When most Americans think of elephants, they picture the sad, lethargic animals crammed into a small zoo enclosures, or the terrified, tortured animals, awkwardly performing unnatural acts in the circus. It might actually come as a surprise then, for most people to learn that elephants are naturally quite fast. With enough food for energy and plenty of room to run, African elephants can get up to a top speed of almost 25mph! The tiny herd in this video are traveling at more of a cruising speed, but all of them, including the baby, seems to be enjoying every minute of their family fun run.

The elephants in this video are quite lucky. They live in Kenya’s protected  Amboseli National Park, as a part of the Amboseli Elephant Research Foundation, founded in 1972. This program monitors the lives and habits of approximately 1500 wild elephants, spread out across an 8,000 km area. And, while Africa’s overall wild elephant population has declined by 85 percent in the past 30 years, the elephant populations in Amboseli have remained stable, proving that with proper conservation efforts, we can preserve many of the world’s wild animal species.

If you would like to make a donation or learn more about elephant conservation, you can visit their website, here.