If I were to distill（提取） the 20 years of elephant research that I've done into one sentence, what would it be? What could I tell you? I would say that elephants are just like us. And what do I mean by that? It takes a lot of patience（忍耐） to be out there in the field and trying to figure（ 认为） out patterns of these very slow and intelligent animals. But over time, it is true.

  They are very similar to us. And you think, well, how can I say that? Look, they have huge ears. They have really long noses. What do you mean they're like us? Well, in fact, their families are very similar to ours.

  And family is extremely important to elephants. They grow up in very tight-knit（编织） families, and they have extended（延长） families. And it's just like our family reunions, where you have all the ants gathering（聚集） around with all the food they're going to bring and plan, and all the boys are thinking how we're going to play our video games together or we're going to spar（争论）. It's very, very similar, and it's jubilant, screaming（尖叫）, yelling（大叫）. It's really amazing to see. But as soon as you get that family gathering（聚集）, it's just like a wedding or anything else, you all of a sudden（ 突然的） the family politics（精明的） come out, and the lower（较低的）-ranking（排列） individuals in this scene, you see the arrow（箭） off to the back.

  The lower-ranking individuals already know their station. They're going to drink at the muddiest part of the pan（平底锅） because the whole family is here, and we can't drink at the best water because that's reserved（储备） for the top（ 顶部）-ranking（排列） family. What's also very similar is that you have elders in the group that everyone reveres（敬畏）. This is the matriarch, and the other female is reaching over and doing what's called a trunk-to-mouth, placing（放置） her trunk in the mouth, and it's a sign of respect（尊敬）. It's kind（种类） of like a handshake（握手）, but it's also like a salute. And this salute is learned at a very young age.

  Now, ritual（仪式的） and bonding within（在……之内） the family also facilitates（（不以人作主语的）使容易） coordinated activity. So here's a young female whose calf（[解剖] 腓肠） has fallen into the trough, and she doesn't know what to do, and she panics. Well, the older female, that's the matriarch, she says, "What's no problem here?" She just scoops the baby out. Now, that's not true for a lot of different families. They can't coordinate（使协调） very well. The younger females don't really know what to do, but the older ones will just get down, kneel（跪下） down together, and pick the baby out.

  Another thing that's very similar is the coming of age of teenage boys. Male elephants at the age of about 12 to 15. The biggest elephant in this photograph here is an elephant who's about to leave the family. He gets too big, he gets a little fresh, the adult females had enough of him, but he also is independent. He wants to go out and play with the guys.