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Giants of the Monsoon Forest: Living and Working with Elephants
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.
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.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 11, 2019
58 people are currently reading
1743 people want to read
About the author
Jacob Shell
4 books5 followersJacob Shell is Assistant Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
April 2, 2020
Giants of the Monsoon Forest: Living and Working with Elephants is about working elephants, just as the title indicates. It is about how men and elephants have worked together in the past, where and how they are working together today (particularly in Burma) and how the human / elephant relationship might best be developed in the future.
Elephants’ role/job in human society and thus their relationship to men has followed different trajectories in Africa and Asia. Neither do African and Asian elephants look the same. How and why this is so is discussed.
As agriculture expanded, elephants’ natural habitat diminished. In Asia, the teak forests of central Burma and the Patkai Mountain Range, along the Indian and Burmese border, became a refuge. Under the canopy of the dense forest man and elephant developed a symbiotic working relationship. Man and beast could help each other.
In the rugged terrain and forests of Burma there has developed a view of elephants, a culture, a knowledge passed down from generation to generation of how to capture, partially domesticate, train and communicate with elephants. In the teak forests of Burma elephants help in the transport and gathering of timber. In the monsoon season they can do what is not possible by road, train or even helicopter. Floods destroy bridges and other fixed infrastructure. Elephants unclog river jams and help in the transport of men and supplies. Their abilities come to the fore in flood relief and emergency evacuation operations.
It is interesting to note that these elephants have not been selectively bred.
The author sites historical events where elephants have played an essential role- –in 1942 when Japan invaded the British colony of Burma, in the Vietnam War, and of course Hannibal’s famed 3rd century B.C. march with a team of elephants over the Pyrenees and Alps.
The working relationship that develops between an elephant and his mahout is spoken of. In a few incidents we observe the intelligence of elephants. They do not merely follow commands. There are instances sited where it seems they solve problems and intuit what is the best thing to do.
I picked up this book to learn about the intelligence and emotions of elephants. I would have preferred more on this topic. Nevertheless, the book’s historical content is interesting, as is the information describing how elephants employed in the Burmese timber trade are only partially domesticated. Each night they return to the forests to eat and mate.
I would have gotten more from the book had maps been provided. A word list should have been included. Perhaps the paper book has these. Many foreign terms are used, and not all are sufficiently explained. There were sections where one foreign word followed another and names of places of which I am not familiar filled the text. Here I had trouble!
If elephants serve a role important to man their chance of survival is more likely to be ensured. Perhaps this is not so nice to hear, but it is the truth. The author, fully aware of man’s dominance, suggests alternate ways elephants could serve men in the future. They could be used more often in emergency evacuations, flood relief and after tsunamis. They could be utilized in border patrols. They could be introduced into communities and for example used to maintain peace at large local gatherings.
If we can find ways to utilize elephants’ dexterity, strength and intelligence, if we can give them occupations that make them valuable to society, their status will grow, as well as their chance of survival. We all want elephants to exist, so let’s give them a job so that their utility, our need of them, cannot be denied.
Tim Fannon narrates the audiobook. The narration was fine, albeit a bit too fast at times. Both the narration and the book I have given three stars.
Elephants’ role/job in human society and thus their relationship to men has followed different trajectories in Africa and Asia. Neither do African and Asian elephants look the same. How and why this is so is discussed.
As agriculture expanded, elephants’ natural habitat diminished. In Asia, the teak forests of central Burma and the Patkai Mountain Range, along the Indian and Burmese border, became a refuge. Under the canopy of the dense forest man and elephant developed a symbiotic working relationship. Man and beast could help each other.
In the rugged terrain and forests of Burma there has developed a view of elephants, a culture, a knowledge passed down from generation to generation of how to capture, partially domesticate, train and communicate with elephants. In the teak forests of Burma elephants help in the transport and gathering of timber. In the monsoon season they can do what is not possible by road, train or even helicopter. Floods destroy bridges and other fixed infrastructure. Elephants unclog river jams and help in the transport of men and supplies. Their abilities come to the fore in flood relief and emergency evacuation operations.
It is interesting to note that these elephants have not been selectively bred.
The author sites historical events where elephants have played an essential role- –in 1942 when Japan invaded the British colony of Burma, in the Vietnam War, and of course Hannibal’s famed 3rd century B.C. march with a team of elephants over the Pyrenees and Alps.
The working relationship that develops between an elephant and his mahout is spoken of. In a few incidents we observe the intelligence of elephants. They do not merely follow commands. There are instances sited where it seems they solve problems and intuit what is the best thing to do.
I picked up this book to learn about the intelligence and emotions of elephants. I would have preferred more on this topic. Nevertheless, the book’s historical content is interesting, as is the information describing how elephants employed in the Burmese timber trade are only partially domesticated. Each night they return to the forests to eat and mate.
I would have gotten more from the book had maps been provided. A word list should have been included. Perhaps the paper book has these. Many foreign terms are used, and not all are sufficiently explained. There were sections where one foreign word followed another and names of places of which I am not familiar filled the text. Here I had trouble!
