One swipe from a tiger’s claw could kill you instantaneously. Meanwhile, grizzly bears have more strength in one paw than we do in our whole bodies, and gorillas can lift up to four times their own body weight. The world’s strongest animals are fearsome and for the most part predictable, but at the top of this formidable list is one that might surprise you: elephants.

Strength can be difficult to define. There is strength relative to body weight, and then there is the sheer weight they are able to lift. By the latter measurement, African bush elephants are the most powerful land animal by far, just for being able to lift their own body weight: 6,000 kg or 13,228 lbs. But power is not always synonymous with predation; the world’s strongest animal is also an herbivore.

Elephant trunks can carry over 200 kg or 441 lbs thanks to the 40,000 muscles they contain (far more than the 600 we humans have). Technically noses, trunks are used for all kinds of purposes including smelling but also drinking, breathing, trumpeting, bathing, and picking up objects with the two fingerlike features at the tips. Elephants will even wrap their trunk around that of another in a “trunk-shake” for greetings and bonding. Sometimes strength has more to do with versatility.

And it doesn’t have to solely benefit the self. African elephants are referred to as ecosystem engineers because of how they shape their environments. During dry seasons, they dig up riverbeds and create watering holes that their neighbors benefit from, too. They clear away trees and saplings to keep the savannah accessible for other animals such as zebras. And they spread vast quantities of seeds through their dung, gardening and helping plants to thrive. 

Female elephants become pregnant for 22 months—nearly two years, the longest of any mammal—and give birth every two to four years. Thankfully, they don’t approach child-rearing alone. These animals live in matriarchal herds; the oldest and largest female will lead other females and their young, creating a community that spans multiple generations. While adult males tend to roam on their own, the females know there is strength in numbers.

The bonds elephants form within these herds are also powerful—and empathic. In addition to helping one another, herd members display signs of mourning; they have been observed returning to the bones of deceased kin and herd leaders even years later. It’s true that they have strong memories. And their sense of self is stalwart too, signaling high intelligence; they are among the few animal species proven capable of recognizing themselves in a mirror. 

Is power the capacity to have dominion over another, or is it found in one’s ability to resist? To overcome or endure? I long for a world where we follow in the tracks of elephants and remember that strength is as much about gentleness, community, and adaptability as it is about brute force. Where we can once again become stewards of our environment and the other animals we share it with—where we can look at our reflections and recognize ourselves as all part of the same herd.