Elephants Everywhere | Adine Ends Up in the Middle of the On-Edge Wild Herd

On her way to the orphanage one morning, Adine finds the wild elephant herd. She stops by a young bull foraging on the outskirts of the herd. The bull is secreting from his temporal glands. Elephants secrete from their temporal glands when they experience intense emotions such as stress or excitement. The young bull doesn’t seem to mind Adine’s presence though, so he might still be affected by something that happened earlier.

When Adine starts to drive away, an elephant cow walks into the road. Like the bull, she is secreting from her temporal glands. She seems a bit tense, but she moves closer to Adine’s car, showing that Adine is not the cause of her stress.

Adine eventually continues driving and passes by another secreting elephant, confirming that the herd is on edge. She then comes up on a young cow. This cow is also secreting, and also seems tense. She trumpets, but Adine rumbles (the way she does with the Jabulani elephants) and she seems to calm down. She’s still wary of Adine, but Adine continues talking to her and she eventually calms down enough to move on.

There are a number of elephants ahead, and Adine notes that the herd seems spooked. Most of the elephants are secreting, and they are tense and on edge. They are wary of Adine, but they don’t show any signs of wanting to charge at her. Because of Adine’s experience with elephants and her knowledge of their body language, she can determine that it is safe to keep moving past the elephants.

Near the orphanage, Adine finds lots of elephant dung in the road. This shows that the wild herd passed by the back of the orphanage and homestead.