The mudskipper, a fish that lives in the mangrove swamps along India's coast, uses a similar strategy to move around, flipping across the mud and climbing trees to escape the pull of the tides. In India's northern forests, there are even apes that sing. Even these surprising animals, however, cannot eclipse the extraordinary sight of swimming elephants. In India's western islands, elephants were imported to serve as beasts of burden. However, to commute from workplace to workplace, the huge animals must swim up to a mile through bright tropical seas, using their trunks as snorkels.
Baby elephants are able to rest on their mothers' flanks during the long paddles.
In the waters below these swimming behemoths, there are other remarkable sights to be seen, from colonies of garden eels swaying in the currents to spectacular coral reefs alive with flashing fish. A close look reveals that some of them have formed interesting alliances. For example, the bright gobie, a small barrel-shaped fish, serves as a lookout for prawns, a kind of large shrimp. The gobies perch at the edge of their sandy burrows, warning the almost sightless prawns when danger approaches. The two partners then retreat into the burrow.