Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Sri Lanka digs trench to keep elephants away from rubbish dump
Elephants aren’t scavengers by nature. They usually spend 16 to 18 hours, or nearly 80% of the day, eating between 149 and 169 kg of vegetables like grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. But just like other native creatures that live around human habitats, such as bears and crows, they also like easy and nutritious food like human waste.
In Sri Lanka, there are about 7,500 elephants that live in nature and sanctuaries. Some elephants that live in a sanctuary have been invading the landfill site nearby to scavenge waste. Despite the electrified fence that was installed by the government, they seem to have found a way to get in the landfill and are eating not only food waste but also plastic bags and containers, which could be stuck in their stomach and kill them slowly. So, the government is now trying to dig a moat around the landfill site to keep them away. Which ingenuity will win, humans or elephants?
Please be reminded that African elephants are listed as vulnerable and Asian elephants as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. And they already have enough human-caused problems, such as poaching for their ivories, habitat destructions, and conflicts with local residents, especially the farmers. Humans are the most threatening predator in nature.
Read the article and watch the shocking video to learn what turned elephants from vegetarians to scavengers.
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