It is Asian Elephant Awareness Month! The Tulsa Zoo has three elephants all over the age of 50 named Sneezy, Sooky, and Booper. Each morning the elephants start their day with a bath. “It is a great ...

The bull elephants gather in the evening coolness to drink. After a spell, a senior male lifts his head and turns from the waterhole. With ears flapping gently, he lets out a deep, resonant rumble.

A lower ranking male gives a ‘trunk-to-mouth’ salute to an older, higher-ranking individual. This greeting behavior is a very important ritual that serves to reinforce relationships between bonded ...

Elephant societies respond to death in ways that look uncannily similar to our own reactions. Here’s why it has researchers describing them as “compassionate.” Wildlife researchers have, for decades, ...

Animals often show that the instinct for connection and meaning is not unique to humans by displaying behaviors that feel deeply symbolic. Sometimes, these behaviors resemble human rituals that give ...

From birds to elephants, rituals are found everywhere in nature. Yet no animal is as ritualized as Homo sapiens. All human cultures have a plethora of ceremonial practices that serve many of the same ...