Timothy Gallinger, age 10, of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

Do elephants really have secret graveyards?

There is a legend that an aging elephant wanders away to die in a secret graveyard of his ancestors. Ivory hunters like to believe it is true. In the past, before laws were passed to restrict the slaughter of wild animals in Africa, they hunted down elephants and killed them to get their precious ivory tusks. The safaris were expensive, risky and wearisome    and naturally the treasure hunters hoped for an easier way. Several hordes of elephant bones were fount, decaying there in the jungle. It was also know that aging elephants tend to wander off from the herd. Most likely these were the facts used to invent the graveyard legend.

Observers of animal life has other ideas. The so called graveyards had bones but no tusks. It is more likely that they were the carcasses of elephant herds slaughtered by previous ivory hunters. Observers also suspect that aging elephants wander off, not to die, but in search of water. This happens at the end of the hot, thirsty season. Then sudden monsoons may deluge the old wanderers and trap them hopelessly in the mud.