African and Asian elephants are the largest land animals on the planet, the sole survivors of a family known as Proboscidea. Their lives in modern times are marked by a conflictive coexistence with human beings.

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Characteristics such as their great size and their trunks have always caught the attention of humans. But elephants have other unique qualities: the live in close-knit families, express affection in unusual ways and – as the saying goes – elephants never forget.

They also have ivory tusks, an attribute used in self defense that paradoxically has been the main cause of their shrinking population. Poachers kill these giant beasts for their tusks because of the high price ivory fetches on international markets. There are numerous worldwide initiatives aimed at saving the elephants, including sharp restrictions on the ivory trade.

Meanwhile, there are other sources of conflict between elephants and humans who share the same ecosystems.

In some cases, people complain that there are too many elephants in a given area as a result of conservation efforts, and they have even asked for a softening of restrictions on the ivory trade. In others, the elephant families are finding it difficult to survive in areas where the original ecosystem has been altered by farming