Across the water, a small herd of elephants, two adults and a child, emerged from the brush, and closer to the canoe, a herd of water buffalo lay all but submerged in the bleary green waters, escaping the late morning sun.

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For now, it looks like new director Francis Lawrence (helmer of Constantine, I Am Legend, and Water For Elephants) is fitting right in, even perhaps eschewing some of the shaky cam work that Hunger Games director Gary Ross included in the first and third acts to much dismay.

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It is not clear how and why the ancestor of elephants left the water for a life on land.

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Thousands of elephants, giraffes, zebras and other animals are in danger because there is not enough water to drink at the Hwange National Park.

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