If elephants serve a role important to man their chance of survival is more likely to be ensured. Perhaps this is not so nice to hear, but it is the truth. The author, fully aware of man’s dominance, suggests alternate ways elephants could serve men in the future. They could be used more often in emergency evacuations, flood relief and after tsunamis. They could be utilized in border patrols. They could be introduced into communities and for example used to maintain peace at large local gatherings.
If we can find ways to utilize elephants’ dexterity, strength and intelligence, if we can give them occupations that make them valuable to society, their status will grow, as well as their chance of survival. We all want elephants to exist, so let’s give them a job so that their utility, our need of them, cannot be denied.
Tim Fannon narrates the audiobook. The narration was fine, albeit a bit too fast at times. Both the narration and the book I have given three stars.
April 21, 2019
For those who appreciate elephants, Giants of the Monsoon Forest is stunning. Jacob Shell studied Asian elephants in the area between Burma, India and China. He has divided the stories into functional areas. So there are chapters on work elephants, fording elephants, war, transport and flooding.
The intelligence demonstrated by elephants is remarkable:
-An elephant carrying a huge log up a steep ramp found the log rolling up his tusks and over the top of his head. He thought about the problem, went into the forest and came back with a leafy branch which he inserted between his tusks to act as a backstop, and proceeded to amaze everyone on the project.
-An elephant caught its foot in the rocks under a raging river where it was breaking up logjams. Another came to help out, using its huge body as a breakwater so the two of them could think how to solve the problem. She pushed the stuck elephant until it could move freely, and they used their trunks to help each other ford the river and climb out. During World War II, as refugees left Burma, some women were trapped on a sandbar in a monsoon-swollen river. Again, an elephant, knowing its own bulk, made its way to them. Standing upstream, it blocked the rushing waters, and walking slowly, was able to shepherd the women across the calmed waters to shore.
-Tasked with lifting a huge log onto a flatbed truck, an elephant called Air Singh knew the log was too big and heavy to lift, but it figured out what to do. It pushed the truck around the muck (which the truck was unable to do) so it was positioned best for the operation. It carried two large logs over and placed them against the flatbed, making a ramp out of them. It nudged the big log several times so it had enough room to face the log and rolled the log up the ramp. All the activity shifted one of the ramp logs, so Air Singh kicked the log back into proper ramp position without missing a beat. Once the log was on the truck, he shoved it around until it was properly centered as a balanced load, so workers could strap it down.
-Finishing a tiring job, a man began riding his elephant home. He soon fell asleep, but the elephant kept going, delivering him home, 40 miles away, by the moonlight. With their masters shot by US soldiers, elephants delivered the bodies to their families on their own, 60 miles away.
The age -old method of controlling elephants still largely applies. Fandis capture elephants by driving them into huge pens, tie their feet, and when they calm down, begin training them. A mahout is the elephant’s trainer, coordinator, master and caregiver. Once trained, he releases the elephant every night. This serves two purposes. It saves the mahout from having to gather the 600 pounds of food the elephant needs every night, and gives it a sense of freedom. They can still mate with passing wild elephant herds.
In the morning, the mahout has to track down the elephant. This is made easier by the long chain the elephant has to drag around, leaving a trail in the mud. The elephant also has loose shackles, so it can wander, but not run. It can usually be found a kilometer or two away.
Elephants are (obviously) no dummies. They have learned to pick up the drag chain and carry it, leaving no trail. They have figured out they need to silence the wooden bells around their necks, so they stuff them with mud and leaves. This game goes on daily, for decades.
Elephants cover themselves with dirt and mud every night, because insects own the dark. The mahout’s first task with the elephant is to take it to a river and wash and brush it. After this refreshing half hour spa treatment, elephant is co-operative and ready for a day’s work. This system has been in place for several thousand years, from what Shell found.
Unfortunately, the geographic forest homeland of the elephants is in constant warfare, between tribes, between tribes and national governments, and between national governments. This has led to horrific situations. During World War II, British airmen were ordered to shoot any elephants they saw in Japanese held territory. In the Vietnam war, American airmen got the same order for elephants in enemy territory. It was enabled by napalm, stripping the forests of all vegetation where elephants might hide. The invasion of miners, developers and farmers has decimated the forests the napalm hasn’t, and the remaining forested areas can only support so many elephants. They have been in constant decline, to the point where Shell says there are only about 40,000 left. Compare this, he says, to African elephants, who are in the news all the time because of ivory poachers. There are still half a million elephants in sub-Saharan Africa.
Shell covers all the angles, including the failure of tourism as a solution. Where elephants can lead healthy lives, there is little or no infrastructure for tourism. Where there is infrastructure, there are no longer any forests. It’s unfortunate, because tourism is a ticket to survival. But the book doesn’t harp on that. It is more a joy of documenting the remarkable intellects, personalities, and altruism of such remarkable animals, throughout history, and still today. It is clearly a labor of love. Shell spent many years researching first hand, plying the mud, walking the forests, fording the rivers, ingratiating himself to mahouts, fandis, and government officials, and of course, riding the elephants. It is a worthy document of a remarkable relationship.
David Wineberg
The intelligence demonstrated by elephants is remarkable:
-An elephant carrying a huge log up a steep ramp found the log rolling up his tusks and over the top of his head. He thought about the problem, went into the forest and came back with a leafy branch which he inserted between his tusks to act as a backstop, and proceeded to amaze everyone on the project.
