Many people who have worked with elephants for years, observing
them in the wild and watching their interactions with their
family and friends (and, yes, elephants have friends), have
spoken of them in largely anthropomorphic terms. Now studies are
proving that elephants have both self-awareness and chemical and
brain responses that are similar to those shown in humans under
similar study conditions. A team of researchers, including Joyce
Poole and Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Elephant Research
Project, reported in Nature in 2005 that elephants in high cull
or poaching zones are exhibiting signs similar to human post-
traumatic stress disorder, including depression, asocial
behavior, and hyperaggression. They state that, "Calves
witnessing culls and those raised by young, inexperienced
mothers are high-risk candidates for later disorders." Young
elephants depend on the older elephants in their strong social
structure to rear them in the ways of being elephants—when the
family and herd structures break down, so