A herd of elephants was gathering at the Tarangire River in Tanzania. Standing with our car on a bridge we observed the scene. Adult elephants were drinking, calves laying down in the water and playing with each other. Beside suckling at their mother, elephant calves drink water. Young elephants have to learn to coordinate the more than 300 muscles of their trunk before they are able to use it for drinking. Until they master their trunk, they have to help themselves getting their mouth down to the water level. Elephant calves are in so many ways like human children: they are a long time dependent on their mother and live in strong family bonds. They love playing in the water, climbing on and arguing with each other. As research has shown elephants are compassionate animals and do mourn their deceased family members for a long time - one more reason to raise awareness on this humanlike species that is heavily endangered by the demand of ivory in Asia.
