Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Wild African elephants walk more than 50 kilometers every day and have a remarkable ability to optimize their energy consumption while moving, according to a two-decade study published today in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
They walk daily in search of food, water, and avoiding predators, according to research led by British and German scientists who followed more than 150 African elephants for 20 years to discover how they cope with long walks.
The findings could provide key information for the conservation of these animals and their habitats, they emphasize.
According to the authors, these giants have an internal GPS that helps them plan their movements based on energy costs and resource availability.
As herbivores weighing several tons, elephants must consume large amounts of vegetation (with low calorie content) every day. However, their enormous size means that moving in search of food requires considerable physical effort.
The researchers (from the University of Oxford, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) used GPS tracking data from 157 African elephants collected between 1998 and 2020 in northern Kenya.
This information was compiled by Save the Elephants, a nonprofit organization that believes understanding elephant movement patterns is crucial for designing effective conservation strategies, especially in the context of habitat fragmentation and increasing human activities.
The team explained that 94 percent of the pachyderms avoided rough terrain, suggesting a conscious selection of energy-efficient routes.
Almost the same percentage chose to move through areas with higher plant productivity, showing a clear tendency to select resource-rich environments. (PL) (Photo: Taken from the Internet)