-An elephant caught its foot in the rocks under a raging river where it was breaking up logjams. Another came to help out, using its huge body as a breakwater so the two of them could think how to solve the problem. She pushed the stuck elephant until it could move freely, and they used their trunks to help each other ford the river and climb out. During World War II, as refugees left Burma, some women were trapped on a sandbar in a monsoon-swollen river. Again, an elephant, knowing its own bulk, made its way to them. Standing upstream, it blocked the rushing waters, and walking slowly, was able to shepherd the women across the calmed waters to shore.
-Tasked with lifting a huge log onto a flatbed truck, an elephant called Air Singh knew the log was too big and heavy to lift, but it figured out what to do. It pushed the truck around the muck (which the truck was unable to do) so it was positioned best for the operation. It carried two large logs over and placed them against the flatbed, making a ramp out of them. It nudged the big log several times so it had enough room to face the log and rolled the log up the ramp. All the activity shifted one of the ramp logs, so Air Singh kicked the log back into proper ramp position without missing a beat. Once the log was on the truck, he shoved it around until it was properly centered as a balanced load, so workers could strap it down.
-Finishing a tiring job, a man began riding his elephant home. He soon fell asleep, but the elephant kept going, delivering him home, 40 miles away, by the moonlight. With their masters shot by US soldiers, elephants delivered the bodies to their families on their own, 60 miles away.
The age -old method of controlling elephants still largely applies. Fandis capture elephants by driving them into huge pens, tie their feet, and when they calm down, begin training them. A mahout is the elephant’s trainer, coordinator, master and caregiver. Once trained, he releases the elephant every night. This serves two purposes. It saves the mahout from having to gather the 600 pounds of food the elephant needs every night, and gives it a sense of freedom. They can still mate with passing wild elephant herds.
In the morning, the mahout has to track down the elephant. This is made easier by the long chain the elephant has to drag around, leaving a trail in the mud. The elephant also has loose shackles, so it can wander, but not run. It can usually be found a kilometer or two away.
Elephants are (obviously) no dummies. They have learned to pick up the drag chain and carry it, leaving no trail. They have figured out they need to silence the wooden bells around their necks, so they stuff them with mud and leaves. This game goes on daily, for decades.
Elephants cover themselves with dirt and mud every night, because insects own the dark. The mahout’s first task with the elephant is to take it to a river and wash and brush it. After this refreshing half hour spa treatment, elephant is co-operative and ready for a day’s work. This system has been in place for several thousand years, from what Shell found.
Unfortunately, the geographic forest homeland of the elephants is in constant warfare, between tribes, between tribes and national governments, and between national governments. This has led to horrific situations. During World War II, British airmen were ordered to shoot any elephants they saw in Japanese held territory. In the Vietnam war, American airmen got the same order for elephants in enemy territory. It was enabled by napalm, stripping the forests of all vegetation where elephants might hide. The invasion of miners, developers and farmers has decimated the forests the napalm hasn’t, and the remaining forested areas can only support so many elephants. They have been in constant decline, to the point where Shell says there are only about 40,000 left. Compare this, he says, to African elephants, who are in the news all the time because of ivory poachers. There are still half a million elephants in sub-Saharan Africa.
Shell covers all the angles, including the failure of tourism as a solution. Where elephants can lead healthy lives, there is little or no infrastructure for tourism. Where there is infrastructure, there are no longer any forests. It’s unfortunate, because tourism is a ticket to survival. But the book doesn’t harp on that. It is more a joy of documenting the remarkable intellects, personalities, and altruism of such remarkable animals, throughout history, and still today. It is clearly a labor of love. Shell spent many years researching first hand, plying the mud, walking the forests, fording the rivers, ingratiating himself to mahouts, fandis, and government officials, and of course, riding the elephants. It is a worthy document of a remarkable relationship.
David Wineberg
March 29, 2019
Elephants were around since 400 B.C. A picture of combat elephants hangs in the Philadelphia museum of Art.
Elephants from Africa are much smaller than the Asian Elephants. They work well with their handlers,
(manhouts) and can respond to at least 4 different languages.
In the Asian forest,teak wood is carried in the tusks of the elephants, much like a forklift.
The elephants are especially helpful during the monsoon season; moving people and supplies.
This book gives a new perspective on their intelligence between the natural world and humans. They
help preserve the wild spaces.
Such an interesting book.
I won this free book from Goodreads First reads.
Elephants from Africa are much smaller than the Asian Elephants. They work well with their handlers,
(manhouts) and can respond to at least 4 different languages.
In the Asian forest,teak wood is carried in the tusks of the elephants, much like a forklift.
The elephants are especially helpful during the monsoon season; moving people and supplies.
This book gives a new perspective on their intelligence between the natural world and humans. They
help preserve the wild spaces.
Such an interesting book.
I won this free book from Goodreads First reads.
March 6, 2021
Jacob Shell is a geographer who read widely and travelled to visited a complex array of South Asian and Indochinese (prominently in Burma) peoples who work with elephants.
Pushed to the mountains by historical waves of lowland conquests in the region, the geography led to an evolution of work elephant cultures.
