Giants are enraging farmers in Gabon, but they don’t do it out of spite: they may be looking for “medicine”, not food.
Farmers in Gabon are increasingly angry, and it’s the elephants’ fault, which spoils all their bananas. Among the crops most affected recently is also papaya. The pattern of destruction is strange: animals consume the stems, leaves and stems, and the fruit is left behindcrushed to the ground.
At first glance, it looks like pure vandalism. The problem is recurrent and completely devastating, describes a recent investigation in Ecological Solutions and Evidence, which points, however, to a justification that does not involve any malice on the part of the animal.
These attacks on cultures may be linked to self-medication: Elephants may be looking for plants with antiparasitic properties to alleviate health problems.
The team, led by conservation scientist Steve I stoppedworked closely with farmers near Monts de Cristal National Park in northern Gabon. After several raids on crops, researchers followed the animals and collected samples for analysis. In total, around 90 stool samples were examined to then assess the presence of gastrointestinal parasites and cross-reference this data with the type of plants consumed during the invasions.
An association was thus found: elephants infected with parasites in the gastrointestinal tract were more likely to focus precisely on banana trees and papaya plants. According to the study, the individuals with parasites were about 16% more likely to eat banana leaves and 25% more likely to nibble on papaya trees.compared to elephants without infection.
Now, these plants are known to contain compounds with potential antiparasitic action.
Reminds her that this type of self-medication is not unprecedented in the animal kingdom: there are similar records in chimpanzees — which — and even in domestic animals, which turn to certain plants when they are sick.
What makes the Gabonese case especially sensitive is the economic and social impact: incursions can compromise the livelihood of entire families and sometimes lead farmers to ask park authorities to intervene or even turn to poachers.
One hypothesis put forward by the new research is to provide alternatives that help reduce the need for elephants to forage for medicinal plants on farms.
