Coprophagy in the African elephant (Loxadonta africana Blumenbach)

Seed Dispersal by Elephants in Semiarid Woodland Habitats of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe1

“…This is equivalent to a wet-weight dung deposition rate of ca 62.5 g/m2/yr, a rate comparable to that reported by Laws et al (197'5) for bush elephants in mesic woodland habitats of North Bunyoro, Uganda (58.5 g/m2/yr). Assuming a defecation rate of 14 dung piles/elephant/d (Guy 1975(Guy , 1976 and an average of 228 woody plant seedsldefecation (this study), the estimated average elephant-dispersal rate for woody plant seeds in dung would be ca 3 192 seeds/elephant/d, with an extrapolated rate of ca 80 million seeds/ d (79,800,000) for the Hwange ecosystem as a whole. Availability of ripe fruits and seeds from woody plants within semiarid woodland landscapes of southern central Africa is highly seasonal, with peak availability for most species occurring during the early and middle dry season (Coates Palgrave 1983, Barnes et al 1997, this study).…”

“…The overall rate of elephant dung deposition within Hwange National Park is estimated to be about one million tondannum (9 12,500 metric tonnes), assuming a population of 25,000 elephants, average age of 23.39 years (extrapolated from data in Haynes 1985), and estimated dung production of 100 kg/ elephant/d for an elephant of this age/size class (Wing & Buss 1970, Guy 1975, Laws et al 1975. This is equivalent to a wet-weight dung deposition rate of ca 62.5 g/m2/yr, a rate comparable to that reported by Laws et al (197'5) for bush elephants in mesic woodland habitats of North Bunyoro, Uganda (58.5 g/m2/yr).…”

Revisiting old bones: coupled carbon isotope analysis of bioapatite and collagen as an ecological and palaeoecological tool

“…Faecal consumption (i.e. coprophagy) occurs in both wild and captive elephants (Guy 1977;Leggett 2004), and is thus a plausible explanation for the elevated d…”

Intestinal Protozoa of the African ElephantLoxodonta Africana(Blumenbach)

“…1980, 15 (2) protozoa it carries and eventually establish a functional protozoa population in the intestine. The normal bolusshaped faeces have been observed in a different form, light coloured and very fluid, by Sikes (1971) in elephants in captivity and similarly by Guy (1977) in wild elephants in the Sengwa area of Rhodesia. Guy (1977) describes how juvenile elephants picked up faeces immediately after defaecation by cows and placed.…”