Shell sheds light on the co-dependency of elephant and tribal communities on forests, which provide foraging grounds and mating encounters for their elephants, and which suport the forest-based economies, logging and transport through seasonally flooded terrain.
Roads, forest fragmentation and agriculture thereaten these areas but the dificul terrain is also the setting of some of the longest resistance wars which protect the forests.
I know very little about Southeast Asia, a tremedously complex region and the perspectives stitched together Jacob Shell, a geographer, are insightful.
Pushed to the mountains by historical waves of lowland conquests in the region, the geography led to an evolution of work elephant cultures.
Shell sheds light on the co-dependency of elephant and tribal communities on forests, which provide foraging grounds and mating encounters for their elephants, and which suport the forest-based economies, logging and transport through seasonally flooded terrain.
Roads, forest fragmentation and agriculture thereaten these areas but the dificul terrain is also the setting of some of the longest resistance wars which protect the forests.
I know very little about Southeast Asia, a tremedously complex region and the perspectives stitched together Jacob Shell, a geographer, are insightful.
Want to read
November 3, 2019Tim Flannery's nice review, "Man’s Biggest Friend"
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019...
Excerpt: The author " argues that it was elephants, not humans, that initiated the associations, and that insights into the origins of the bond can be seen in the behavior of wild elephants like Pagli, who lived around fifty years ago in the border area between India and China. Her name means something like “the crazy one” because she left her family and approached a camp where working elephants and their mahouts were constructing a military airstrip on the Indian side of the disputed border.
Pagli refused to participate in work but would help herself to the rice treats left out for the working elephants. Eventually she mated with a working male and became pregnant. When the airstrip was completed, she followed the mahouts and their elephants south to their home in the Manabum hills in Arunachal Pradesh. Despite Pagli’s wildness, the mahouts liked her, and they continued to feed and look after her into her old age. Their generosity was eventually rewarded through her calf, Air Singh (meaning Lord of the Air, in reference to the airstrip where he was conceived), who matured into one of the most capable logging elephants ever known.
Shell watched Air Singh as he loaded a hollong log weighing over a thousand pounds onto a flat-bed truck. The enormous tusker began by pushing the truck, which was hopelessly bogged, onto solid ground. He then built a ramp of smaller logs, which he kept adjusting through the loading process. Much precise maneuvering was required to get the hollong log into place at the base of the ramp, and the loading required precision, calculation, and stupendous strength. What struck Shell about the performance was the way that both the elephant and his mahout contributed to the deliberations required to complete the task."
Interesting stuff. I've seen the self-domestication argument before, for domestic cats and even for wolves (to become domestic dogs).
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019...
Excerpt: The author " argues that it was elephants, not humans, that initiated the associations, and that insights into the origins of the bond can be seen in the behavior of wild elephants like Pagli, who lived around fifty years ago in the border area between India and China. Her name means something like “the crazy one” because she left her family and approached a camp where working elephants and their mahouts were constructing a military airstrip on the Indian side of the disputed border.
Pagli refused to participate in work but would help herself to the rice treats left out for the working elephants. Eventually she mated with a working male and became pregnant. When the airstrip was completed, she followed the mahouts and their elephants south to their home in the Manabum hills in Arunachal Pradesh. Despite Pagli’s wildness, the mahouts liked her, and they continued to feed and look after her into her old age. Their generosity was eventually rewarded through her calf, Air Singh (meaning Lord of the Air, in reference to the airstrip where he was conceived), who matured into one of the most capable logging elephants ever known.
Shell watched Air Singh as he loaded a hollong log weighing over a thousand pounds onto a flat-bed truck. The enormous tusker began by pushing the truck, which was hopelessly bogged, onto solid ground. He then built a ramp of smaller logs, which he kept adjusting through the loading process. Much precise maneuvering was required to get the hollong log into place at the base of the ramp, and the loading required precision, calculation, and stupendous strength. What struck Shell about the performance was the way that both the elephant and his mahout contributed to the deliberations required to complete the task."
Interesting stuff. I've seen the self-domestication argument before, for domestic cats and even for wolves (to become domestic dogs).
October 18, 2022
For a book about elephants....a little dry. The descriptions of how the elephants work , adapt, and interact with humans was pretty extraordinary though it was a bit hard to picture what the author was describing at times. There was also a lot of filler. Some of it was good; the description of how the different local political environments impacts elephants was super interesting. The constant listing of all the different ethnic groups without explaining what distinguished one from the other? V boring. V biblical. Overall compelling. +1 star for smartly including lots of elephant photos.
June 1, 2021
Man, this made me think. It was really well-written and researched, and I don't know if I agree with all the points. But it made me think. And I suppose that was the main point.
February 21, 2025
Interesting book and learned so much about elephants and the work they do in Asia. Being required to read it for class made it harder to enjoy.
March 10, 2025
#Audible
I had no idea that Asian elephants in Burma worked alongside humans in logging and other activities in remote jungle mountain areas.
I had no idea that Asian elephants in Burma worked alongside humans in logging and other activities in remote jungle mountain areas.
