Kim Corbin, age 10, of Franklin, N.C., for her question:

DO ELEPHANTS BURY THEIR DEAD?

Elephants are very courteous and kind to each other and often go to great lengths to help a relative in trouble. But there is no evidence that they bury their dead. We hear about elephant graveyards, but this may not be what it seems to be. It is true that the bones or bodies of several dead elephants have been found together, but they were not carried there by friends and relatives. Nor do aging elephants go to die in these graveyards.

Sad to say, these rumors arose from man's cruelty.Poachers hunt and slaughter wild elephants for their valuable ivory tusks. Often these ivory hunters corner and kill several elephants in the herd. Their tusks are removed and the bodies left to decay where they fall.     Later, a traveler may mistake them for an elephant graveyard.