Research Guides: Special Collections: Jeheskel (Hezy) Shoshani Library Endowed Collection

Jeheskel Hezy Shoshani Library Endowed Collection Logo

The Jeheskel (Hezy) Shoshani Library Endowed Collection (formerly known as the Elephant Research Foundation Library, or ERFL) began as a diverse collection of information and display resources specifically about elephants and their relatives, both past and present.

In 2020, the scope of the collection was expanded to include the acquisition of materials more broadly associated with the research and curriculum interests of the collection's namesake, Hezy Shoshani. The collection continues to grow in materials related to elephants and mammoths, but also with titles in the following areas:

Animal Conservation
Endangered Species
Animal Ecology
Human-Animal Relationships
Animal Physiology
Zoology
Environmental Biology
Evolutionary Animal Biology
Paleontology

History of the Collection

Jeheskel (Hezy) Shoshani was the driving force behind the establishment of this collection. It was originally the library of the Elephant Research Foundation, an international nonprofit formed by Shoshani. In 2002, the collection was moved to Wayne State University.

Hezy became interested in elephants after reading Burma Boy by Willis Lindquist. His primary research was the evolutionary biology of elephants, their anatomy and physiology, and how to apply this knowledge to our understanding of elephant behavior and ecology. He taught at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan USA, for approximately 25 years.

In 1977 he established the Elephant Research Foundation (an international nonprofit organization) and was the editor of its publication, Elephant. Hezy published about 200 scientific and some popular articles and was the editor of two books on elephants and their relatives: a popular book, Elephants: Majestic Creatures of the Wild (2000, Checkmark Books, New York) and a technical volume (with Pascal Tassy), The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives (1996, Oxford University Press, England).

From 1998 to 2006 he taught at the University of Asmara, Eritrea, and conducted research on mammals in general and elephants in particular, funded by the Born Free Foundation in the UK. In January 2003, on an expedition to search for elephants, Hezy almost lost his life when one of his beloved research subjects charged him. Fortunately, he escaped with only minor injuries. In 2007, he relocated to Ethiopia. He taught biology at Addis Ababa University and studied the same population of elephants. They crossed the border from Eritrea seasonally.

Hezy died on May 21, 2008, as a result of terrorist bombing of a public minibus in Addis Ababa. His work in Ethiopia on the northern elephants was carried on by his colleagues, and the Elephant Research Foundation managed the move of the collection to WSULS. The board of Directors of the ERF decided to rename the library as a tribute to the lifelong efforts of Hezy Shoshani.

In 2020, Hezy's widow, Mrs. Sandra Shoshani, generously allowed Wayne State Libraries to expand the scope of the collection to include a broader range of topics related to Hezy's interests. This has allowed for the collection to be utilized by a broader range of researchers.

Image: Hezy being investigated by orphaned elephants. Photo by Ian Redmon.

Acquisitions in 2024

30-Second Zoology: The 50 Most Fundamental Categories and Concepts from the Study of Animal Life

30-Second Zoology showcases 50 of the most fundamental categories and concepts from the study of Zoology, each explained in 300 words and one illustration.

The Age of Mammals: Nature, Development, and Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century

Examines how nineteenth-century scholars, writers, artists, and public audiences understood the animals they regarded as being at the summit of life. Manias considers the cultural resonance of mammal paleontology from an international perspective -- how reconstructions of the deep past of fossil mammals across the world conditioned new understandings of nature and the current environment.

Animal Ethics and Animal Law

"Animal law is a growing discipline, as is animal ethics. In this wide-ranging book, scholars from around the world address the intersections between the two. A project of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, this collection focuses on pressing moral issues and how law can protect animals from cruelty and abuse"-- Provided by publisher.

Animal Suffering, Human Rights, and the Virtue of Justice

Bauhn first outlines some aspects of contemporary philosophical views on animals and morality, including the criticism of speciesism and the animal rights argument. Second, he criticizes these views, arguing that we cannot escape a speciesist perspective on morality, and that there are no good reasons why we should believe that non-human animals have moral rights. Third, he argues that cruelty against non-human animals is morally wrong, but not because animal rights are being violated but because human agents who inflict cruelty on non-human animals are failing their duty to develop in themselves the virtue of justice.