November 15, 2025
As one who loves these precious animals, it makes s hard to read of the methods used to capture elephants in the wild, Understandably sometimes it is necessary to protect food sources being grown for human consumption from being trampled … another great dilemma requiring a delicate balancing act.
July 3, 2023
Shell does an admirable job describing the habitat and human social context of working elephants in (mostly) the regions between western India and northern Myanmar.
I appreciated the synthesis of historical evidence around the sporadic and now abandoned domestication of African elephants. It's true that they were domesticated and put into battles or used for some labor in the Mediterranean antiquity and historic kingdoms around modern Ethiopia. However there's no satisfying answer to the question why longstanding human cultures of domesticating elephants continued in Asia but never took (documented) root in Africa. Shell's hypothesized explanation is, effectively, that indirect artificial selection bred wild populations for quasi-domesticity. Historically, both minority human groups and elephant populations were displaced from river valleys by expanding agricultural empires in Asia. Shell posits that only elephants which could tolerate laboring for these similarly displaced human communities would survive, since elephants attempting to remain in valleys would be killed or put into royal parades (and not subsequently breed) while elephants attempting to live freely in the forest would be isolated in small populations and wouldn't circulate their genes amongst the wider population. But laboring elephants would benefit from human protection and opportunities to move across otherwise dangerous agricultural landscapes to reach distant forests where they can increase their possibility of mating. And the elephants which escaped capture would pass on this ability/tolerance for laboring under human yokes to wild populations, gradually spreading these traits to the wider elephant population.
This seems like a pretty clear cut case of motivated thinking to me - Shell seems to want to have a rationale for elephant domestication that also benefits elephant survival and presents a very stretched argument to get there. There are several alternative possible explanations, not to mention some serious flaws in his thinking. Some alternatives: 1) African elephants are larger and more aggressive, therefore harder to domesticate and control (a la Jared Diamond). 2) Africa doesn't have nearly as many large mountain ranges, where elephants can be particularly useful laborers. In flatter areas it might make more sense to use domesticated bovines, which may be easier to control and require less feeding (reminiscent of why Megalodons are no longer around). 3) I'm guessing here, but probably across most parts of Africa, savanna elephant home range sizes are much larger than the home range size of Asian elephants in Myanmar forests. It would be impossible to feed domesticated savanna elephants by simply letting them browse at night except during rainy seasons in highly productive areas. African forest elephants are smaller and could possibly be suitable to a nightly foraging arrangement (though fruit is such a large part of their diet and they roam for this that it's suspect), but they live in highly dense rain forests that were never home to very large civilizations that might drive timber industries. 4) there's a lot more possible thinking to do here.
As for Shell's hypothesis, it seems majorly flawed. The extreme isolation/fragmentation of forests in Southeast Asia is a relatively recent phenomenon. Only in the past 150 years have most forests and elephant populations become totally encircled by human dominated landscapes. Yet Shell is trying to use this to explain a culture of elephant domestication that is many hundreds to thousands of years old. And the hypothesized selective pressure is weak. Certainly elephants that raided crops or tried to cross fields would be harassed and maybe killed, so there's a potential selective pressure for aversion to humans. And this aversion would be more strongly selected for by the mortality associated with elephant capturing (all methods involve elephants being killed accidentally or intentionally). In order for tolerance/propensity for laboring with humans to be a dominant train in the population, the number of escaping elephants would have to outnumber the number of wild elephants who survive by avoiding humans altogether. Given that adults elephants have effectively no cause of death save humans and old age/starvation, it seems more likely that sustained elephant populations across history had more to do with those elephants that avoided humans altogether than the elephants who were captured and then escaped. However there can be competing traits in a population, and it may be that the elephants most likely to be captured and eventually escape are the ones with the least aversion to humans (the escaping bit is largely irrelevant actually, given that the captive elephants can mate with wild elephants). And this trait may remain present but non-dominant in the population, providing a constant supply of wild elephants to the never-self-sustaining captive population. This artificial selection is not totally implausible, but it is a far cry from what Shell is arguing for, that captivity and collaboration with humans is a saving grace for endangered elephant populations. This argument rests on the assumption that enough elephants escape captivity to offset the large drain on wild populations imposed by elephant captures.
And this is my major criticism of this book - Shell relies almost entirely on anecdotal evidence to extrapolates an explanation of elephant population dynamics. Shell never cites or even attempts to estimate the number of elephants that escape to the wild (and are not recaptured), nor does he look at mortality or reproduction rates of elephants in captivity. To be fair to Shell, these numbers mostly don't exist and are difficult to estimate. However, this should be explicitly acknowledged, rather than presenting notes from individual interviews as if they were facts about elephant population dynamics. There are some interesting points across the book and some very apt criticisms of the ecotourism model for conservation (which certainly will not work for all places and contexts):
- national parks require a tax base to support them (cost of ranger patrols, law enforcement, infrastructure, etc)
- tourism doesn't work so well for highly remote areas that are best suited for elephants to live in the wild.
- animals who are more accessible to tourists and can generate the most revenue for conservation are not wild and don't contribute to wild populations
but there are also some fairly obvious counterpoints to those criticisms:
- the tax base for a national park does not need to be directly adjacent to a national park (as in South India). This is the benefit of a federated nation state. Taxpayers in a rich and developed state can and do support national parks in other states.
