Do elephants know why we kill them? “...in the end, I came to the conclusion that he was hiding his tusk. Because at a waterhole like that, it is where poachers hide and I am convinced that he [figured out that] what he had on his face was his downfall. I am sure he knew that his ivory was what poachers were going for. Elephants have this huge ceremony around death and feeling the tusks and you can imagine if you are an elephant walking past dead elephant after dead elephant or just skeletons, and ever time the tusks have been removed or the front of the face has been hacked off with a chainsaw or a panga (machete). They are sensitive and intelligent, and they have got to be thinking, “Something on the face there is wanted.” I think they know.”