The Secret World of Elephants exhibition reveals lesser-known facts about elephants and their role in natural ecosystems and culture. Through life-size models, fossils and casts, and engaging interactives made by the AMNH Fabrication and 3D Design team, visitors are introduced to the greater elephant family tree, which reveals that the elephant’s closest living relatives are not, as some might assume, large mammals with thick, wrinkly skin—like hippos and rhinos—but aquatic sea cows and furry, rabbit-sized hyraxes. Visitors explore how elephants reshape their environment through eating, trampling, and creating water holes, which influence the survival of numerous species.

Given the variety of objects and media that needed to be represented in a relatively small space, the AMNH team developed an original structural system made of EMT pipes and steel connectors. This simple, cost-efficient, and reusable construction method allowed the creation of a grid-like modulus to present graphics, support media screens and interactives, and divide space into logical sections. This choice of materials and hardware also allows for rebuilding the show in other locations and reusing elements for future exhibitions. The current layout for AMNH halls also includes numerous sections to enable visitors to explore the space with comfort and the opportunity to make a break.

To balance the industrial allure of the physical materials, the show's color palette includes a combination of bright colors that also serve as color codes for the five main parts of the show: Evolution, Body, Mind, Habitat, and Elephants and Us.

Within these sections, visitors can hear five different elephant vocalizations and are encouraged to “speak elephant” by observing videos of various social behaviors in elephants—including greetings, courtship, play, and mourning—and answer questions about the underlying meanings. Visitors can make their own elephant herd with a selection of large magnets representing the matriarch—the leader—as well as other female adults and calves. Two touchable teeth, one from a mammoth and one from a mastodon-like species demonstrate differences in the ways these giant proboscideans chewed, and an interactive mammoth tusk model demonstrates how scientists use isotope “fingerprints” to reveal how mammoths traveled across what is now Alaska about 17,000 years ago. The exhibit has been designed to consider the safety, accessibility, and interests of visitors of all ages.

On a grander scale, the exhibition highlights the alarming decline in elephant species and the pressing need for conservation efforts. It features interactive displays that address contemporary issues such as the ivory trade, climate change, and human-elephant conflict. In addition, there is a documentary film showcasing the real-world efforts of the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya to conserve elephants.