this strange elephant country to explore the lives of these extraordinarily intelligent
creatures.
The relationship between elephant and rider is an intimate one that lasts for many decades.
When an elephant is young, he or she is paired with a rider, who is called a mahout. The two
might work together their entire lives. Though not bred to work with humans, these elephants
can lift and carry logs, save people from mudslides, break logjams in raging rivers, and navigate
dense mountain forests with passengers on their backs.
Visiting tiny logging villages and forest camps, Shell describes fascinating characters, both
elephant and human-like a heroic elephant named Maggie who saves dozens of British and
Burmese refugees during World War II, and an elephant named Pak Chan who sneaks away
from the Ho Chi Minh Trail to mate with a partner in a passing herd. We encounter an eloquent
colonel in a rebel army in Burma's Kachin State, whose expertise is smuggling arms and valuable
jade via elephant convoy, and several particularly smartelephants, including one who discovers,
all on his own, how to use a wood branch as a kind of safety lock when lifting heavy teak logs.
Giants of the Monsoon Forest offers a new perspective on animal intelligence and reveals an
unexpected relationship between evolution in the natural world and political struggles in the
human one. Shell examines why the complex tradition of working with elephants has endured
with Asian elephants, but not with their counterparts in Africa. And he shows us how this
secret forest culture might offer a way to save the elephants. By performing rescues after major
floods-as they did in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami-and sustainably logging
Asian forests, humans and elephants working together can help protect the fragile spaces they
both need to survive.
High in the mountainous rainforests of Burma and India grow some of the world's last
stands of mature wild teak. For more than a thousand years, people here have worked with
elephants to log these otherwise impassable forests and move people and goods (often illicitly)
under cover of the forest canopy. In Giants of the Monsoon Forest, geographer Jacob Shell takes
us deep into this strange elephant country to explore the lives of these extraordinarily intelligent
creatures.
The relationship between elephant and rider is an intimate one that lasts for many decades.
When an elephant is young, he or she is paired with a rider, who is called a mahout. The two
might work together their entire lives. Though not bred to work with humans, these elephants
can lift and carry logs, save people from mudslides, break logjams in raging rivers, and navigate
dense mountain forests with passengers on their backs.
Visiting tiny logging villages and forest camps, Shell describes fascinating characters, both
elephant and human-like a heroic elephant named Maggie who saves dozens of British and
Burmese refugees during World War II, and an elephant named Pak Chan who sneaks away
from the Ho Chi Minh Trail to mate with a partner in a passing herd. We encounter an eloquent
colonel in a rebel army in Burma's Kachin State, whose expertise is smuggling arms and valuable
jade via elephant convoy, and several particularly smartelephants, including one who discovers,
all on his own, how to use a wood branch as a kind of safety lock when lifting heavy teak logs.
Giants of the Monsoon Forest offers a new perspective on animal intelligence and reveals an
unexpected relationship between evolution in the natural world and political struggles in the
human one. Shell examines why the complex tradition of working with elephants has endured
with Asian elephants, but not with their counterparts in Africa. And he shows us how this
secret forest culture might offer a way to save the elephants. By performing rescues after major
floods-as they did in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami-and sustainably logging
Asian forests, humans and elephants working together can help protect the fragile spaces they
both need to survive.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172627750 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
| Publication date: | 10/29/2019 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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