| Humans are social animals. We like to stay as families. We like to have friends and relatives. |
| Family members care for each other and help each other. They also enjoy playing, visiting and |
| celebrating special occasions. What happens in the animal world? Do animals have a social life? |
| Do they have families? Absolutely! Here we introduce two of them -the Elephant and the Wolf families. |
| Elephant Families |
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| Elephants live in very close families (called HERDS) that are headed by the oldest female elephant. |
| Families are made up of sisters, cousins, aunts, mothers, grandmothers and younger elephants. |
| The male elephants do not stay in the family. When they are 6 -7 years old they join a group of other |
| male elephants or stay alone. The females in the family may remain together for their life. Family |
| members always stay close. If they separate they call each other. When separated members meet, |
| they greet each other by touching with their trunks, trumpeting, running, kicking etc. If two friendly |
| herds meet, they greet each other with trumpeting noises too. |
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Each adult elephant in the family takes good care of the little ones, (feeding and cleaning) the older ones and the sick and injured elephants. They protect them from enemies. If a predator attacks, the herd groups together |
| with the head of the family facing the enemy and the young elephants hiding behind the adults. |
| The adults will risk their lives to protect the younger elephants. Elephants have been known to |
| celebrate the birth of babies and are sad and cry if a family member dies. |
| Wolf Families |
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| Wolf families are called PACKS. A pack is made up of an adult male |
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| (called Alpha male) and an adult female (called Alpha female) and their children of various | ages. Pack sizes range from 3 to 20. The alpha male and female are the leaders of the pack. | Children have to obey them. The babies are born in spring in a den. Mother takes care of them. | Father goes out and gets food for her. When the babies are young they cannot eat big pieces of the | food that their father gets. So the parents eat those pieces, then regurgitate it, into the babies mouths. | This may sound "yucky" to us but it is good food for the wolf babies. When the babies are old | enough to eat bigger pieces, the family comes out of the den and starts living on open grounds. |
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The wolf pups love to play. The family members protect them and teach |
| them to hunt. The pack hunts together. When it is time to go hunting, they howl and call the family | members together. Howling is wolf talk. |
| Answer the question | |
| How are Elephant and Wolf Families Different? | |
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