Hannah Mumby once saw a group of male elephants in South Africa by a swimming pool, one that humans had built with azure walls that make the water glow.
There were loungers and chairs around and the elephants were drinking.
There were about six or seven cops, teens to early thirties, a mixed gang.
They moved slowly and relaxed, they splash water in their mouths.
An animal called a sweetie put its trunk right next to that of a large bull called Napoleon.
Hannah Mumby took a picture and wrote, "Boys drinking by the pool, 2015".
After a while one of the elephants gave a brief growl and they all left.
“There wasn't even a scramble about who gets the shade or the best water,” says Mumby via Skype from Hong Kong.
Atypical?
No.
But little known: only recently has the social interaction of male animals been intensified.
The researcher says with a smile that our idea of males as lonely, aggressive beings interested in reproduction, sex and combat may be influenced by the idea of human masculinity.