African elephants may raid farms for crops to use as medicine, study suggests

African elephants may raid farms for crops to use as medicine, study suggests

What looks like ordinary crop raiding by elephants may be far more complex. According to Smithsonian Magazine, a new study suggests that some African forest elephants in Gabon may target banana and papaya plants not for their fruit, but for potential medicinal relief. That insight could help explain a long-standing source of conflict between farmers and elephants in the region. Researchers found that elephants carrying gut parasites were more li…