This lovely small family of elephants appeared in the road ahead of us as we were driving slowly along. They seemed agitated to be exposed on the road, so bunched together as a tight group. After a short time, they relaxed and began to show us a full range of greetings and tactile communication.
Here, a youngster places his trunk behind an adult female’s ear, and she raises her trunk to place it in his mouth in return. The trunk is a highly sensitive elephant accessory and they use it in all forms of communication, from aural through to ‘seismic’ vibrations which they pick with the last 30cms of the trunk and the toes on the front feet.
