Analysis of Elephant Hair May Provide Insights into Their Diet and Behavior, Scientists Claim. 
Researchers have studied wild elephants in the Samburu National Reserve, Kenya, by tracking them via GPS devices and analyzing hair samples from their tails.
This research aims to assist conservationists in determining potential safe havens for these large but vulnerable creatures.
Conflict between humans and elephants in Kenya has become commonplace as the human population increases. Elephants are losing their familiar habitats to human settlements, leading them to forage in agricultural areas. Sometimes, they are killed or retaliated against.
To investigate their movement patterns, a scientific team led by Thure Cerling from the University of Utah, USA, fitted wild elephants with radio devices. They analyzed their wandering habits over two years and collected tail hair samples. By studying the ratios of carbon and nitrogen isotopes found in nature, the research team reconstructed the diets of seven elephants.
All but one had similar diets. The seventh, a male elephant named Lewis, consumed significantly more grass, indicating that he had been raiding nearby farms.
This elephant was shot after the study concluded, possibly by a farmer, the international research team from the USA, UK, and Africa reported.
“The big question is how we ensure a future for elephants when their conservation areas are too small,” said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, co-author of the study and founder of the Elephant Conservation Fund in Nairobi, Kenya.
“Monitoring elephants’ diets through stable isotopes will help isolate their nutritional needs and assist in developing reasonable land-use plans,” he added.
