Status
Endangered
Habitat
Savanna, woodland, desert margin
Range
Africa
Group
Elephants
The largest land animal, navigating by memory of water.
During severe drought, herds led by older matriarchs survive at higher rates. The knowledge — which waterhole persists, which route is safe, which was dangerous forty years ago — is held in individual memory and lost when that individual is killed. Poaching does not just remove an animal; it removes a library.
Elephants communicate in infrasound below human hearing, travelling kilometres through ground and air. Herds coordinate movement while far out of sight of one another.
Frames in the archive
Full gallery
The Matriarch
Amboseli — she led the line for two hours.
