Image | “In their eyes is knowledge, borne through the generations of their ancestors who have walked through the earth’s deep time.”

by Eleanor O’Hanlon, Spring | Summer, 2017

These bonds between male elephants can be astonishingly tactile and affectionate. In Namibia a few years ago, I saw two young male desert elephants break off a bout of sparring to make a ritual greeting to a much larger and older male. They caressed his forehead, his jaw, and the top of his head with their trunks, then leaned into him to lay their trunks across his shoulders.

It was one of the most tender and devoted greetings I have ever witnessed among wild creatures.