Overview
- The peer-reviewed study in Nature Ecology & Evolution reports roughly a thousandfold variation in plant sodium across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Researchers overlaid plant-sodium maps with herbivore dung chemistry and population density data to link sodium scarcity to fewer elephants, rhinos, and giraffes.
- Observed behaviors support the findings, with elephants eating cave salts or digging riverbeds, gorillas competing for salty foods, and herds congregating at salt pans.
- West Africa’s relative lack of megaherbivores is attributed in part to sodium-poor plants, interacting with pressures such as overhunting and low soil fertility.
- The authors warn that many protected areas are sodium-poor and that human-created salt sources from boreholes, road salting, mining, and artificial licks could reshape animal distributions and heighten conflict with people.