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Watching elephants stroll in the plains of the expansive Maasai Mara in Kenya is a lifetime experience.Watching them for a number of days will give an insight to their social behavior.
An elephant is the largest mammal living on land.Their social life is an interesting field to learn.
Elephants are social animals always occurring in herds.Family units include a male and a few females and their young ones.They are not territorial animals.If you encounter a lone elephant,then it must be an old male which sometimes is guarded by bachelors.

An elephant feeds 18 hours a day eating roughly 500 pounds of food.It uses the trunk for feeding purposes and drinking water.
Watching an elephant walk will make you realize that on its feet are muscles which work as shock absorbers of both the heavy weight and heat.Females are constantly in contact with their young ones.In-fact a young one cannot be out of sight for more than five minutes.It is constantly touched to reassure it.
If an elephant is not feeding then it is doing its favorite pastime,rolling in water or mud.
At puberty bachelors leave the main herds to go and form bachelor herds.When extended family herds meet they graze together sometimes causing great destruction to vegetation.
When two elephants meet for the first time,they lock their trunks and then blow air to each other,s mouths.The stimulates grands in the palate sending a chemical to the brain.This helps to interpret whether the new elephant is or is not a family member.
Elephants communicate over long distances using infra-sonic sound waves inaudible to human ears.This type of communication is very important during mating whereby the male calls females using the infra-sonic waves.The receptive females heed to call leading to mating.Mating usually takes four seconds and lasts for four days.
Elephants mourn for their dead.They shout at night when their young ones die.

Learn more about this author, Gilbert Okindo.
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