Due to the social structure of elephants, when elephants are poached and killed, those elephants who are left behind become affected as well.
A 3-week-old elephant feeding on milk prepared by humans. Photo Credit: David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Orphan elephants are left behind after their parents or family members have been killed, often by poachers. On their own, they are not able to survive in the wild for long and would often succumb to the inability to forage on their own. This contributes towards the dwindling elephants’ population since not only are the adults being swiped off, some of the young are not able to survive till reproductive age to increase their population numbers.
Elephants also grieve. And they have excellent memory. Watching members of their herds die can be a traumatic experience that affects them for life, some of which who do not recover from it.