A recent environmental study has shown that elephants in Mount Elgon in Kenya seek out medicinal plants for treatment and may even offer them to their young.Hot Topics
The study was led by Dr. Fabian Schultz, and involved researchers from the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. It relied on observations from a number of environmental analysts, forest rangers, and tribal elders in the Mount Elgon region of Kenya. It showed that elephants in that region use at least 35 types of plants for self-treatment, selecting specific roots, leaves, and other natural materials to treat themselves. Some female elephants even chewed those plants, mixed them with their milk, and offered them to their young.
Observations also showed that the plants chosen by the elephants were also used in the folk medicine of the local people in that area, and previous studies have shown that some of them have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, or antiparasitic properties. In addition to plants, the elephants consumed four types of soil, clay, and natural minerals.
The researchers noted that the method of self-treatment with plants is also known among some animals in nature, such as great apes, but it is unusual for an animal to prepare a natural medicine and give it to another animal.
The team now plans to test the plants selected by the elephants in the laboratory and determine their medicinal properties. The researchers also hypothesize that this knowledge could be passed down through generations of elephants.
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