Do You Think Elephants Are That Important?
Let's look at 15 ways that elephants contribute to
wildlife conservation and have a positive effect on the habitats in which they
dwell.
1) Elephants Transport Seeds
The world's largest herbivore is the African elephant.
Furthermore, despite its lower size, the Asian elephant is still regarded as
one of the world's largest herbivores. It comes as no surprise that these guys
consume a significant amount of plant matter each day.
Elephants carry plant material in their stomachs after
eating vegetation (which includes seeds) and subsequently deposit it in piles
of excrement. In this method, plant debris can be dispersed thousands of meters
from the original eating location. In fact, some research contend that
elephants are capable of carrying seeds more than 60 kilometers.
Elephant dung is the ideal fertilizer since it is full
of nutrients that help seedlings grow and germination. Additionally, the
distribution of elephant seeds enables plants to settle in new regions,
resulting in the ultimate creation of new habitats and sources of food for a
variety of species.
2) They Offer an Abundance of Food
A variety of distinct dung beetle species rely on
elephant dung as a significant and plentiful source of food. Dung beetles can
be seen swarming towards a dung pat after an animal has left one, seeking to
snag a piece of the nutrient-rich solids and liquids it contains.
Dung beetles can also eat a lot more amounts of
elephant dung. These beetles not only consume the excrement, but they also bury
it underground so that their larvae can eat and develop. In doing so, dung
beetles remove compacted soil and transport the nutrient-rich elephant
fertilizer to the soil layers where it is most required—where plants first emerge.
Therefore, elephants play a crucial role in
maintaining plant populations and healthy ecosystems.
There's more, though. Field mice and honey badgers are
only a couple of the creatures that eat the submerged beetle larvae that feed
on the dung.
This implies that elephant dung supports the survival
of a number of land life forms in addition to beetle populations.
Elephants knock down branches that may have been too
high for other animals to reach when they walk. These animals now have greater
access to food.
In order to ensure the survival of other animals and maintain species variety within ecosystems, these floppy-eared food suppliers.
3) Elephants Alter Their Surroundings
There isn't much that can obstruct an elephant due to
their size.
Elephants trample plants to make clearings in forests.
These openings increase the amount of light that reaches the forest floor,
which benefits lower-lying plants' ability to develop.
Additionally, because various animal species depend on
various plant species, this may boost species diversification by creating new
habitat niches for living things.
Elephants also impact the savannah ecosystem by
tearing down trees and dismantling prickly bushes. This helps to maintain the
savannah as an open plain with scattered trees and bushes rather than an area
covered in them, and it supports the kinds of species that like the savannah
biome.
4. They Play a Role For Attracting Tourists
Elephants are able to generate
income for nearby communities thanks to a thriving tourist industry. According
to a survey, an elephant's lifetime tourism value is about US$1.6 million. The
most economically developed nation in southern Africa and the continent's
largest elephant population is Botswana. Approximately 10% of the nation's GDP is derived on tourism, the majority of which is focused on the animals of the
nation. As Botswana has improved its elephant protection, that number has
increased.
5. Intelligent Symbol
African elephants are a vital
component of the ecosystem in addition to being one of the most recognizable
animals on the African continent and one of the world's smartest mammals. They
are highly respected because of their striking cultural similarities.
6. Provide Habitat For Smaller Species.
Elephants are sometimes thought
of as destructive animals when we witness them tearing down trees, but in
reality, they are keystone species that play an essential function in their
ecosystem by modifying the environment in which they reside so that other
species can grow. Being the largest land mammal, elephants have the power to
alter and sustain the physical ecosystems around them in ways that benefit the
surrounding fauna. Elephants who are hungry will knock down trees to get food,
which will make space for smaller animals like lizards and spiders. These
overturned trees frequently produce microhabitats that permit coexistence of
smaller species.
7. Soil's Source Of Nitrogen
Elephants help make up for the
fact that nitrogen can be scarce in some locations by spreading nutrients, particularly
nitrogen, over the terrain as they urinate. If the elephant population
continues to decline, this nitrogen will become more concentrated in fewer and
fewer regions, which will have an ecosystem-wide ripple effect.
8. Elephants Could Aid in The Fight Against Cancer
Elephants have evolved a
superior DNA repair process to get rid of cells that have cancer-causing
mutations, say researchers from the universities of Utah and Chicago. This
could aid researchers in creating a new cancer treatment or even cancer
prevention medications.
9. Elephants May Also Assist Hearing-Impaired People
More than any other animal
used as a model for hearing in medicine, the hearing range of an elephant is
closest to that of a human. This is especially true of mice, whose peak hearing
sensitivity is at the upper limit of ours. The mouse ear is even less helpful
in research on aging and hearing loss because we lose our high-frequency
hearing over time. New hearing-aid designs may benefit from an understanding of
the mechanisms underlying how the elephant ear detects noises in the 20Hz
range.
Elephants are able to hear
other elephant cries and other sounds that act as seismic "cues" in
the earth. Their feet and trunk contain vibration-sensitive cells that let them
achieve this. All mammals, including humans, contain identical
vibration-detecting cells in their hands, feet, lips, and even gut. The
possibility of vibrating hearing aids modeled after elephants has been
demonstrated by research being done at Stanford University School of Medicine.
10. We Could Learn Valuable Things About Aging From Elephants
Elephants not only live as
long as people do, but they also develop cardiovascular issues and age-related
illnesses like osteoarthritis. These artificial models could aid in our
understanding of how our own bodies evolve throughout time. Only elephants have
the same "extended knee" stance as people do, as well as a
heel-to-toe gait pattern.
11. Reproduction and Menopause
Only humans, killer whales,
and pilot whales are known to experience menopause. Studying elephants'
possible delayed menopause could reveal fresh information about our own
fertility and aging.
But do you think the
environment is more important to you than people's health? Elephants are
working hard in this area as well.
12. Elephants are Skilled Gardeners
There is a saying and you may
be familiar with the phrase "Plant a tree, save the Earth". The
phrase "Save one elephant, save the Earth" is another option. Since
ancient times, elephants have been planting trees, leaving behind rich manure
and partially digested seeds each time they create dung. Many species' seeds
require an elephant's digestive system to germinate. Elephants would vanish if
they didn't exist.
13. Elephants are Remarkably Skilled for Providing Water From the Ground
In times of drought, elephants
dig wells and provide a life-saving supply of water for themselves and other
animals, while it is unknown exactly how they can detect underground sources of
water, whether through smell or by sensing the vibrations from artesian wells.
14. They Get us to Reflect
The more time we spend
learning about elephants, the more understanding we develop of our own
personalities. Elephants are equally intelligent to humans in terms of
self-awareness, tool use, language (using not only verbal but also visual and
olfactory cues), empathy, and long-term memory. In addition to all of that,
they are very socially similar to us. It can be similar to staring in a mirror
to gaze at an elephant.
15. They Provides Support to Their Older Ones
not least in terms of looking
after the elderly. When an elephant loses its final set of six molars and is
unable to feed, its lengthy life in the wild comes to an end. An older bull may
occasionally receive assistance from a younger bull by chewing branches and
other food for the younger bull before feeding him. It serves as a sobering
reminder that we must also look after our own senior citizens.
