Ear-flapping youngsters playfully fought, fuzzy toddlers rolled in the dirt, gal-pals squirted each other with water, moms nursed newborns and a brawny frustrated guy sniffed up a potential mate’s behind. In the far-off island nation of Sri Lanka, I entrancingly embedded with “The Gathering,” the annual, largest and most phenomenal congregation of wild Asian elephants in the world.

Every year for centuries, during the dry season, herds gracefully emerge from the forest to vast plains, where they munch marshy grass, goof around, and drink water from man-made lakes in two adjoining national parks, Minneriya and Kaudulla. The matriarch-led brigades shift between parks so depending on timing, safari-goers can spot anywhere from zero to possibly 300 pachyderms at this party; in September, as t

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