STAYING IN TOUCH

Last night I found myself envying elephants. That might sound a little perverse. After all, compared with the challenges these great pachyderms face – drought, poaching, habitat loss – we pampered primates have it easy. But as I scrolled through photos of the Luangwa Valley in January, my last adventure before lockdown, I realised I was gazing longingly at the sheer tactile pleasure these huge animals were taking from each other’s company.

In my pictures, jumbos jostle as they splash through a shallow lagoon. Youngsters tussle in the water, mothers shove babies onto the bank and adults cluster beneath a wild