Synopses & Reviews
For millennia, people all over the world have revered, adored, and exploited elephants. In Thailand, a pregnant woman ducks under an elephant's belly in hopes of having an easy delivery; a tycoon builds an elephant-shaped skyscraper; and pirate loggers feed amphetamines to their elephants to make them haul back-breaking loads. In India, milling worshippers dance with gilded tuskers at ecstatic temple festivals. From the steppes of Siberia to America's prairies, scientists have proposed restoring lost ecosystems by reintroducing the elephants and mammoths that once ruled them. And generation after generation of readers have delighted in Babar, Horton, and Dumbo.
In a kaleidoscopic account rich in historic lore, surprising science, and exotic adventure, Eric Scigliano traces an age-old, extraordinary relationship between species and shows how it still haunts and inspires us today. He explains how elephants may have been "nursemaids" to human evolution and how they have shaped history, art, religion, and popular culture as no other animals have. He joins a grueling chase after crop-raiding rogues in Sri Lanka and probes the bitter battles over the roles of elephants in zoos and circuses, revealing the enduring ecological importance and mythic fascination of these endangered giants.
Review
"Richly informative... clear and enjoyable." Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Eric Scigliano, who has written for Outside, the New York Times, and many other publications, first became fascinated with elephants as a child in Vietnam.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction 1
I. Beginnings
1 Human Nature and Elephant Nature 11
2 Mammoth Riches 20
3 Overchill, Overkill, Over-Ill, and Over the Hill 34
4 Elephants in America 47
II. Worship and Delight
5 Dances with Elephants 61
6 The Elephant Treasure 75
7 The Elephant-Headed God 88
8 The Land of the White Elephant 98
III. In War and Pieces
9 Warriors and Giants 117
10 Blood and Circuses 128
11 Ambassadors from the East 138
12 White Gold 147
13 Brown Ivory 163
IV. The Circus Comes to Town
14 Bailey and Bet, Barnum and Jumbo 177
15 Topsy Was Framed 196
16 Our Kind of Elephants 206
V. Endings
17 The Elephant Island 221
18 Catching an Elephant 229
19 No Room in the Nilgiris 243
20 Must This Show Go On? 254
21 Breaking Contact 273
22 Seeing the Elephant 287
Notes 303
Bibliography 330
Index 346