"Sian is a very proficient Mini-Matriarch. A very interesting event occurred when the Keepers were leading the group out into the forest one morning, and Sian halted the elephants, and refused to follow. This puzzled the Keepers. Sian then pointed in the direction the Keepers wanted to go with her trunk, and turned and took another route. A short time later, the Keepers were amazed when a lioness emerged from the bushes Sian had indicated, and astonished that she had detected its presence, and warned them, despite being only two years old herself!"
My guess is that she scented something strange (probably not knowing it was a lioness) and refused to go in the direction of the smell. However, it is interesting that these very young animals, despite never having seen how a wild matriach acts, seem to know how to protect their little orphan families.
Another example some months ago was when Yatta (another young female) walking well to the back of the orphaned family, rushed past the rest of the orphans and keepers and started pushing the whole group backwards. When the keepers got to the front they found an injured adder lying in the path. She couldn't possibly have seen it from where she was in the back. Does an adder make a loud enough sound that she could have heard it? And, even if she could hear it, how did she know it was something dangerous when she had never seen a snake before?
