Elephants use their trunks for almost everything. A trunk has over 40,000 muscles — your whole body has only about 650 — making it one of the most flexible and powerful tools in the animal kingdom. Elephants use it to drink (sucking up water then squirting it into their mouths), to pick up tiny seeds and enormous logs, to greet family members with a gentle touch, and even to hug.
An elephant family stays together for life, travelling the same routes through the savannah year after year. They remember where water holes are, which trees have the sweetest fruit, and which paths are safest — even if they last visited a place many years ago. When a family member is missing, elephants have been seen searching for them and calling out with deep rumbling sounds that travel for kilometres.
In Benin, elephants are one of the great treasures of Pendjari National Park. Rangers and scientists work hard to count and protect the herds. Seeing a group of elephants — sometimes twenty or more — moving together across the savannah, with the babies walking safely in the middle, is one of the most exciting wildlife experiences in West Africa.
Elephants are also important for the whole landscape. They knock over old trees, opening up clearings where other animals feed. They dig in dry riverbeds to find water, creating pools that smaller animals can drink from. Scientists call them a 'keystone species' because so many other living things depend on them.