Telling Tails

Long-term surveillance and analysis of isotopes found in the subjects’ hair may sound like something out of a spy movie, but in this case, we’re talking biology, not Bond. For six years, National Academy of Science researchers in Kenya have been tracking a family of elephants, analyzing the chemical information embedded in hairs from their tails. Since water and grass from different sources contain varying quantities of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, scientists were able to get to the bottom of a mealtime mystery. The scientists concluded that the elephants had recently switched their source of grass, despite a steady supply, as a result of cattle grazing in the elephants’ usual stomping ground. Hopefully the crystallization of this conflict between the human and pachyderm eating habits gives Kenyans a huge reason to go veg.