Diet Secrets of 'the Royals'
Monday, April 13, 2009 - 16:35
in Biology & Nature
Two weeks after rains begin, an elephant family named "the Royals" usually switches to a grass diet to bulk up for pregnancy. But when they wandered off their African reserve, cattle grazed the grass so short that elephants couldn't eat it. The University of Utah study of isotopes in tail hair suggests how climate change and human encroachment may affect endangered elephants.