Time and sex/age differences in vegetation consumption of African elephants in Kruger National Park

The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) eats a wide variety of vegetation,
resulting in extensive woodland destruction. This study investigated whether elephants
eat different types of vegetation according to the time of day as well as the feeding
preferences between the different sex and age classes. We observed elephant feeding
habits over the course of three days. The data reveal a significant difference between
shrub consumption and tree and grass consumption in all elephants, while grass and tree
consumption are not significantly different in all elephants. The sex and age classes
spent a significantly different amount of time consuming grasses, but not shrubs or trees.
The finding that elephants spend a comparable amount of time eating grasses as they do
trees suggest that elephants are not as influential in woodland destruction as some predict.