- there are several examples of tourists willing to pay large amounts of money and travel to remote areas to see charismatic wildlife (e.g. mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park).
- elephant camps where tourists pay to ride elephants are largely not contributing financially to elephant conservation. They don't have much justification at all from a conservation standpoint, so their revenue generation potential is irrelevant.
I actually felt that what I really wanted out of this book was missing - a deeper exploration of the cultural importance and perception of elephants in the cultures that practice mahoutship. To be sure it's present, but it always seems to be a fairly small portion of the discussion. I left the book with a firm understanding of what Jacob Shell thinks about elephant conservation and their place in a human landscape. But I don't feel like I got the perspective of the Hkamti or Kachin or Karen people. There were stories of some individual elephants and mahouts, mostly on the theme of 'recruit was forced into mahoutship by circumstances but came to regard elephant as brother/son'. But there didn't seem to be much treatment of overarching perspectives or cultural associations or myths or traditional knowledge systems. Hell, half the book is about historic elephants in Africa and how great powers in WWII treated elephants. As Shell points out, these people have lived and worked alongside elephants for a long time and have much of value to contribute to the conservation discussion. I wish I had gotten to hear more of it.
I appreciated the synthesis of historical evidence around the sporadic and now abandoned domestication of African elephants. It's true that they were domesticated and put into battles or used for some labor in the Mediterranean antiquity and historic kingdoms around modern Ethiopia. However there's no satisfying answer to the question why longstanding human cultures of domesticating elephants continued in Asia but never took (documented) root in Africa. Shell's hypothesized explanation is, effectively, that indirect artificial selection bred wild populations for quasi-domesticity. Historically, both minority human groups and elephant populations were displaced from river valleys by expanding agricultural empires in Asia. Shell posits that only elephants which could tolerate laboring for these similarly displaced human communities would survive, since elephants attempting to remain in valleys would be killed or put into royal parades (and not subsequently breed) while elephants attempting to live freely in the forest would be isolated in small populations and wouldn't circulate their genes amongst the wider population. But laboring elephants would benefit from human protection and opportunities to move across otherwise dangerous agricultural landscapes to reach distant forests where they can increase their possibility of mating. And the elephants which escaped capture would pass on this ability/tolerance for laboring under human yokes to wild populations, gradually spreading these traits to the wider elephant population.
This seems like a pretty clear cut case of motivated thinking to me - Shell seems to want to have a rationale for elephant domestication that also benefits elephant survival and presents a very stretched argument to get there. There are several alternative possible explanations, not to mention some serious flaws in his thinking. Some alternatives: 1) African elephants are larger and more aggressive, therefore harder to domesticate and control (a la Jared Diamond). 2) Africa doesn't have nearly as many large mountain ranges, where elephants can be particularly useful laborers. In flatter areas it might make more sense to use domesticated bovines, which may be easier to control and require less feeding (reminiscent of why Megalodons are no longer around). 3) I'm guessing here, but probably across most parts of Africa, savanna elephant home range sizes are much larger than the home range size of Asian elephants in Myanmar forests. It would be impossible to feed domesticated savanna elephants by simply letting them browse at night except during rainy seasons in highly productive areas. African forest elephants are smaller and could possibly be suitable to a nightly foraging arrangement (though fruit is such a large part of their diet and they roam for this that it's suspect), but they live in highly dense rain forests that were never home to very large civilizations that might drive timber industries. 4) there's a lot more possible thinking to do here.
As for Shell's hypothesis, it seems majorly flawed. The extreme isolation/fragmentation of forests in Southeast Asia is a relatively recent phenomenon. Only in the past 150 years have most forests and elephant populations become totally encircled by human dominated landscapes. Yet Shell is trying to use this to explain a culture of elephant domestication that is many hundreds to thousands of years old. And the hypothesized selective pressure is weak. Certainly elephants that raided crops or tried to cross fields would be harassed and maybe killed, so there's a potential selective pressure for aversion to humans. And this aversion would be more strongly selected for by the mortality associated with elephant capturing (all methods involve elephants being killed accidentally or intentionally). In order for tolerance/propensity for laboring with humans to be a dominant train in the population, the number of escaping elephants would have to outnumber the number of wild elephants who survive by avoiding humans altogether. Given that adults elephants have effectively no cause of death save humans and old age/starvation, it seems more likely that sustained elephant populations across history had more to do with those elephants that avoided humans altogether than the elephants who were captured and then escaped. However there can be competing traits in a population, and it may be that the elephants most likely to be captured and eventually escape are the ones with the least aversion to humans (the escaping bit is largely irrelevant actually, given that the captive elephants can mate with wild elephants). And this trait may remain present but non-dominant in the population, providing a constant supply of wild elephants to the never-self-sustaining captive population. This artificial selection is not totally implausible, but it is a far cry from what Shell is arguing for, that captivity and collaboration with humans is a saving grace for endangered elephant populations. This argument rests on the assumption that enough elephants escape captivity to offset the large drain on wild populations imposed by elephant captures.
