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Research & Publications

Knowledge in Service to Animals

I don’t know why people are so frightened by new ideas. It’s the old ones that frighten me. – John Cage

Research has been a cornerstone of Kerulos starting with director Gay Bradshaw’s discovery of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Elephants which was later expanded to include the diagnosis of Complex PTSD in Chimpanzees, Orcas, Grizzly Bears, Parrots, and other Animals suffering trauma from human violence. This new field, trans-species psychology, the unified study of Animal and human minds and experience, corrects scientists’ mistruth that Animals cannot think and feel like we do.

Kerulos continues to deepen the understanding of Animal ethics, values, and aspirations through research shaped by Animal needs and values for the purpose of moving human culture into alignment with Nature.

Enjoy exploring our publications and links including Gay’s blog about trans-species psychology in Psychology Today, Bear in Mind. You can also learn more by enrolling in one of our internships or courses. We offer one-on-one mentoring sessions for students, professionals, and others seeking to craft careers and lives committed to Animals.

Read Gay Bradshaw’s Curriculum Vitae.

Animals Matter’s Alissa Weaver interviews Gay Bradshaw on the new field of trans-species psychology.

Books

Narvaez, D, & G.A. Bradshaw. 2023. The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities. North Atlantic Books.

Bradshaw, G.A. 2020. Talking with Bears. Conversations with Charlie Russell. Rocky Mountain Press. Listen to the author read the preface here.

Bradshaw, G.A. 2017. Carnivore minds. Who these fearsome animals really are. Yale University Press.

Bradshaw, G.A. 2014. The Elephant Letters: The Story of Billy and Kani. Awakeling Press (translated into Swahili, Spanish, Korean, Chinese). Listen to audio book here.

Bradshaw, G.A. 2010. Minding the Animal Psyche (Editor). Spring, 83

Bradshaw, G.A. 2009. Elephants on the edge: What animals teach us about humanity. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Translated into Spanish and Korean)

Bradshaw, G.A., and P. Marquet. (eds). 2002. How landscapes change: Human disturbance and ecosystem disruptions in the Americas. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Articles and Chapters

Bradshaw, G.A. 2021. Ocean of Love. in (ed) McLoughlin, L., Honoring Nature: An Anthology of Authors and Artists Festival Writers (Wendell, MA: Human Error Publishing).

Bradshaw, G.A. 2019. Nonhuman Animal Accompaniment. In: M. Watkins, Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons. Yale University Press.

Bloom, T. & G.A. Bradshaw, 2021. Inside of a Prison: How a Culture of Punishment Prevents Rehabilitation. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.

Bradshaw, G. A., & Bloom, T. 2020. Come to kale: Accompaniment across barriers of species and situations. The Humanistic Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000211

Barnwell, G., Bradshaw, G, Watkins, M. (tbp, 2022). Grounding Community Psychology in Practices of Ecopsychosocial Accompaniment. C. Kagan, R. Lawthorn, M. Richards, J. Alfaro, A. Zimbrano, J. Akhurst  (Eds.), International Handbook of Community Psychology: Facing global crisis with hope. Routledge.

Bloom, T. , G.A. Bradshaw, and B. Robert Serrano. 2020. In the Company of Animals: Accompaniment Transforms Prisoners into Colleagues, Teachers, and Healers. The Humanist Psychologst.

Bradshaw, G.A. and Theodora Capaldo. Unpublished. The Highest Meaning: Why science demands ending the use of Nonhuman primates in biomedical research and testing.

Rizzolo, J. B., & Bradshaw, G. 2019. Nonhuman Animal Nations: Transforming Conservation into Wildlife Self-Determination. Society & Animals, 1(aop), 1-21.

Rizzolo, J. B., & Bradshaw, G. A. 2018. Human leisure/elephant breakdown: Impacts of tourism on Asian elephants. In N. Carr and J. Young (Eds.), Wild Animals and Leisure: Rights and Wellbeing (pp. 129-147). Routledge.

Rizzolo, J. B., & Bradshaw, G. A. 2016. Prevalence and patterns of complex PTSD in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). In A. Manatunga (Ed.), Asian Elephants in Culture and Nature (pp. 291-297). University of Kelaniya.

Bell Rizzolo, Jessica and G.A. Bradshaw. 2019. Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Asian Elephants Subjected to Social Deprivation and Breaking (Phajaan). Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science,

Bradshaw, G.A., Schore, A.N., Brown, J Poole, J. & Moss, C.J. 2005. Elephant breakdown. Nature, 433, 807.

Bradshaw, G.A. and B. L. Finlay. 2005. Natural symmetry. Nature, 435, 149.

