Accounts from local experts revealed that wild elephants used more than 35 plants, many of which have known medicinal uses
New research suggests elephants living on Mount Elgon may use plants as medicine when they are sick.
The elephants, known for entering caves to mine mineral-rich rock, have been reported to select certain plants when they appear
unwell.
Researchers also found reports of mother elephants giving
plant material to their young, raising the possibility that the animals may
pass knowledge about medicinal plants from one generation to another.
However, scientists caution that the findings do not prove
that the plants actually treat illnesses in elephants.
The study was based on detailed accounts from eight local
Sabaot experts who have spent decades living and working around the elephants
on Mount Elgon.
The researchers documented 35 plant species and four types
of soil, minerals or clay that the experts reported elephants consuming.
Of the 35 plants, 34 were also known to have traditional
medicinal uses among local people. The experts said elephants used 25 of the resources as medicine.
Eight plants provided the strongest evidence of possible
medicinal use. In these cases, the local experts linked a particular plant to a
specific health problem or described plant material being given to another
elephant.
The researchers said some elephants were reported travelling
long distances to particular trees without feeding along the way, apparently to
eat their bark or leaves.
Dr Fabien Schultz, the study’s lead author, said the
findings showed a close link between the plants of Mount Elgon and the health
of both people and elephants.
“Our results show how closely the plant life of Mount Elgon
is linked to the health of both elephants and people. Reports that elephants
use some of the same plants that local communities use in traditional medicine
make protecting these habitats a One Health issue,” he said.
“In the coming years, together with our partners, we want to
investigate whether and how these behaviours are learned or socially
transmitted, and which plants and locations may be particularly important to
protect.”
The researchers used local knowledge instead of directly
disturbing elephants in the forest.
The eight experts included wildlife scouts, guides and local
elders. They included a former Kenya Wildlife Service ranger and a retired
agricultural officer. All had more than 20 years of experience living in the
Mount Elgon area or observing its elephants.
Kennedy Ngityo Chemoywo, one of the Sabaot experts, said
local people had observed the elephants for generations.
“Before there were roads, schools, or researchers on this
mountain, our people were already learning from the forest. I am one of them.
We have watched elephants since childhood. We know where they travel, how they
behave and even the plants they choose when they are unwell,” he said.
“The forest speaks, and if you spend enough time in it, you
learn how to listen. Scientists study nature, and we respect their work. We
study nature by being part of it. When these two kinds of knowledge come
together, both become stronger.”
Researchers then collected plant specimens and had them
identified at the East African Herbarium in Nairobi. They also compared the
plants with scientific studies on their possible medicinal properties.
Of the 10 plants most frequently mentioned by the eight
experts, nine had previously been reported in scientific literature as having
some pharmacological activity.
The researchers also recorded five cases in which local
experts said elephants used plant resources for their young.
These reports included mothers providing plant material to
calves. The researchers describe this as possible “allo-medication”, where one
animal may provide a medicinal resource to another.
But the scientists stressed that these observations came
from interviews and were not directly observed and experimentally tested by the
research team.
The study therefore describes the behaviour as “putative
self-medication”, meaning it is possible but has not been proven.
The research also considered the famous cave-mining behaviour of Mount Elgon elephants. The elephants enter caves, sometimes as
far as 160 metres underground, and use their tusks to remove mineral-rich
material from cave walls.
However, the researchers did not classify this behaviour as
medicinal use. The study says the clay and mineral consumption was considered
mainly in relation to mineral intake and was not established as
self-medication.
Christopher Powles, chair of the Mount Elgon Foundation and
a co-author of the study, said the findings showed how much remains to be
learned about the elephants.
“The longer we spend with Mount Elgon’s remarkable
elephants, the more we realise how much we still have to learn about them. This
research gives us a fascinating glimpse into the complexity of their lives —
and another reason to do all we can to protect both them and the extraordinary
landscape on which they depend,” he said.
The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports
under the title “African elephants putatively self-medicate with medicinal
plants in the Mount Elgon region, Kenya.”
The researchers say the next step is to observe the
behaviour directly and test the plants to establish whether they have medicinal
effects.
Such work may also help scientists understand whether
elephants deliberately select certain plants when they are unwell and whether
knowledge about the plants is passed between elephants.
Mount Elgon’s elephants live in high-altitude forest along
the Kenya-Uganda border. The population faces threats including habitat loss,
poaching and conflict between people and elephants.
The researchers say protecting the forest is therefore
important not only for elephants but also for the plants and knowledge shared
by wildlife and local communities.