Boys only stick around until they become teenagers. Then, they re kicked out of their family group to spend the rest of their lives alone. They sometimes make friends with other lone males, but more often they fight with them- especially during mating season. Elephants are mysteriously attracted to bones of other elephants. They pick them up, fondle them, and carry them around for hours.
Nobody knows why, but some people think they re mourning the dead.
Cynthia Moss, an elephant researcher in Kenya, has collected elephant jawbones to determine when they died. One night during a bone-collecting trip, a group of elephants came into her camp. They examined the bones, picked out the only bone that belonged to their family. Then they carried it away. Elephants also seem to care for their sick and have been known to protect wounded individuals from poachers, even risking their own lives.