At Home in the Anthropocene

"Applies the tenets of posthumanism, compassionate conservation, and entangled empathy to a set of wildlife stories to demonstrate how humans can best coexist with their nonhuman kin during the age of climate change and crises"-- Provided by publisher.

Beast Companions: The Unsung Animals of the Dinosaurs' World

Despite their fame and reputation, dinosaurs represent only half the story of the Mesozoic Era. Foster explores the often-overlooked animals that coexisted with them. These ancient species, often equally remarkable as their dinosaur neighbors, can provide valuable insights into the biotic history of our planet. In some cases, these animals reveal just as much, if not more, about the extinct ecosystems of the time as the dinosaurs themselves.

Beastly: The 40,000-Year Story of Animals and Us

How did we domesticate animals and why did we choose sheep, goats, cows, pigs, horses, and chickens--but never zebras? How can whales help solve climate change? What does it mean when a young woman befriends a boar, a gorilla tells a joke, or a fish thinks? What does a wren sing? Beastly is a gorgeously written, deeply researched, and intensely felt journey into the splendor and genius of animals and the long, complicated story of our interactions with them as humans. Our relationship with animals has shaped our planet and, if reimagined, could save it.

The Book of Vanishing Species: Illustrated Lives

A stunning homage to the planet's most mysterious, bizarre and wondrous creatures and plants. Each is illuminated with an exquisite illustration. This is both a love letter to life on Earth, and an urgent summons to protect what is precious and lovely in this world.

The Codex of the Endangered Species Act: Volume I, The First Fifty Years

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is one of the most cherished and reviled laws ever passed. It mandates protection and preservation of all the nation's species and biodiversity, whatever the cost. It has been a lightning rod for controversy and conflicts between industry/business and environmentalists. The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of this law, and provides an opportunity for a measured and thorough evaluation thereof. We cannot know today's challenges and opportunities without understanding their histories. This book is the most comprehensive history of the ESA ever published, and the first to consider the entire history of the law from all angles in a single volume.

The Codex of the Endangered Species Act: Volume II, The Next Fifty Years

Leading Endangered Species Act experts interpret and propose legislative and administrative changes to prepare the ESA for future challenges. They explore regulations on avoiding harm to and producing benefits for species, cooperation between state and federal agencies, scientific analyses, and the necessary politics to enact their ideas. This is a call to action to chart an enlightened future for the Endangered Species Act that embraces the nation's moral commitment of 50 years ago to address species extinction constructively, mindful of biodiversity, and as a fixture among the nation's values and needs.

Conservation and Community in Kenya: Milking the Elephant

Lesorogol examines community-based wildlife conservation in Kenya and its complex effects on local communities. Lesorogol argues that this approach to conservation creates new land use institutions, brings both benefits and costs to conservancy members, and at times heightens social conflict.

Convergent Evolution: Animal Form and Function

Presents a series of case studies, at different levels of inclusivity, of how organisms exhibit functional convergence as a key evolutionary mechanism resulting in responses to similar environmental constraints in mechanically similar ways. All chapters stress the need for integrative approaches for the elucidation of both pattern and process as they relate to convergence at various taxonomic levels.

Criminal Justice, Wildlife Conservation and Animal Rights in the Anthropocene

This book addresses one of today's most urgent issues: the loss of wildlife and habitat, which together constitute an ecological crisis. Combining studies from different disciplines such as law, political science and criminology, with a focus on animal rights, the chapters explore the successes and failures of the international wildlife conservation and trade treaties, CITES and the BERN Convention.

Critical Animal Studies and Activism: International Perspectives on Total Liberation and Intersectionality

Essential reading for environmentalists, animal advocates, social justice organizers, policy-makers, social change-makers, and indeed for all those who care about the future of this planet. This book spans many scholar disciplines and activist social movements, and provides new insights to fundamental debates surrounding inter-species justice, liberation, and democracy.

Critical Animal Studies and Social Justice: Critical Theory, Dismantling Speciesism, and Total Liberation

An essential read for activists, community organizers, and justice scholars. A collection that combines scholarship and activism. Includes contributions from authors around the world influenced by critical theory, feminism, social justice, political theory, media studies, environmental justice, food justice, disability studies, and Black liberation. The contributors examine and disrupt many of the exclusionary assumptions and behaviors by those working toward justice and liberation, encouraging the reader to reflect on their own thoughts and actions.