And this is my major criticism of this book - Shell relies almost entirely on anecdotal evidence to extrapolates an explanation of elephant population dynamics. Shell never cites or even attempts to estimate the number of elephants that escape to the wild (and are not recaptured), nor does he look at mortality or reproduction rates of elephants in captivity. To be fair to Shell, these numbers mostly don't exist and are difficult to estimate. However, this should be explicitly acknowledged, rather than presenting notes from individual interviews as if they were facts about elephant population dynamics. There are some interesting points across the book and some very apt criticisms of the ecotourism model for conservation (which certainly will not work for all places and contexts):
- national parks require a tax base to support them (cost of ranger patrols, law enforcement, infrastructure, etc)
- tourism doesn't work so well for highly remote areas that are best suited for elephants to live in the wild.
- animals who are more accessible to tourists and can generate the most revenue for conservation are not wild and don't contribute to wild populations
but there are also some fairly obvious counterpoints to those criticisms:
- the tax base for a national park does not need to be directly adjacent to a national park (as in South India). This is the benefit of a federated nation state. Taxpayers in a rich and developed state can and do support national parks in other states.
- there are several examples of tourists willing to pay large amounts of money and travel to remote areas to see charismatic wildlife (e.g. mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park).
- elephant camps where tourists pay to ride elephants are largely not contributing financially to elephant conservation. They don't have much justification at all from a conservation standpoint, so their revenue generation potential is irrelevant.
I actually felt that what I really wanted out of this book was missing - a deeper exploration of the cultural importance and perception of elephants in the cultures that practice mahoutship. To be sure it's present, but it always seems to be a fairly small portion of the discussion. I left the book with a firm understanding of what Jacob Shell thinks about elephant conservation and their place in a human landscape. But I don't feel like I got the perspective of the Hkamti or Kachin or Karen people. There were stories of some individual elephants and mahouts, mostly on the theme of 'recruit was forced into mahoutship by circumstances but came to regard elephant as brother/son'. But there didn't seem to be much treatment of overarching perspectives or cultural associations or myths or traditional knowledge systems. Hell, half the book is about historic elephants in Africa and how great powers in WWII treated elephants. As Shell points out, these people have lived and worked alongside elephants for a long time and have much of value to contribute to the conservation discussion. I wish I had gotten to hear more of it.
May 16, 2019
I didn't think there was that much to learn about elephants, but this book did a supurb job. The author not only spent time with the elephants and those that handle them, but added a history of how poeple used elephants through the ages, from warfare, lumbering, tourism, travel and more.
Aneasy read and highly recommended.
Aneasy read and highly recommended.
April 26, 2019
I have to admit that I am hooked on elephants. A few years ago, I visited northern Thailand and attended an elephant show. It was fascinating. Admittedly it was put on for the tourists but it displayed the strength, tenacity and intelligence of these incredible animals in a way I had never expected. They stacked huge logs with precision and teamwork; they played soccer and, when one twice missed making his goal, he refused to leave the field until he was successful; they painted pictures with delicacy and skill; then they waited patiently until the audience gave them the appropriate response. The ability of these animals was truly impressive.
This well-written and informative book by Jacob Shell documents the historical value, capabilities and sensitivity of the elephants in a very enjoyable read. Their future has some doubt and I can only hope that the message in this book will benefit both elephant and man.
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway for this honest review.
This well-written and informative book by Jacob Shell documents the historical value, capabilities and sensitivity of the elephants in a very enjoyable read. Their future has some doubt and I can only hope that the message in this book will benefit both elephant and man.
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway for this honest review.
March 19, 2021
This book deals with Asian elephants: their history interwoven with human history, from ancient times, through the Raj, up to modern times; their roles as military cavalry; modes of transportation through the jungles of southern and southeast Asia; aides in teakwood logging; and rescues of people fleeing monsoon floods and a variety of wars including World War 2 and the ongoing political problems in Burma. It was written before the latest revolution there (2021) and I wonder what changes this latest uprising is bringing. The book is well written and very well researched including a lot of first sourced material; footnoted so the reader can refer to additional reading material if she chooses. It got a bit preachy at the end but I don't blame the author, the future looks bleak for these giants as deforestation is eliminating their jungle habitats. As their numbers continue to decline, we're looking at a future where the only elephants left will reside in circuses, zoos, and animal parks. Not pretty.
October 14, 2023
Took a long time to read this, but only because I was reading fictional books in between!
Although I have done extensive research about elephants (mostly African elephants though I do admit) and I am an elephant lover through and through, I feel like this book is more geared towards history buffs and geographers, rather than plain elephant lovers. Unfortunately there is not much talk of the actual Asian elephant’s life as a working animal as much as there is about the mahouts and others who care for and train the elephants. As someone who is not familiar with Asian geography, it was very confusing and difficult to follow all the places the author went and was describing. It was very interesting to read about working elephants and how this relationship between humans and animals can actually be beneficial for everyone, especially in a world where deforestation is only rising.
I would recommend this book for someone who not only is interested in this symbiotic relationship between the two species but also someone who is familiar with geography and doesn’t mind some history.
