Giants of the Monsoon Forest

April 29, 2019
Shell (Transportation and Revolt), a geography professor at Temple University, provides a surprising look at an elephant-human “alliance” that seemingly benefits both species. Despite elephants never having been selectively bred, various East Asian cultures have, for millennia, used the animal’s intelligence, strength, and incredibly dexterous trunks by training them for important tasks that include hauling lumber and ferrying people across rough terrain or hazardous bodies of water. The elephants, amenable to following the directives of their drivers, or mahouts, and apparently empathetic (Shell cites an instance where a mother elephant carrying her calf across a river stopped to rescue a human who’d fallen in), have also proved lifesavers in natural disasters such as floods. Shell’s focus on these partially domesticated specimens breaks new ground in popular science treatments of the elephant, which are more commonly concerned with the better-known wild African variety. And his nuanced look at the mahout-elephant connection—the drivers work the animals during the day and then release them in the afternoon or evening, fetching the elephants again the following morning—allows him to showcase an unusually reciprocal relationship between humans and another species. Readers interested in animal intelligence and emotions, as well as how they are affected by contact with humans, will be spellbound by Shell’s thorough study.

July 1, 2019

Shell (geography and urban studies, Temple Univ., PA) has a keen interest in transportation systems. This interest has led him to study the relationship between humans and elephants. He focuses on the Indian-Burmese border, where between a third and a fourth of the estimated 40,000-50,000 remaining Asian elephants are worker elephants: helping humans with transportation of materials, fording treacherous flooded areas, and logging activities. Elephants have not been selectively bred as extensively as other working species such as dogs, mainly because their long life spans are not conducive to intensive genetic selection by humans. Shell explores the characteristics of elephants that have made them so adaptable and helpful to humans. Topics covered include how wild elephants are caught and trained, the utility and strength of the elephant trunk, and the historic heroic tales of elephants transporting humans away from dangerous places and through treacherous terrains. Shell argues that mahouts (professional elephant riders and handlers) are uniquely poised to help in the conservation efforts necessary to save this imperiled species. VERDICT This fascinating book explores the complex bond between elephants and humans, becoming part of the new ethno-elephantology research that has captivated scholars from many different disciplines.--Diana Hartle, Univ. of Georgia Science Lib., Athens

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2019
Asian elephants are unique in the annals of animals humans rely on. Not truly domesticated, as are all of our other animal partners, these working elephants are mostly captured from the wild rather than deliberately bred. Shell, a professor of geography, became fascinated by places that don't show up on modern maps or GPS devices and eventually discovered the elephant trails that connect mountainous India and Burma. These paths are used by work elephants and their mahouts as they harvest teak, serve as ferries across monsoon-swollen rivers, and move people and supplies when mechanized transport fails. Shell spent time in remote villages with mahouts and their families, learning about the lives of working elephants, which are released into the forest at night, their front legs shackled so they can walk but not run. The elephants can forage for their own food, meet and possibly mate with wild elephants, and generally live their own lives until they are caught again for work. Shell presents a world in which the elephant is a valued partner and, while not truly free, is protected.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)