Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images A family of elephants in Kenya's
Maasai Mara game reserve. A family of elephants in Kenya's
Maasai Mara game reserve. Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images For 14
months of my life I was lucky enough to reside in Amboseli
National Park, Kenya. Funded by the National Science Foundation
to study baboons, I lived surrounded by a gorgeous array of
mammals and birds. I was fascinated, in particular, by the
elephants who roamed the savannas and swamps. As I witnessed at
Amboseli, the core social units in elephant herds are made up of
female relatives and their offspring. In these matriarchal
units, bonds are tight. When family members spend time apart,
their reunion is often a joyful event, marked by entwined trunks
and trumpeted vocalizations. Males remain part of these units
only until puberty. After that, they live mostly on their own,
joining another herd for mating. Last month, scientists reported
an exciting discovery: A series of fossilized footprints
suggests that elephants lived in th