Recent stories in Smithsonian (Male Elephants Queue in Dry Times and How Male Elephants Bond) illustrate how male elephants, like their female counterparts, form complex social relationships. These relationships, in addition to giving company, provide stability during hard times. Studies indicate that a hierarchy in male elephant society keeps down violence when resources are limited. ...
This report from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, “Driving Elephants Back into Tsavo National Park – Reducing Human-Elephant Conflicts in Taita” illustrates the mounting tension between humans and elephants. As elephant populations recover, bands of stray elephants are ranging outside Kenya’s Tsavo National Park and the neighboring community wildlife conservancies, destroying human settlements. Elephant ...
Here are some quick research facts about elephants: The word “Elephant” – Both Greek and Latin. The elephant’s genus is elephas wich comes form the Greek, elephos, meaning “antlered beast.” Elephant comes from the Latin ele, meaning “arch” and phant, meaning “huge.” So “elephant means “huge antlered arch beast,” or something to that effect. There ...