Elephants may make other herbivores feel safe from predators.Byline: ANI London, Dec 19 (ANI): A new study has suggested that elephants may make other herbivores feel safe from predators, especially when all the animals are gathered at a water hole. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a report in New Scientist, the study was conducted by Marion Valeix, then at the National Centre for Scientific Research in Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France. The aim of her study was to find out if some elephant populations have increased due to reduced poaching poaching: see cooking. and creation of artificial water holes, resulting in decline of herbivore herbivore: see carnivore. herbivore Animal adapted to subsist solely on plant tissues. Herbivores range from insects (e.g., aphids) to large mammals (e.g., elephants), but the term is most often applied to ungulates. species. Though she had set out to discover if the elephants of Hwange National Park Hwange National Park formerly Wankie National Park National preserve, northwestern Zimbabwe. Located on the Botswana frontier, it was established in 1928 as a game reserve and in 1930 as a national park. in Zimbabwe were harming other herbivores by chasing them away from water holes, the findings surprised her. Her team found that members of nine herbivore species, including buffalo, zebra, warthog and wildebeest wildebeest: see gnu. , rarely backed off when elephants were around. Instead, all herds increased their drinking time - normally between 5 and 10 minutes - by around 2 minutes. Valeix said that elephants may make other herbivores feel safe from predators. "I have seen lions approach to hunt buffalos at a water hole and retreat when a group of elephants came closer and surrounded the buffalos," she said. Alternatively, the herbivores may take longer to drink because they spend time looking out for the elephants, feeling nervous about them. "We will have to study the time individual animals spend drinking compared to looking around to answer this question. But, even if there is increased vigilance towards elephants, the time difference is so small that it is unlikely to explain herbivore population declines," said Valeix. According to Community ecologist Todd Palmer at the University of Florida University of Florida is the third-largest university in the United States, with 50,912 students (as of Fall 2006) and has the eighth-largest budget (nearly $1.9 billion per year). UF is home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. , who studies the interaction of elephants with other species, the water holes themselves may be to blame for the herbivore decline, because they help sustain artificially high densities of animals. (ANI) Copyright 2008 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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