African elephant cowherds have an incredibly close knit social structure and are always led by a sage old cow or matriarch. Most of those in the family group are related to each other. The unit is incredibly focused on defending the young from any outside threat and are quite capable of collective attack in defensive of their young. This group are relaxed at a waterhole in South Africas Addo Elephant National Park. The majority of Addo elephant are tuskless it is a genetic factor and not due to broken tusks, quite simply they are born without tusks, as can be seen on the matriarch in this photo.
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