Lactation lasts approximately 18 months, but young are known to eat grass at 3 months. Young may remain with the mother for a year. Wear on the tusks and trails through grass beds suggest that some digging or rooting is part of the feeding behavior. Head shaking during feeding appears to be used to clean sediment from the food before ingesting as little sediment is reported in the stomach contents of animals examined. The timing of feeding seems to be most closely related to tides, not photoperiod.
Frightened animals make a whistling sound and calves have a bleat-like cry.
Though now rare, herds of several hundred animals were formerly known. Calves formerly left the herd during the day to form nurseries in shallow water. Groups of 6 animals are most common now. Males are not known to stay with the stable mother-calf social units. Long distance migration is unknown, but some daily and seasonal movements do occur in some populations.