Guess the menu of elephants through the tail

Analysis of elephant hairs can provide evidence of their diet and behavior, the scientists claim.

The researchers studied wild elephants in Samburu, Kenya's national reserve, by tracking them from global positioning devices and analyzing their tail feathers.

The study aims to help conservationists decide where to become a refuge for these large but vulnerable creatures.

The conflict between people and elephants in Kenya has become a daily affair, as human populations increase. Elephants are occupied by human settlements, they are hungry and have to break into feeding grounds. Sometimes, they are killed or shot in retaliation.

To explore their movement, the science team led by Thure Cerling from the University of Utah, USA, attached radio devices to wild elephants. They analyzed their habit of wandering for 2 years and collected samples of elephant tail feathers. When studying the ratio of carbon and nitrogen isotopes found in nature, the team redrawed the diet of 7 elephants.

All but one, have the same menu. The seventh, a male elephant named Lewis, ate much more grass, proving it broke into nearby cultivating farms.

The animal was shot after the study ended, possibly by farmers, said an international team from the US, UK and Africa.

" The big problem is how do we ensure the future for elephants when their conservation area is too small, " said co-author Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of the Conservation Fund. elephants in Nairobi, Kenya, said.

" Tracking elephant diets through stable isotopes will help isolate their essential nutritional needs, and help map out proper land use plans, " he said.