Yeah seems totally plausible to me, I got to see elephants in the wild a few years back, and it left me with no doubt that they were extremely intelligent. Looking into their eyes felt like locking eyes with a fellow human, you just felt there was thinking sentient creature in there. And their behavior in certain situations is very relatable, saw a mother route her calves around a too-aggressive camera tourist car, and once she was sure the babies were safe on the other side, she came back and did what I could only believe was a huge “F YOU” trumpet at the offending car to let them know they were out of line, turned around and went back after the kids.