Critical Thinking in Biology and Environmental Education: Facing Challenges in a Post-truth World

This volume seeks to broaden current ideas about the role of critical thinking in biology and environmental education considering educational challenges in the post-truth era. The chapters are distributed into three sections, perspectives of a theoretical character (part I), empirical research about CT in the context of biology and health education (part II), and empirical research on CT in the context of environmental and sustainability education (part III). Discusses how CT can be integrated in biology and environmental education. Topics explored include climate change, sustainable diets, genetically modified food, vaccination, acceptance of evolution, homeopathy, and gene cloning.

Effects of Climate Change on Insects: Physiological, Evolutionary, and Ecological Responses

Anthropogenic climate change is the defining environmental challenge of this century, posing an existential threat not only to humans but also to the vast array of plants and animals that inhabit our planet. Among these, insects reign as the largest and most diverse group of organisms, playing critical roles in nutrient cycling, pollination, seed dispersal, and population control of other species. Additionally, they serve as a vital food source for various taxa and act as vectors for numerous human diseases. This comprehensive but accessible text delves into the intricate world of these remarkable creatures. In so doing, it uncovers valuable insights into the implications posed by climate change on global insect populations.

Elephants: Up Close and Personal

This book focuses on the history and work of Knysna Elephant Park, a leading South African elephant research facility that has been home to more than 40 elephants in 25 years. The book emphasizes the threat of poaching to these gentle giants, which has almost forced them to extinction.

Extreme Conservation: Life at the Edges of the World

A revealing exploration of how climate change and people are affecting even the most far-flung niches of our planet. Berger's quest takes him to some of the most remote corners and peaks of the globe: across Arctic tundra and the frozen Chukchi Sea to study muskoxen, into the Bhutanese Himalayas to follow the rarely sighted takin, and through the Gobi Desert to track the proboscis-swinging saiga. Berger is known for his rigorous, scientific methods of developing solutions to conservation challenges. As his adventures show, the more adapted a species has become to its particular ecological niche, the more devastating climate change can be. Life at the extremes is more challenging than ever, and the need for action, for solutions, has never been greater.

Global Animal Law from the Margins: International Trade in Animals and Their Bodies

This book critically engages the emerging field of global animal law from the perspective of an intersectional ethical framework. Argues that global animal law overrepresents views from the west and does not sufficiently engage views from the Global South, as well as from Indigenous and other marginalised communities. Tracing this imbalance to the early development of animal law's reaction to issues of international trade, the book elicits the anthropocentrism and colonialism that underpin this bias. In response, the book outlines a new, intersectional, second wave of animal ethics. Incorporating marginalised viewpoints, it elevates the field beyond the dominant concern with animal welfare and rights.

Human/Animal Relationships in Transformation: Scientific, Moral and Legal Perspectives

The ethics of human/animal relationships is a growing field of academic research and a topic for public discussion and regulatory interventions from law-makers, governments and private institutions. Human/animal relationships are in transformation and understanding the nature of this process means analysing and critically discussing the philosophical, scientific and legal concepts and arguments embedded in it. This book contributes to the discussion by bringing together the ideas and reflections of leading experts from different disciplinary backgrounds and with a range of scientific perspectives. This book both provides an up-to-date examination of the transformation of human/animal relationships and presents ideas to foster this process.

The Internet of Animals: Human-Animals Relationships in the Digital Age

Lupton explores how digital technologies and datafication are changing our relationships with other animals. Playfully building on the concept of 'The Internet of Things', she discusses the complex feelings that have developed between people and animals through the use of digital devices, from social media to employing animal-like robots as companions and carers. The book brings together a range of perspectives, including those of sociology, cultural geography, environmental humanities, critical animal studies and internet studies, to consider how these new digital technologies are contributing to major changes in human-animal relationships at both the micropolitical and macropolitical levels.

Ivory: Power and Poaching in Africa

Despite the 1989 global ivory trade ban, poaching and ivory smuggling have not abated. More than half of Tanzania's elephants have been killed for their ivory since 2007. A similarly alarming story can be told of the herds in northern Mozambique and across swathes of central Africa. But why the new upsurge? The popular narrative blames a meeting of two evils - criminal poaching and terrorism. But the answer is not that simple. Somerville argues that regulation - not prohibition - of the ivory trade is the best way to stop uncontrolled poaching.

