Elephants are highly sociable and have similar life cycles to humans. The maternity herd is very protective of young, but males are ejected at 12-15 years old, after which they become nomadic males, often associating with other males.
Elephants have strong bonds and even at 9yrs old a calf may spend over half of the time less than 5metres away from it mother.
The Mara elephants have unfortunately been under threat due to poaching and human-elephant conflicts.