For millenia, people all over the world have revered, adored and exploited elephants. In Thailand, a pregnant woman ducks under an elephnat'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 backbreaking 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. In a kaleidoscopic account rich in historic lore, surprising science and exotic adventure, 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 shaped history, art, religion and popular culture as no other animal has. He joins a grueling chase after crop-raiding rogues in Sri Lanka and probes the bitter battle over the roles of elephants in zoos and circuses, revealing the enduring ecological importance and mythic fascination of these endangered giants.

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. He lives in Seattle.