July 01, 2011

Elephants In Need

Don't you love elephants? The more we learn about them, the more remarkable they truly are. They demonstrate signs of grief, form deep bonds with each other and have a rich and complex social life. All is not well however with elephants that live where wars, poaching and habitat loss occurs. Disturbing behaviors by the elephants seem to indicate many are traumatized. Do these elephants have post traumatic stress disorder and if so, how and why? Susan's guest is G.A.Bradshaw, author of Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity She will take us into the world of the elephant mind and culture and help us feel empathy for these creatures that are more like us than you realize.

Episode Segments:

Wild About Pets: Understanding Elephants Dr. Bradshaw explains who elephants are, and why they are more like us than you may believe. Learn about some of their social aspects, about their family structure, and what their trunk is really for.
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Wild About Pets: Elephants in the Wild In part two, find out what’s happening with elephants in the wild, and why total extinction of the species is a real possibility. Then, how elephants respond to stress much like a human, and yes, elephants do mourn.
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Wild About Pets: Helping the Elephants Dr. Bradshaw tells us about some organizations that are helping elephants both in captivity and in the wild, including her own Kerulos Center
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Links to Related Websites:

The Kerulos Center The mission of the Kerulos Center is to translate knowledge of animals as fully sentient beings into animal care, conservation, policy, and human-nature relationships.

Look While You Listen! Visit Wild About Pets.net to view the photos Susan and Dr. Bradshaw are discussing and for other useful links.

Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode

G.A. Bradshaw Gay Bradshaw Ph.D., Ph.D. is Executive Director of The Kerulos Center. She holds doctorate degrees in ecology and psychology, and has published, taught, and lectured widely in these fields both in the U.S. and internationally. Dr. Bradshaw's work focuses on trans-species psychology, the theory and methods for the study and care of animal psychological well-being and multi-species cultures. Her research expertise includes the effects of violence on and trauma recovery elephants, grizzly bears, chimpanzees, and parrots, and other species in captivity. She established the new field of trans-species psychology upon which the work and principles of The Kerulos Center are based. Dr. Bradshaw's Website

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