An African elephant cow stands her ground at sunset in Kenya's Amboseli National Park, ears flared wide, trunk swinging, dust rising gold behind her. We were heading back toward camp as the light went, along the route the herds keep across the road each evening. Her family went over first, and she came last. Before following them she turned to face us, spread her ears, and kicked up the dry ground, a display that left no doubt about how close we were allowed to come. She was near enough that I made this with a 55mm lens, the edge of the road running soft across the bottom of the frame. Two months earlier, the IUCN had listed the African savanna elephant as Endangered for the first time, after decades of loss to poaching and shrinking habitat. She made her point, then turned and walked after her family into the bush.
