The considered regard of a wild elephant is a corrective to any glib evaluation of its worth as a creature. It’s a bit like having a CAT scan. It leaves you in no doubt that these are not only enormously intelligent animals, but also deeply wise. Let me explain.
There’s a rule of the bush, often fatal if broken, that you don’t get in the way of a wild elephant. You give it all the space it needs. And if the tusker is a matriarch in charge of a breeding herd, you keep well away.