The Elephant in the Room (Hardback)
How to Stop Making Ourselves and Other Animals Sick
Liz Kalaugher
Humans, animals and disease. They're all inter-related, so why do we keep ignoring the elephant in the room?
It's well known that Covid-19 may have come from a bat, but diseases are often transmitted in the other direction too. Humans have passed diseases to animals countless times through history, and it's the cross-currents of this relationship between humans, animals and disease that are explored by Liz Kalaugher in The Elephant in the Room.
Taking the reader on a globe-trotting journey through time, Kalaugher presents a series of fascinating case histories of human-related wildlife diseases. Among the stories featured here are the early humans who may have carried pathogens responsible for the extinction of Neanderthals, the native birds of Hawaii that have been devasted by human-introduced disease, and the Tasmanian tiger that has been lost to the sands of time.
Examining these tales and drawing on first-hand accounts from experts around the world, The Elephant in the Room is both a tragic history and an inspirational call to arms. It doesn't have to be this way. By learning from the past, it's possible to create a better, healthier environment for ourselves, our wildlife and our planet.
Liz Kalaugher is a science journalist and campaigner, based in Bristol, who has written for the New Scientist, BBC Wildlife, the Guardian, BBC News and more, as well as winning science journalism fellowships from the World Federation of Science Journalists and the European Geosciences Union. She is also the co-author of Furry Logic: The Physics of Animal Life.
Kalaugher provides a fascinating dive into the complex nexus of disease and conservation, a topic that behooves us all to sit up and pay attention. If you don't give a zebra's stripe about sick animals, you should still read this book, if only to preserve your own hide.Kate MacCord, author of How Does Germline Regenerate?
The Elephant in the Room is the story of pathogen pollution and our role in forcing it on the world, told through an absorbing mix of cutting-edge science, intelligent analysis, and clear warnings from the field.Ross D. E. MacPhee, author of End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals
This is an entertaining read as much as it is enlightening. We are in the midst of the 'pandemicene,' and it's imperative that we all understand how our health as humans is inextricably linked to the health of other animals and the environment. We simultaneously face other existential threats from climate change and loss of biodiversity. Anyone who reads this book will come away with an understanding that these are all symptoms of a planet in distress, but that it's not too late to act. We have the tools we need to fight back, and there is hope to be found in the pages of this wonderful book.Neil Vora, Conservation International
'This book shines a timely and powerful spotlight into the consequences of the way we live for our own health and that of our domestic and wild animals and, even more important, how the two are inextricably linked. Full of curiosity, anecdote and evidence and written with a delightfully gentle touch, The Elephant in the Room should be required reading for anyone with even the vaguest interest in avoiding future pandemics.Roger Morgan-Grenville, author of The Restless Coast
We are making animals sick, and suffering the consequences. We've been doing it since the Stone Age, but factory farming, globalised travel and climate change are making it much worse. Liz Kalaugher's warm, wise book describes the problem in compelling detail: a story of invasive species, ecological imbalances and good intentions gone wrong. We travel with her to meet animals in trouble around the world, to hear from the men and women trying to save them, and to learn what we need to do to avoid a fight to the death. From devastating loss comes a powerful call to hope and action.Josephine Quinn, author of How the World Made the West
To reduce infectious disease, first tackle animal health. After a global pandemic we urgently need to learn how. Liz Kalaugher spells out the ways in an expertly chosen set of case studies about diagnosis, prevention and (sometimes) cure in a host of different species from zebras to bats to apes. She is a sure-footed guide to the tangled lives of viruses and their hosts, and brings together the latest science with reports from the field to craft a convincing case for action. Her book is a vital reminder that our health depends on the health of our ecosystems, and we neglect them at our peril.Jon Turney, author of Cracking Neuroscience
Thoughtful and well-crafted, with depth of information and lightness of touch, this thought-provoking book draws on evidence from across the world and through the ages to highlight how we are deeply interconnected with our environment and other animals, and why we need to respect this.Lucy Maddox, author of A Year to Change Your Mind
The events of the past few years have made clear the importance of the links between wildlife, people and disease. The stories Liz Kalaugher shares of these connections across the animal kingdom, across time, and across the world are engaging, eye-opening and fantastically well-told. Managing wildlife disease will play a huge role in protecting biodiversity this century – The Elephant in the Room is a timely reminder of just how vital this is.Jack Ashby, author of Nature’s Memory
Enlightening, timely, and empathetic, Kalaugher's deep exploration successfully reveals exactly how the health of people, animals, and ecosystems are forever intertwined.Booklist (Starred review)