Lost Kingdom: Animal Death in the Anthropocene

The authors in 'Lost Kingdom' grapple with both the catastrophe of mass animal extinction, in which the panoply of earthly life is in the accelerating process of disappearing, and with the mass death of industrial animal agriculture. Both forms of anthropogenic violence against animals cast the Anthropocene as an era of criminality and loss driven by boundless human exceptionalism, forcing a reckoning with and an urgent reimagining of human-animal relations.

Our Animal Connection: What Sapiens Can Learn from Other species

This book covers the many ways humans benefit from interactions with other living species. The authors discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Homo sapiens, and how the study of animals can make us stronger and healthier. To deepen our knowledge of genetics, molecular and cell biology, physiology and medicine, we need to study model organisms. To cure human disease, we can learn from animals how they have evolved ways to protect themselves. To improve human performance, we can study the animal kingdom's top performers and learn from their successes. Considering these important pointers, the authors review genetic engineering techniques that can translate our existing and future animal connections into benefits for human health and performance.

Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They do about Animals

Before the Civil War, animals' suffering had rarely been discussed; horses pulling carriages and carts were routinely beaten in public view, and dogs were pitted against each other for entertainment and gambling. But in 1866, a group of activists began a dramatic campaign to change the nation's laws and norms, and by the century's end, most Americans had adopted a very different way of thinking and feeling about the animals in their midst. In this book, the authors offer a fascinating history of this crusade and the battles it sparked in American life.

The Oxford Handbook of Animal Organization Studies

Just as climate change and environmental sustainability have become growing concerns in public discourse, so too have they become a persistent focus in business and organization studies. Spanning a number of disciplinary approaches including critical geography, critical management studies, social studies of science, and human-animal studies, the volume holds relevance for those investigating debates around humanism and its futures; environmental and sustainability matters; the experience of working with and on animals, and the future of animal consumption and production.

Paleontology in Ecology and Conservation

The fossil record contains unique long-term insights into how ecosystems form and function which cannot be determined simply by examining modern systems. It also provides a record of endangered species through time, which allow us to make conservation decisions based on thousands to millions of years of information. The aim of this book is to demonstrate how palaeontological data has been or could be incorporated into ecological or conservation scientific studies.

Paleontology: An Illustrated History

An illustrated look at the art and science of paleontology from its origins to today. Bainbridge takes readers from ancient Greece to the eighteenth century, when paleontology began to coalesce into the scientific field we know today, and discusses how contemporary paleontologists use cutting-edge technologies to flesh out the discoveries of past and present. He brings to life the stories and people behind some of the greatest fossil finds of all time, and explains how paleontology has long straddled the spheres of science and art. This panoramic book brings together stunning illustrations ranging from early sketches and engravings to eye-popping paleoart and high-tech computer reconstructions.

Passionate Animals: Emotions, Animal Ethics, and Moral Pragmatics

The author draws on the theoretical achievements made in ethics, political philosophy, and human-animal studies, addressing the problem that these advancements have not resulted in practical change toward significantly improved human-animal-relations. In the tradition of philosophical pragmatism and with reference to congenial thinkers like Mary Midgley, Cojocaru develops a moral pragmatics that highlights the role of emotions in moral and political life and focuses on the institutions necessary to make tangible progress on the problems posed by animal experimentation and factory farming.

A Place Like No Other: Discovering the Secrets of the Serengeti

From famed zoologist Anthony Sinclair, an account of his decades-long quest to understand one of Earth's most spectacular ecosystems. With its rich biodiversity, astounding wildlife, and breathtaking animal migrations, Serengeti is like no other ecosystem on the planet. This book is Sinclair's first-hand account of how he and other scientists discovered the biological principles that regulate life in Serengeti, and how those same principles are the rules by which the natural world works.

Resurrection Science: Conservation, de-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things

O'Connor explores the extreme measures scientists are taking to try and save endangered species, from captive breeding and genetic management to de-extinction. O'Connor investigates the philosophical questions of an age in which we "play god" with earth's biodiversity. Each chapter focuses on a unique species--from the charismatic northern white rhinoceros to the infamous passenger pigeon--and the people entwined in the animals' fates. A Library Journal Best Book of 2015.

