Nothing is more significant to an elephant than the affection and bonds their families provide. These amazing beasts are incredibly reliant on one another, both for physical safety and life and for the emotional bonds that are essential for an elephant’s survival.
The matriarch and her calves and grand calves make up the fundamental family unit in an elephant herd, which can include anywhere between 6 and 20 individuals. Elephant males do not live their entire lives with their herds like female elephants do. Elephant bulls abandon their herd altogether when they reach puberty between the ages of 12 and 15, at which point they either roam on their own or look for another loosely-knit group of male elephants to join. As a result, distinct male and female herds are created. These groups hardly ever interact with one another, and when they do, it’s usually only to reproduce.
The social organization of elephants is comparable to our own, with calves needing a lot of particular care and taking three to five years to wean. Young elephants depend on their moms and other family members for years as they learn vital abilities that they will pass on to the following generation.
Allomothers within herds make sure that every young elephant is treated with the utmost love, guidance, protection, support, and care due to the high level of responsibility it takes to raise each individual calf. Additionally, it gives the young elephants an opportunity to see their elders as mothers and practice raising calves on their own when the time comes.
Let’s Watch Family Of Elephants Swim Across The Chobe River, Bᴏᴛsᴡᴀɴᴀ, Africa in the video below:
Source: SafariCam