1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780641403321

Autore

Bradshaw G. A (Gay A.), <1959->

Titolo

Elephants on the edge [[electronic resource] ] : what animals teach us about humanity / / G. A. Bradshaw

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, 2009

ISBN

1-282-35283-0

9786612352836

0-300-15491-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (352 p.)

Disciplina

599.67/15

Soggetti

Elephants - Behavior

Elephants - Psychology

Elephants - Effect of human beings on

Social behavior in animals

Captive wild animals

Psychology, Comparative

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Prologue -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Terminology and Sources -- 1 The Existential Elephant -- 2 A Delicate Network -- 3 A Strange Kind of Animal -- 4 Deposited in the Bones -- 5 Bad Boyz -- 6 Elephant on the Couch: Case Study, E. M. -- 7 The Sorrow of the Cooking Pot -- 8 The Biology of Forgiveness -- 9 Am I an Elephant? -- 10 Speaking in Tongues -- 11 Where Does the Soul Go? -- 12 Beyond Numbers -- Epilogue: Quilt Making -- Appendix: Ten Things You Can Do to Help Elephants -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Drawing on accounts from India to Africa and California to Tennessee, and on research in neuroscience, psychology, and animal behavior, G. A. Bradshaw explores the minds, emotions, and lives of elephants. Wars, starvation, mass culls, poaching, and habitat loss have reduced elephant numbers from more than ten million to a few hundred thousand, leaving orphans bereft of the elders who would normally mentor them. As a consequence, traumatized elephants have become aggressive against people, other animals, and even one another; their



behavior is comparable to that of humans who have experienced genocide, other types of violence, and social collapse. By exploring the elephant mind and experience in the wild and in captivity, Bradshaw bears witness to the breakdown of ancient elephant cultures.All is not lost. People are working to save elephants by rescuing orphaned infants and rehabilitating adult zoo and circus elephants, using the same principles psychologists apply in treating humans who have survived trauma. Bradshaw urges us to support these and other models of elephant recovery and to solve pressing social and environmental crises affecting all animals, human or not.