Watch how the young elephant interacts with each person on the game viewer.

DO YOU KNOW YOU'RE BEING NOTICED?

The sedate interaction is more than you may first realise … here’s why.

Firstly she pauses and looks at the client on back seat. Note the soft eyes and curtain-like ears. Notice a quick glance at the middle row before a deliberate movement to focus on the client sitting there. After blinking in contemplation, watch the casual touch of the eye and trunk twirl as she smells the client in the 3rd row. Watch again the relaxed and floppy movements of the tip of the trunk. These are all constant as she moves forward and senses the space of each person aboard.

All of her fluid, languid and deliberate behaviour indicates that she is hyper-curious and very relaxed. An acknowledgement of the location of each person is further wonderful evidence of elephant’s highly advanced cognitive ability to process information around them. All of this was intentional. She approached to discover this.

This for me is about communication and acceptance across a divide. Tantalising proof of elephant's capacity to cross the line between what we may first deem logical, and what is undeniably not. 

Are these not the virtues we normally confine to being human? 

If so, then this surely suggests we can discover a great deal by paying more attention to subtle signs, by tuning into a deeper and more meaningful awareness of our natural world. This can change your life!

Filmed on a specialist elephant safari at Umlani Bushcamp  In association with Elephants Alive