but they also develop attachments to
animals outside their families. Young
bulls, for instance, often wander off
and attach themselves to older males.
In cases where older African elephant
bulls have been relocated and younger
bulls are left on their own, they’ve acted
out—turning violent, attacking rhinos.
Shifra Goldenberg, a Smithsonian re-
searcher who is also Venkatesh’s grad-
uate co-adviser, has spent her career
studying elephants’ social bonds. In
2013, she was the fi rst to document an
elephant “funeral.” A video she released
to the public showed several elephants
pausing beside the carcass of an elder-
ly female. The elephants paying tribute
weren’t related to the deceased, which
raised questions about why certain ele-
phants are drawn to each other.
If humans can better understand
why elephants stick together—what
each one is contributing to the group—
it might be easier to help them thrive.
“Diff erences among individuals actu-
ally have real-world implications for
how they exploit their environments,
how they reproduce, how they survive,”
Goldenberg says. “It might be better to
have a mix of personality types. That
way, someone’s bound to fi gure out the
solution.”PEOPLE WHO spend their lives study-
ing animals don’t always feel obligated
to save them. We can study an animal
because we want to develop our under-
standing of evolution, or because we
want to fi nd new treatments for human
disorders—or simply because the ani-
mal is interesting.
But the scientists I spoke to for this sto-
ry say that satisfying their curiosity isn’t
enough. “I mean, this lab’s focus is trying
to understand the evolution of cognition
and behavioral fl exibility,” says Plotnik.
“But if you’re going to devote your life to
trying to understand an animal that is
endangered, I feel like you’re obligated
to try and fi gure out a way that your work
can have an impact.”
Leimgruber says this question is a
matter of ongoing debate. He himself
came to the Smithsonian because ofElephants
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