Malawi's Liwonde National Park and Majete Wildlife Reserve are home to growing herds of African elephants. Rangers and conservationists have worked very hard over many years to bring elephants back to parks where they had disappeared. Today visitors can watch herds drinking at the Shire River in Liwonde — one of the most exciting wildlife sights in the country.
Elephants use their trunks for almost everything: drinking, picking up food, greeting each other, squirting water over their backs to cool down, and even making sounds. A trunk has no bones at all — it is made of more than 40,000 muscles! Baby elephants sometimes suck their trunks the way human babies suck their thumbs.
Elephants are ecosystem engineers — they change the landscape around them. By knocking down trees and digging in dry riverbeds for water, they create space and water holes that hundreds of other animals then use. Scientists say that where elephants live, the whole ecosystem is healthier.
Elephant families are very close. They mourn when a family member is gone, play games together, and older elephants teach younger ones where to find food and water. A matriarch can lead her herd to waterholes she last visited decades ago — her memory saves the whole family during droughts.