ELEPHANTS A CULTURAL AND NATURAL HISTORY

This sumptuous, large-format volume may be the last word on elephants that any library will need. Although the publisher describes the work as an art title--and with more than 800 illustrations it definitely qualifies as aesthetic--the text takes it beyond the realm of the coffee table. The first three chapters provide a good overview of the evolution of the Proboscidea and the anatomy of the two surviving species and their behavior in the wild. The meat of the book is embodied in the next 12 chapters, on the human relationship with elephants. They are followed from the ancient world to modern times and filled the role of sacred animals, forestry workers, state gifts, bearers of ivory, and as war animals (from Hannibal crossing the Alps to the Vietnam War). Tamed elephants were (and still are) mostly of the Asian species, African elephants unfortunately mostly serving as targets for their ivory or for big-game hunters. The last two chapters discuss elephants as they are found today, mostly in zoos and refuges. Excellent appendixes provide maps of the current ranges of elephants, surviving population numbers, and elephants in zoos.