The elephants look excellent now, I agree. May I make an experimental suggestion? You don't seem to have any terrain in the scene so this might be a good time to try Raytrace Everything. I suggest putting AA at 5 or 6, atmosphere samples at 32-64 (maybe 48 is a good value to try), and cloud quality to 1 (whatever the sample levels this gives you). Then render 0.5 detail with Raytrace Everything and see how fast it progresses compared to previous. It *should* be a good deal faster, though I don't know your original settings so it might not be the same quality. I'd have to do some crop render tests with the scene to fine tune the settings fully. But I do think it's a good candidate for Raytrace Everything.
- Oshyan