Bradshaw, G.A., and R. M. Sapolsky. 2006. Mirror, mirror. American Scientist, 94(6), 487-489. http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/mirror-mirror-1

Bradshaw, G.A., Capaldo, T, Lindner, L & G. Grow. 2009. Developmental context effects on bicultural post-trauma self repair in Chimpanzees. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1376-1388.

Bradshaw, G.A., Capaldo, T, Lindner, L & G. Grow. 2008. Building an inner sanctuary: trauma-induced symptoms in non-human great apes. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation. 9(1); p. 9-34.

Bradshaw, G.A. & A.N. Schore. 2007. How elephants are opening doors: developmental neuroethology, attachment, and social context. Ethology, 113: 426–436.

Bradshaw, G.A. 2012. Can science progress to a revitalized past? In D. Narvaez, J. Panksepp, A. Schore, and T. Gleason (Eds.), Human Nature, Early Experience and the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bradshaw, G.A. and M. Watkins. 2006. Trans-species psychology: Theory and praxis. Spring Journal, 75, 69-94.

Capaldo, T. and G.A. Bradshaw. 2011. The bioethics of Great Apes: Psychiatric injury and duty of care. Animals & Society Policy Series.

Coomar, Lokesh. 2012. An elephant in my mirror. Presentation given at the 2012 meeting of the International Society of Anthrozoology, University Cambridge, UK.

Orosz, S. & G.A. Bradshaw. 2007. Neuroanatomy of the companion avian parrot. The Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice: Neuroanatomy and Neurodiagnosis. (eds. L. Tell & M. Knipe). 10(3) 775-802.

Orosz, S. & G.A. Bradshaw. 2007. Avian neuroanatomy revisited: From clinical principles to avian cognition, In: The veterinary clinics of North America: Exotic animal practice. Neuroanatomy and neurodiagnostics. (eds. L. Tell and M. Knipe), 10(3), 775-802.

Bradshaw, G.A. and Engebretson, M. 2013. Parrot Breeding and Keeping: Impacts of Capture and Captivity. Animals & Society Institute Policy Series. (also in Spanish).

Bradshaw, G.A., J. Yenkosky, & E. McCarthy. 2009. Avian affective dysregulation: Psychiatric models and treatment for parrots in captivity. Proceedings of the Association of Avian Veterinarians. 28th Annual Conference, Minnesota.

Bradshaw, G.A. and M. Watkins. 2006. Trans-species psychology: Theory and praxis. Spring Journal, 75, 69-94.

Muller-Paisner, V., & G. A. Bradshaw. 2010. Freud and the family horse: exploration into equine psychotherapy. Spring Journal, 83, 211-235.

Interviews and coverage in online and print media

Book reviews

Book review excerpts

“Gay Bradshaw is a renaissance woman, with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics (Chinese), a master’s degree in geophysics, and two Ph.D. degrees: one in ecology and another in psychology. She is therefore well equipped to unite multiple fields into a new synthesis. Her first book, Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us About Humanity, was the first work to document Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in non-human animals. It won numerous awards, was featured in a cover article in the New York Times Magazine, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In Carnivore Minds, Bradshaw synthesizes ethology, psychology, neuroscience, natural history, ecology, and evolutionary biology to build a convincing case.Her beautiful writing makes this case powerfully.” — Reed Noss, Biological Conservation

“Elephants on the Edge is an urgent call to end this strife and for humanity to embrace once more the traditions that kept the peace with our animal kin.”—Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M. Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

“Bradshaw brings home to us forcefully what we should have realized long ago:  that destroying the family life of highly social, intelligent animals leads inevitably to misery among individual survivors and pathological misbehaviour among the group.”—J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Laureate in Literature, 2003

“In addition to possessing a remarkable breadth of experience, she is extraordinarily adept at not only reporting very recent advances within a number of different scientific literatures, but also creatively bridging the data and forging conceptual links across these bodies of knowledge. Working at the cutting edge and the interface of disciplines, this groundbreaking book is an exceptional feat of scholarship. It is my hope and prediction that this extraordinary work will become a classic and transformational volume in both the biological and psychological literatures.” —Allan N. Schore, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and David Geffen School of Medicine. UCLA

“A powerful argument.”—Natural History

“This extraordinary, view-altering series of true stories about the authentic nature of bears reveals them as the sensitive and intelligent beings they are. And in showing that the reality of bears is so different from our usual impressions – that they are such individuals and so prone to peace – Gay Bradshaw has given us not only another startling book but this time a deeply spiritual one.”— Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild and Beyond Words

“I love Talking with Bears. From dedication to the final page, the book made me openly weep. The tears were of homecoming, and recognition of our place in this world that is our only home. A love for wild nature – and specifically for bears! – informs every word. If we and the world survive, it will in great measure happen because of books like this one.” — Derrick Jensen, author of The Myth of Human Supremacy

