The shot above comes from photographer Michael Nichols' photoessay on the New York Times' Lens blog, "Documenting Elephants’ Compassion, and Their Slaughter." Nichols spent 20 years in the Central African Republic documenting the lives of elephants. Many of his photos appeared in National Geographic, and they're collected in the new book Earth to Sky: Among Africa’s Elephants, a Species in Crisis.

It's not all cute, we-think-he's-people fare — the Times spread includes some brutal post-poaching shots. It's also accompanied by an article containing this bit:

When one family mourned the death of a female, the elephants approached and surrounded the corpse, touched it with their trunks, and started swaying back and forth. Matriarchs from nearby elephant families joined in.

“They go to the corpse and they won’t leave it,” Mr. Nichols said. “Even when it’s just bones. Once a year they’ll visit the bones and hold them with their trunk. I would call that mourning.”

Elephants are just like us (except less dickish).