Although I have done extensive research about elephants (mostly African elephants though I do admit) and I am an elephant lover through and through, I feel like this book is more geared towards history buffs and geographers, rather than plain elephant lovers. Unfortunately there is not much talk of the actual Asian elephant’s life as a working animal as much as there is about the mahouts and others who care for and train the elephants. As someone who is not familiar with Asian geography, it was very confusing and difficult to follow all the places the author went and was describing. It was very interesting to read about working elephants and how this relationship between humans and animals can actually be beneficial for everyone, especially in a world where deforestation is only rising.
I would recommend this book for someone who not only is interested in this symbiotic relationship between the two species but also someone who is familiar with geography and doesn’t mind some history.
April 21, 2019
Well researched and documented account of working elephants in Southeast Asia and their mahouts. Fascinating stories of elephant rescues during WWII and in times of natural disaster as well as interestimg comparisions between mahout and elephant teams in different areas. Although this is obviously a research work, the writing is accessible to the casual reader as well I now know more about elephants than I ever would have dreamed. Although this is not a book that I would have likely purchased, I recommend it. I won this book in the Goodreads Giveaway, but I recommend you buy a copy and stretch your knowledge of people and animals working together in SE Asia.
August 2, 2019
A well-researched history/travelogue of working elephants and their mahouts in Myanmar and greater Asia. If you’ve read the Stone of Heaven, or George Orwell’s books on Myanmar, then this book adds significant details on northern Myanmar’s reliance on working elephants.
The author provides a sobering assessment of wild and working elephants in Myanmar.
Would have rated this book more highly if the author’s last chapter on solutions for working elephants had been more detailed. The summary chapter seemed rushed, which was disappointing after such a well researched and documented text.
Interesting read about working elephants and a part of the world that is still so lightly travelled.
The author provides a sobering assessment of wild and working elephants in Myanmar.
Would have rated this book more highly if the author’s last chapter on solutions for working elephants had been more detailed. The summary chapter seemed rushed, which was disappointing after such a well researched and documented text.
Interesting read about working elephants and a part of the world that is still so lightly travelled.
June 10, 2019
Tremendous research went into this book, and it is remarkable for its close look at the human relationships with Asian elephants, mostly in Burma and India. This is definitely for an academic audience, but the stories about the elephants and their work in logging, in transportation, and in war (did you know that the Viet Cong used elephants extensively during the Vietnam War?) were fascinating. Full review on my blog: https://readersforecast.blogspot.com/...
July 25, 2019
This book was everything I enjoy in Non-fiction which is a story that highlights an interesting, little known facet of the world and preferably has animals in it. I thought Shell did a great job of balancing the sometimes not-so-pleasant realities of the life of the elephants and the mahouts, while still making a case for this way of life and how it actually protects the elephants in some ways. I thought this book was fascinating and well written.
October 17, 2021
This book was well researched and well written. The author clearly is passionate about the topic! I liked this book, but not as much as I wanted to. I was here for the elephants (elephant information, elephant stores, etc.) and I feel like I walked away with too much information about the mahouts and the geography of the land. In a few of the chapters, the elephants felt more like an afterthought, which made the title feel a bit misleading.
April 22, 2019
Really great nonfiction book on the working elephants of the world. They have been used by man for centuries and are continuing to be used even today. The animals work intelligently along side man in a unique way. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book
I received this book as partof a Goodreads giveaway but the opinions expressed are solely my own.
I received this book as partof a Goodreads giveaway but the opinions expressed are solely my own.
July 12, 2019
Contains some interesting info about elephants & their uses in northern India & Burma, but a little dry or repetitive at times. Maybe it was the names of different ethnic groups repeated, and details about them that I couldn’t get into. For more in depth on WWII, read Elephant Company, which I really liked. (Library)
August 18, 2019
Fantastic read about an area of the world seldom heard from. Raises the alarm on the importance of the forest for the livelihood of the Asian Elephant. With numbers falling a response is needed to save these noble and intelligent giants.
Man must begin to help these animals or surely we will follow.
Man must begin to help these animals or surely we will follow.
April 5, 2019
In the remote forest lands between India and Burma there are trails for working Elephants who can go where roads cannot. During a monsoon storm Elephants are essential to save lives. A remarkable read all about these amazing creatures. Thankyou Goodreads for this free book!!!!
July 17, 2019
I've always loved books about elephants but until this book didn't realize just how little I knew about Asian elephants, their history, and how man has used them in that part of the world. Very eye-opening, and so while not neccesarily a fast read definitely felt it was worth my time.
September 3, 2019
Fascinating look at the life of working elephants in Southeast Asia. The author makes a compelling case for the advantages of this arrangement for both humans and the elephants, while acknowledging the challenges.
February 4, 2020
Having read about this book ages ago, I finally got it and loved it! This non-fiction research about the Asian Elephant population, mostly centering in India, Burma and surrounding area discusses the plight of the Asian Elephants, their carers or
May 25, 2021
Book club book. Fascinating history of elephants in Asia and Africa, with an emphasis on elephants in Burma and India, the mountains there...the whys and hows elephants survive and mesh with people, and how people use them and vv.
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October 7, 2021I did not complete this -- read about 1/3 then skimmed the rest, mainly for information. I will keep the book around but something essential for me was missing. I suspect this would have been best as a long piece in a good journal.
July 30, 2019
Great book. Totally enjoyed it.
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