RIGHT
A park employee
measures the circum-
ference of some
elephant dung as part
of a study to assess
how climate change is
affecting the diet of
forest elephants. After
the dung’s volume is
recorded, it’s dunked
in a river to help field
researchers separate
the seeds, which will
be used to determine
what the elephant ate.
BELOW
In a plop of elephant
dung, a Detarium
macrocarpum seed-
ling sprouts. Forest
elephants are the
main way seeds are
dispersed in African
rainforests. The animals
travel long distances
in search of food
and leave their seed-
riddled poop along
the way, fertilizing
future trees.
114 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC