Elephants are so different from us anatomically that you would think there would be very few parallels, … … and yet the more we learn about elephant society, the more parallels we see.

They seem to have very strong social bonds. Females stay in their family groups their whole lives. And the males will stay in their family group until they become teenagers, … … and then they will move out and they will hang out with other males in what’s known as a bachelor herd. The calves get raised by their relatives as well as their mum. So, sisters, brothers, aunties, cousins, grandma, all contribute to the raising of the calf, much like we used to.

Elephants are really amazing at staying in touch.

Elephants will communicate with each other using vocalisations, making sounds that are within human hearing range, … … but we know that they also use something called infrasound, which is a very low-frequency sound. And the thing about infrasound is that it travels over very long distances, it can travel many miles. And so, we believe that elephants, when they separate from each other in groups, that they will keep in touch with each other using infrasound …… and they will use that to coordinate their movements with each other, eventually meeting back up together again.

For us in the western world, and in big cities with so many people, loneliness is a problem, it’s a massive social illness.

The behaviour of elephants suggests that they are aware of death and that they do grieve and show emotion when members of their family die. And they also show interest in the remains of elephants that they might not have known.

And I quote someone called Kyle Owens, who was working in Burkina Faso in 1986. He witnessed a remarkable scene while watching a herd of eight elephants with a tiny baby. He saw that the baby was ill, and throughout the morning, the mother tried everything to raise the calf to its feet. He says at dusk he returned, the baby had died. Its tiny body was barely visible, as the other elephants had covered him with dirt and grass and leaves. The mother positioned herself over her child and began to rock. Occasionally, other elephants would stroke her back affectionately or intertwine trunks. She continued to rock as darkness fell.

Like elephants we grieve, it’s normal, and it’s very common and it’s something that we’re all going to experience in life. Even though you have to go on without this person in your life, you can live through the memories that you’ve had over the years.

Elephants touch each other with their trunks, and this physical contact seems to provide comfort. So, an elephant that has appeared distressed, when another elephant comes over to it and seems to be comforting it using its trunk, … … and touching it, the other elephant seems to then relax, and seems to show less distress. So, similar to hugging.

Comfort, affection, touching, hugging, kissing, is quite a reassurance that, OK, there’s some support there. You want people to feel supported, you want them feel like, you know what, that they are part of this society, they are part of this world, and they have got a purpose here.
***

• Anatomically (noun): relating to the structure of the body.
• A parallel (noun): something very similar to something else, a similarity.
• A society (noun): a large group of people or creatures that live together.
• A bond (noun): a close connection joining two or more people or things.
• Whole (adjective): complete or entire.
• To hang out with someone (phrasal verb): to spend time with another person.
• A bachelor (noun): a male who does not have a romantic partner, or is not married.
• A herd (noun): a group of animals that live together.
• A calf (noun): a young elephant, or the young of other large mammals.
• To raise someone/ something (verb): to take care of a person or animal until they are completely grown.
• To contribute (verb): to give or do something to achieve something with others.
• Much like (phrase): very similar to something else.
• To stay in touch (phrase): to maintain communication or contact.
• A vocalisation (noun): a sound that is produced with the voice.
• A range (noun): an upper and lower limit of something.
• Frequency (noun): the type of sound, relating to how often a sound wave is produced.
• To coordinate (verb): to make many different things work together.
• Eventually (adverb):  in the end, especially after a long time.
• The western world (phrase): used mainly to refer to various nations in the regions of Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia.
• Loneliness (noun): the state of being lonely, feeling alone.
• Aware (adjective): knowing that something exists or having experience of something.
• To grieve (verb): to feel or express great sadness, especially when someone dies.
• Remains (noun): parts of a dead body.
• To quote someone/ something (verb): to repeat the words that someone else has said or written.
• To witness something (verb): to see something happen, especially something unusual.
• A scene (noun): a place where an unpleasant or unusual thing happened.
• Dusk (noun): the time before night when it is not yet dark.
• Barely (adverb): only just, by the smallest amount.
• To position something (verb): to put something or someone in a particular place.
• To rock (verb): to move backwards and forwards or from side to side in a regular way.
• To stroke something (verb): to move a hand or another part of the body gently over something, usually to give comfort or pleasure.
• Affectionately (adverb): in a way that shows love, care, or affection.
• To intertwine (verb): to twist together or be connected so it’s difficult to separate.
• To go on (phrasal verb): to continue.
• Distressed (adjective): sad, upset, or worried.
• To comfort someone (verb): to make someone feel better when they are sad or worried.
• Reassurance (noun): words or actions that make someone feel less worried, stressed, or sad.
• A purpose (noun): a reason for doing something or why something exists.

In this text, there are several examples of narrative tenses (the past simple, past continuous, and past perfect) used to tell a story. Different past tenses are often combined and used to say what happened.

The past simple

Used for completed actions in the past, for actions that started and finished in the past. Often the ‘main events’ in a story will be in the past simple form:

‘The rain began.’   ‘She travelled to London on the train and stayed in a hotel.’   ‘I was scared.’

The past continuous (was/ were + ‘-ing’)

Describes an ongoing action in the past which continued for an extended time, an action which is interrupted by another action (the past continuous is the action which started first), or for background information:

‘I was listening to music.’ (The action of listening to music continued for a long time)

‘She was crossing the street when she saw a friend.’ (The action of crossing the road started first, and is in progress when it is ‘interrupted’ by a friend)

‘When I arrived, the sun was shining and the birds were singing.’ (The background information is the sun shining and the birds singing)

The past perfect simple (had + past participle)

Shows that one past action happened before another action; there must be a connection between the two past actions:

‘The rain began. It hadn’t rained in two months.’ (The rain began in the past, before this there hadn’t been any rain for two months. There is a connection between the two events)

‘She travelled to London. She had been there many times before.’ (She travelled to London in the past, before this she had been to London lots of times before. There is a connection between the two events)

The past perfect continuous (had + been + verbING)

Shows how one past action continues for some time before another action; there must be a connection between the two past actions:

‘The rain began. The clouds had been getting darker all day.’ (The rain began in the past, before this the clouds had been getting darker for some time. There is a connection between the two events.)

Examples in the text:

• He witnessed a remarkable scene while watching a herd of eight elephants: ‘he witnessed …’ = past simple for a completed past action; ‘while (he was) watching …’ = past continuous to describe an action that continued for some time. ‘Watching a herd of elephants’ started first.
• He saw that the baby was ill: ‘he saw…’ and ‘the baby was …’ = past simple for completed actions in the past, the ‘main events’ in the story.
• … the mother tried everything to raise the calf to its feet: ‘the mother tried …’ = past simple for completed actions in the past, the ‘main events’ in the story.
• … at dusk he returned, the baby had died: ‘he returned’ = past simple; ‘the baby had died’ = past perfect simple to show an action before another past action (the baby had died before he returned).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/intermediate/unit-20/session-2

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/BBC-Ideas-What-elephants-can-teach-us-about-life.pdf

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/BBC-Ideas-What-elephants-can-teach-us-about-life.docx