A simple approach to monitor faecal particle size in the Asian elephant – A proof of concept study

Abstract

In contrast to most mammals, elephants express a life-long dentition change called molar progression, with a continuous change in size of the grinding surface. This may impact chewing efficiency and consequently lead to age-related variation in faecal particle size. Assessing faecal particle size relies on tedious laboratory analysis and would benefit by a more simple and practical method. We develop such a method and evaluate its reliability by comparison with the results from laboratory analysis. The method was based on measuring the 10 largest particles per sample and produced comparable ranking as laboratory analysis, in four test-elephants.