How do you know what an elephant eats? Look at its poop!

If you were an elephant detective, how would you know what an elephant eats ?

[Option 1]

Interview the elephant directly , what did you eat today?

Required condition: proficient in elephant language.

Mom, what are you eating? Break some for me｜pixabay

[Option 2]

Follow elephants and analyze video data .

Requires conditions and super patience.

Because elephants may eat for more than ten hours a day and eat 150 kilograms of food. In addition, elephants move long distances, and many of the plants they eat are very small and difficult to distinguish. Elephants also eat in dense bushes at night. It is impossible to see them clearly from a distance, and it is very dangerous to get close .

Researchers are carefully tracking and recording elephant populations | Save the Elephants

[Option 3]

Go and look through the elephant's poop to analyze the plant DNA and other clues contained in it.

Need conditions, dare to pick up shit. ✔✔✔

An adult African elephant defecates more than ten times a day, which can produce 100 kilograms of feces in total. As long as you are willing to pick it up, there are plenty of samples .

African elephants in Kenya | George Wittemyer

A group of brave scientists chose the last option. They analyzed the feces of two groups of African elephants in Kenya in detail , and the research paper was published in the Royal Society Open Science in July 2023.

What do elephants eat?

The author of the paper, Tyler Kartzinel, said that the reason for doing this research was that when communicating with other scientists, he suddenly realized that we actually know very little about "what elephants eat specifically."

Why? It's hard to study. Although elephants are relatively gentle herbivores, when they can crush you to death with one foot, you are unlikely to follow them closely and take notes with a small notebook .

What to do? Pick up shit . Reading shit makes people wise.

The sample is ready, come and pick it up. | Tuchong Creative

After studying 69 representative pieces of poop, scientists found that elephants eat a rich and diverse diet. They eat different plants - herbs, woody plants, and succulents ; they also eat different plant parts - roots, bark, leaves, and fruits . In just one piece of poop, there are DNA sequences of up to 137 plants.

It's not a big problem, just eat whatever you have, the bark is also fragrant｜TuChong Creative

In general, elephants like foods with high nutritional value . It would be best if they could eat fruits. If the food in the wild is too bland, elephants will even go to garbage dumps to forage - the food there sometimes has better calories and nutrition.

On an individual level, elephants' diets can vary greatly. Even within a herd, each elephant might eat something different on the same day.

This "wide range of diets" and "difficult to satisfy everyone" actually have an advantage - elephants are matriarchal societies, with female matriarchs leading the entire family in groups. Living in groups can bring many advantages to elephants, but if all elephants have to compete for the same food, conflicts may increase and food will become more scarce.

If elephants have their own preferences, then even in the same place, you eat your acacia and I eat my ragwood, each with his or her own preferences, and each is happy.

Everyone has their own preferences｜TuChong Creative

The researchers also found that pregnant or lactating elephants have slightly different diets than other elephants. Perhaps elephants also "change their taste" or "need to take care of their babies' taste" during these special periods.

Of course, what elephants can eat also depends on what they can encounter .

During the rainy season , various plants grow rapidly, and elephants eat more fresh grass, which increases the overall diversity of their diet .

During the dry season , elephants mainly switch to eating other plants, and the diversity of their diet decreases - there is no way around it, as there are fewer options.

How is the poop picking research conducted?

The research method used by scientists is called DNA metabarcoding .

DNA fragments were extracted from the elephant poo and then cross-matched with a database of DNA from plants in the area .

In order to verify the results, scientists also used other methods for comparative analysis, such as analyzing the "carbon isotopes" in elephant hair (yes, although elephants look bald, they actually still have a little hair).

Every elephant has hair on its body ~｜TuChong Creative

At the same time, scientists also use GPS to track elephants and use remote sensing data to remotely monitor elephants and observe their activities.

Botanists were also invited to help, and Paul Musili, curator of the East African Herbarium in Kenya, also participated in accurately identifying the plants .

In addition to telling us about the elephants' diet, a lot of information can be analyzed from elephant poop : the gene flow of elephants, the kinship structure of elephant populations, and the elephants' recent stress levels can be seen from stress hormones.

Protecting beautiful elephants

African elephants are very beautiful, with big ears that are just like the shape of Africa.

However, these land giants eat too much and too much. When their habitats are not sufficient to provide abundant food, they may come to human farmland and orchards to "eat buffet". An elephant can destroy a farmer's entire season's harvest in one night, so human-elephant conflict is inevitable .

Elephants enter human living space｜africanelephantjournal

Therefore, to protect elephants, we must cooperate with local residents , on the one hand to help farmers protect their crops, and on the other hand to provide timely compensation when elephants cause losses.

Elephants need large habitats with rich and diverse food sources.

“ By better understanding the diet of each individual, we can better manage iconic species like elephants, rhinos and buffalo to ensure their populations can grow in a sustainable way, ” Katzner said.

“When animals don’t get enough food, they may survive, but they won’t be healthy and thriving.”

References

[1]Gill, BA, Wittemyer, G., Cerling, TE, Musili, PM, & Kartzinel, TR (2023). Foraging history of individual elephants using DNA metabarcoding. Royal Society Open Science, 10(7), 230337. doi: 10.1098/rsos.230337

[2]Similar to humans, elephants vary what they eat for dinner. (2023, July 06). Retrieved from https://www.brown.edu/news/2023-07-05/elephants

[3]Cara, E. (2023). Elephants Need a Little Variety in Their Diet, Too, Poop Study Reveals. Gizmodo. Retrieved from https://gizmodo.com/elephants-variety-in-their-diet-study-finds-1850607170

[4]Watch: Elephants 101. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/african-elephant

Author: Sea Sky Mark

Editor: Heijio sister

Cover image source: Tuchong Creative

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