Giants of the monsoon forest : living and working with elephants
(Book)
Author
Published
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019].
Edition
First edition.
Physical Desc
255 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.
Status
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Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Limon Memorial Library - NONFICTION | 599.67 SHE | On Shelf |
Pines and Plains - Elizabeth Public Library - NONFICTION | ANF 599.67 SHE | On Shelf |
Ruby Sisson Library - NONFICTION | 599.67 SHE, J | On Shelf |
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More Details
Published
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019].
Format
Book
Edition
First edition.
Language
English
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages [219]-241) and index.
Description
"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 smart elephants, 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 Asia's 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 helping sustainably log Asian forests, humans and elephants working together can help protect the fragile spaces they both need to survive." --,Provided by publisher.
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Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Shell, J. (2019). Giants of the monsoon forest: living and working with elephants (First edition.). W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Shell, Jacob, 1983-. 2019. Giants of the Monsoon Forest: Living and Working With Elephants. W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Shell, Jacob, 1983-. Giants of the Monsoon Forest: Living and Working With Elephants W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Shell, Jacob. Giants of the Monsoon Forest: Living and Working With Elephants First edition., W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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