Well, more specifically their footprints. New research finds that elephants create foot-shaped habitats for breeding frogs as they travel through the forest in Myanmar.
Rain-filled elephant footprints supporting tadpoles and egg
masses. Photo: Steven Platt/WCS Myanmar
Some of the tiniest creatures in Myanmar benefit from living near the
largest species in the area.
Newly published research reveals that frogs are laying their eggs in the
rain-filled footprints of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), which then
provide a safe home for growing tadpoles. The footprints eventually fade
away, but they last for a year or more on the forest floor and can serve as
important habitats during dry seasons and even as “stepping stones” between
frog populations.
Talk about having an environmental footprint.
No adult frogs were observed taking advantage of these foot-shaped
puddles, although those eggs obviously came from somewhere.
This represents an important step in understanding the role of Asian
elephants as “ecosystem engineers.” African elephants have long been
recognized for the way they affect the natural systems around them — a
similar study published in 2016 found tadpoles and dozens of insect species
living in elephant footprints in Uganda — but Asian elephants have not
benefitted from the same level of scientific study.
“There is surprisingly little known about Asian elephants as ecosystem
engineers, at least in comparison to African elephants,” says lead research
Steven Platt, a herpetologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s
Myanmar program. “That said, I think our study and several others indicate
that Asian elephants play an important role as ecosystem engineers. Not only
do elephants modify vegetation — knocking down trees, removing bamboo,
dispersing seeds, etc. — but they also affect the ecosystem in ways that
might not be readily obvious, such as creating temporary ponds and dung
piles used as food and cover by invertebrates and small vertebrates.”
Platt (no relation) says this underscores the vast interplay between
species and illustrates why it’s important to protect entire ecosystems and
their full range of biodiversity.
And of course, the study further illustrates the need to protect elephants
and the species that live around them, much like the previous study in
Uganda. “I surely hope this aspect of interconnectedness has been or will be
used as an argument for conservation of elephants,” says the lead author of
2016 study, Wolfram Remmers with the University of Koblenz‐Landau.
Perhaps more importantly, Platt says the study in Myanmar also reveals the
need to look for similar relationships in other nations where endangered
Asian elephants still roam. No one knows exactly how many Asian elephants
remain in the world, but all indications suggest their populations continue
to shrink throughout their range. The paper concludes with a call for
action: “studies are still urgently needed on the role of E. maximus as
ecosystem drivers, especially in light of the rapid decline of these large
fauna.”
That decline, obviously, is caused by a creature with a much bigger
footprint: humans.