The Return of Wolves: An Iconic Predator's Struggle to Survive in the American West

The gray wolf has made an astonishing comeback in Washington. Nearly eradicated by the 1990s, conservationists and environmentalists have cheered its robust return to the state over the last two decades. But Washington ranchers are not so joyous. When wolves prey on livestock, ranchers view their livelihood as under attack. Francovich investigates how we might mend this divide while keeping wolf populations thriving.

The Social Neuroscience of Human–Animal Interaction

A cross-disciplinary group of authors that includes behavioral psychologists, neuroscientists, geneticists, ethicists and veterinarians seek to understand human–animal interactions by applying research in the neurobiology and genetics that underlie human social functioning.

Survival or Extinction?: How to Save Elephants and Rhinos

Written with passion for anyone interested in seeing an end to the illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, this book shows how, by working together, people all over the world who care about these animals are gradually bringing about change for the better. Throughout the message is clear. We can and must save these animals from extinction.

A Tale of Two Cranes: Lessons Learned from 50 Years of the Endangered Species Act

It's been 50 years since the United States attempted a conservation revolution with the passing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Now, fifty years later, the Fish and Wildlife Service finds itself at a crossroads: some recovery efforts are succeeding, but too many are either failing or stuck in neutral, even after decades of work. Take, for example, the story of two cranes, the whooping crane of southeastern Texas and the red-crowned crane of northern Japan. These two case studies provide a template for comparing different approaches towards endangered species: habitat management vs. population management.

Tenacious Beasts: Widlife Recoveries That Change how We Think about Animals

An inspiring look at wildlife species that are defying the odds and teaching important lessons about how to share a planet. The news about wildlife is dire -- more than 900 species have been wiped off the planet since industrialization. Against this bleak backdrop, however, there are also glimmers of hope and crucial lessons to be learned from animals that have defied global trends toward extinction.

The Three Ethologies: A Positive Vision for Rebuilding Human-Animal Relationships

Venturing beyond the usual scholarly and activist emphasis on restricting harm, Calarco develops a new philosophy for understanding animal behavior--a practice known as ethology--through three distinct but interrelated lenses: mental ethology, which rebuilds individual subjectivity; social ethology, which rethinks our communal relations; and environmental ethology, which reconfigures our relationship to the land we co-inhabit with our animal kin. Draws on developments in philosophy, (eco)feminist theory, critical geography, Indigenous studies, and the environmental humanities.

What Do We Owe Other Animals? A Debate

Philosophers Fischer and Jauernig agree that human society often treats animals in indefensible ways and that all animals morally matter; they disagree on whether humans and animals morally matter equally. Jauernig defends the view that all living beings morally matter equally and are owed compassion, on account of which we are also obligated to adopt a vegan diet. Fischer denies that we have an obligation to become vegans, and argues for the position that humans morally matter more than all other living creatures.

Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators

For years, predators like snow leopards and white-tipped sharks have been disappearing from the top of the food chain, largely as a result of human action. Science journalist Will Stolzenburg reveals why and how their absence upsets the delicate balance of the world's environment.

Wild Things, Wild Places: Adventurous Tales of Wildlife and Conservation on Planet Earth

Jane Alexander movingly, with a clear eye and keen grasp of the issues and on what is being done in conservation and the worlds of science to help the planet's most endangered species to stay alive and thrive, writes of her immersion into the worlds of wildlife conservation.

A Wilder Kingdom: Rethinking Nature in Zoos, Wildlife Parks, and Beyond

This book is a provocative and reflective examination of the relationship between zoos and the wild. It gathers a premier set of multidisciplinary voices to consider the possibilities and challenges of making zoos wilder.

Wildlife Biodiversity Conservation: Multidisciplinary and Forensic Approaches

This book addresses the multidisciplinary challenges in biodiversity conservation with a focus on wildlife crime and how forensic tools can be applied to protect species and preserve ecosystems. Illustrated by numerous case studies covering different geographical regions and species, the book introduces the fundamentals of biodiversity conflicts, outlines the unique challenges of wildlife crime scenes, and reviews latest techniques in environmental forensics, such as DNA metagenomics.