Elephants are very sociable animals: they love being with others and they cannot really live alone, at least most of them cannot. The herds only consist of females and their offspring, and generally have no more than ten members. The oldest and wisest female is the leader, the matriarch, while the others are her sisters, daughters, nieces, granddaughters and grandsons.. The bulls live a solitary life or are members of smaller bull-groups. This means that after a certain time a young bull has to leave the herd he has grown up in. When he is about 10 years old he starts going on long walks on his own. If he stays with the herd too long, he is chased off: only the females can stay. Obviously herds are visited by (other) bulls or there would not be any young elephants. Elephant herds often have friendly ties with other groups, perhaps because the matriarchs are sisters or cousins that have taken the lead of different groups. They sometimes merge for a short period. When they meet, they have elaborate greeting ceremonies.

A herd usually does every activity together. If the matriarch wants to rest, the others rest too, if the matriarch decides to go to a waterhole, the rest follow her. It is important that the group provides effective protection to their babies because a young elephant can be killed by a lion. However, with all its big protectors around it it is usually quite safe.

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