How Elephants Drive Sustainability
Elephants are the largest land mammal found across Africa and Asia and are one of the most intelligent species on Earth. These mammoth descendants play a key role in a variety of religions, cultures, and traditions across the globe. They are also essential to our ecosystem. Elephants aid in forest route development and the discovery of salt licks in addition to providing food, shelter, and water. Not only do elephants gain from these services, but so do many other animals. They are what is known as a “keystone species”, as they provide key ecosystem services that are vital to the survival of other species in the community. Let’s have a look at the great things that elephants do and how it benefits other animals.
Elephants disperse seeds
Elephants are herbivores; hence they devour numerous plants, along with their seeds. After ingesting these seeds, they spread them through their dung (elephant faeces) as they wander through the environment. These seeds develop into whole new trees, grasses, and bushes. The faeces serve as a fertiliser, providing essential nutrients for plant growth and development. Other animals benefit from elephant migration as the animals help plant life colonise and flourish in new areas.
Elephants create new paths
Because of their massive size and strength, elephants easily crush plants as they traverse from one location to another. This creates an opening in heavily vegetated areas, facilitating the movement of a wider variety of species. In addition, the clearing of passages by tearing down and uprooting thorny shrubs benefits smaller animals. Also, by removing some of the thornier plants, more sunlight may reach the soil, encouraging the growth of new plant species while lowering the level of competition. Therefore, besides making more space for other animals, elephants are also helping vegetation to thrive.
Elephants create watering holes during drought
Elephants use their trunks to smell subsurface for water sources during severe droughts. They then use their tusks to dig irrigation holes to access that water, to survive the drought. Thanks to these watering holes, other species survive the drought as well.
Elephants aid in the discovery of salt licks
In times of scarcity, elephants may supplement their diets with salt and other minerals found in the ground. Elephants’ acute sense of smell allows them to sniff out rich mineral deposits using their trunks. They will then use their tusks to delve into the ground and devour the roots they find. Although elephants find the salt licks, other herbivores also use them if they feel the need to up their mineral intake.
Elephants provide shelter
Interestingly, elephants are important for amphibian species. Frogs thrive in the wet conditions provided by the water that fills up elephant tracks during the dry season. It is in these tracks that the frogs lay their eggs, and their tadpoles mature. In addition to serving as breeding grounds and connectivity hubs, elephant footprints also protect frog populations from predators.
Elephants provide food for other species
Elephants defecate around 15 times a day, and their dung is a popular meal amongst the insects. As numerous bugs congregate around the faeces, they become easy prey for birds. In addition, dung bugs rely on elephant dung for their larvae, which also benefits honey badgers who feed on the larvae. Scientists have also reported butterflies flocking to fresh dung, which serves as a source of body heat during the cold winter months. Researchers have found that male butterflies feed on faeces because it provides elements necessary for reproduction. Besides dung, when elephants are searching for food, this results in the dropping of twigs, leaves, and other tree parts. Their accidental tree pruning facilitates tree growth. Large herbivores, like gaur (Bos gaurus) and sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), feed on these tree remnants after they have fallen.
Elephants against climate change
Perhaps most surprisingly of all, elephants may even play an important role in the fight against global warming. As mentioned above, elephants are crucial to the development of forests. More trees means that more carbon dioxide is sequestered. This also contributes to the preservation of forest biodiversity. In fact, scientists warn that if elephants were to go extinct in the second-largest rainforest on Earth (located in central and west Africa), the world would progressively lose between 6-9% of its potential to trap atmospheric carbon, greatly exacerbating global warming.
Therefore, besides being gigantic, beautiful creatures, elephants are crucial members of the communities in which they live and of the world as a whole. However, they are under threat. There were once 10 million elephants roaming Africa, but now only around 500,000 exist in isolated herds, with many of these are at risk of extinction. Their importance cannot be overstated, and for this reason, groups all over the world have been fighting for decades to safeguard the survival of these species.
