07/01/2019
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
04/29/2019
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. (June)
"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."
"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."
"For millennia Asian elephants have lived in a complicated relationship between working during the day for humans and returning at night to socialize and mate in the wild with other elephants. This relationship may have helped their species to survive."
"A fascinating exploration of a relationship between two species who could not be more different. Tucked away in one of the last pristine forests on earth, humans and elephants have worked together for centuries, forming a unique bond that exists nowhere else. Beautifully written, and carefully researched, Giants of the Monsoon Forest is an important insight into the minds of elephants, and a moving account of both the best and worst of human nature."
"A deep dive into the surprisingly complex relationship between [elephants and humans].… Illuminating."
Undark - Rachel Love Nuwer
"[A] beautifully written travelogue and ethnography of the centuries-old relationship between humans and logging elephants."
Newyorker.com - Nikil Saval
"Shell’s research is extensive and meticulous."
"Among the most enjoyable parts of the book are the stories of individual elephants. … Highly readable."
Times Literary Supplement - Rachel Dwyer
"[A] fascinating and timely account of an overlooked natural bond, the deep tie between people and domesticated elephants. Full of insights into history and with rare accounts from modern-day mahouts, Giants of the Monsoon Forest shows how this ancient relationship provides a path forward - for the elephants, for the forests, and for the rural cultures that rely on both."
"The awe in which we hold elephants is amply fed by the stories and history in this fascinating book."
"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."
"Shell’s narrative is skilled at sketching the sociological, geographic, and ethical complexities of human-elephant relationships."
Science - Jessica Bell Rizzolo
"The greatest strength of Giants of the Monsoon Forest is it's author's clear-eyed pragmatism. Mr. Shell respects elephants without sentimentalizing them."
Wall Street Journal - Tunku Varadarajan
"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."