“This may be the most exciting, most informative, and most surprising book ever written about animals.  It results from a new approach to animal studies, and the findings are overwhelming.”—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

“An existentialist’s tract wrapped in a naturalist’s treatise, this unusual volume explores a mighty species from the inside out. . . . A reasoned appeal to morality that’s as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking.”—The Atlantic Monthly

At a time of climate crisis and environmental emergency, when the flaws in our relationship with nature now clearly threaten our very existence, Talking with Bears is a must-read.”— Kevin Van Tighem, author of Bears Without Fear

“An excellent book. The descriptions of animal behaviour are rich and vibrant..enthralling”—Mark Rowlands, Times Literary Supplement

“Carnivore Minds is a pure delight and a magnificent achievement. Think of it as Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals for the twenty-first century. Every page reveals a new idea for looking deeply into animal souls.”—Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil

“A remarkable study of elephant–human interactions.”–Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books

“Revolutionary and very exciting, this book is important both in terms of elephant biology and elephant welfare.”—Cynthia Moss, Amboseli Trust for Elephants

“Carnivore Minds establishes a sense of urgency to conserve, protect, and respect carnivores by raising important ethical concerns about current wildlife practices . . . a terrific read for anyone curious about understanding or appreciating the mental processes of carnivores specifically and nonhuman animals in general.”—Jennifer E. Smith, Quarterly Review of Biology

“Charlie Russell’s mission continues with this profound book about his lifework. Overwhelming and a must-read for everyone, and especially every bear enthusiast around the world.” — David Bittner, Dr. phil. nat., Biologe

“Talking With Bears is a spellbinding book. G.A. Bradshaw masterfully weaves Charlie Russell’s own words, stories and photographs to provide a glimpse into the uncommon, yet brilliant, methods and approaches that Russell used to further his understanding of bears. In the end, one can’t help but come away from reading Talking With Bears feeling inspired and rejuvenated and much more informed about how humans and bears can and should co-exist” — John E. Marriott, co-author and photographer of What Bears Teach Us and The Pipestone Wolves: The Rise and Fall of a Wolf Family

“The book is intended for a broad audience of readers of popular science and academics alike, and the wonderful narrative style will appeal to readers of all types . . . [Bradshaw’s] storytelling ability and the structure of the book around personal stories, and of course the content itself, make this book a fascinating read.“—Michael M. Lacy, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine

This book. . . is fascinating. . . [and] sheds light on disturbing phenomena relevant to the future not only of elephants, but also of humans subjected to similar disruption. Read it.”—Robert M. May, Professor Lord May of Oxford OM AC Kt FRS

“With panache and care, Gay Bradshaw tackles myths about carnivores. She moves the reader to greater understanding and empathy—critical tasks if we are going to increase humanity’s concern for carnivore thriving.” –Darcia Narvaez, University of Notre Dame

“Bradshaw continues to carve out an immensely important and innovative field that combines animal behavior and psychology, with deep inter-mind—and soul—sensibilities. Beautifully written. This book is a catalyst for societal change.”–Peter H. Kahn, Jr., University of Washington

“Bradshaw suggests we have completely underestimated elephants’ emotional capacities. . . . The evidence that human and elephant behaviors are similar is compelling. . . . This book is engrossing and will appeal to a general audience.”–Paula Kuhumbu, Conservation Biology

“The book forces us to regard other species—those dangerous, frightening, predatory ones that occasionally kill us—in a new light.” –Luke Hunter, Panthera

“Bradshaw goes beyond current trends, uniting two seemingly unrelated fields of science into one: neuropsychology and carnivore biology. She makes a remarkably original contribution by taking the reader into psychological sessions with an interesting cast of charismatic carnivores.”—William J. Ripple, Oregon State University

“In Elephants on the Edge, G. A. Bradshaw helps us face our ethically flawed relationship with animals and nature and what is at stake for all of us.”—John P. Gluck, University of New Mexico; Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University

“Elephants on the Edge is a wide-ranging, passionate, well-researched, and urgent call to action. These magnificent, intelligent, and emotional giants are quintessential poster animals for the wounded world in which we live. Read this book, share it widely, and please do something to increase our compassion footprint before it’s too late. Healing demands collective cross-cultural action now.”—Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado, coauthor with Jessica Pierce of Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals

“At times sad and at times heartwarming, Elephants on the Edge successfully bridges the gap between species. Bradshaw helps us to understand not only elephants, but all animals, including ourselves.”—Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation

“This book opens the door into the soul of the elephant. It will really make you think about our relationship with other animals.”—Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation

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