Mount Elgon

Well, for one, we learned that it appears that they have a lot more medicinal plants in their diet than we previously thought.

And a lot of these medicinal plants that seem to be in their diet that they seem to seek out in some cases when they're showing symptoms and signs of illness are actually really important medicines for people in the local community as well, which shows that here in this region, in Mount Elgon in Kenya, It actually appears that animals and elephants and people are sharing their medicine cabinet.

And that's really, really important for conservation.

What do we know about how elephants are passing this information down through their generations, for instance? Is it all trial and error? Is a parent elephant showing their child elephant that this plant might help you if you're feeling like this?

No, the real story I was going to come up with was also wildlife related and to do with Africa in Kenya.

And just about a week ago, there was news that A certain type of Kenyan elephant has been observed in the Mount Elgon region of Kenya.

These are called salt mining elephants because they go into salt mines and they scrape the rock with their tusks and eat the salt that they get from the walls of the caves, which in itself is cool.

But they...

African elephants in Kenya appear to be using dozens of different medicinal plants to treat themselves, and even provide medical care for sick calves.

That's the conclusion after researchers interviewed local people who spent decades living and working alongside the elephants in the Mount Elgon region.

Here's our science correspondent, Victoria Gill.

The animals involved in this study have intrigued scientists for many years with their extraordinary behavior.

Mount Elgon's elephants are known for their salt mining.

The herds go into caves and scrape the rock with their tusks to extract salt and other minerals for their diet.

This newly published research suggests that the same elephants use several plants found in the forest for medicinal purposes.

The scientists interviewed local wildlife scouts and community elders, all of whom live and work closely with the animals.

section eighteen of the

king of the snakes and other folklore stories from uganda by rosetta baskerville the locusts standing all alone in the middle of a great plain is mount long ago mount elgon was a volcano and there is a crater on the top which is eight miles across once upon a time a mischievous young wizard lived on mount elgon and he stirred up the fire in the crater until the flames blazed up to the sky and when the people who lived in the plains below were frightened and ran away the wizard threw great rocks after them some of the rocks were as big as houses you can see them lying about on the plains to this day but as the wizard grew older he grew kinder and left off throwing stones and let the fire die down in the crater till there was just a little left which puffed like a steam-engine sometimes but did no harm and the people returned to the mountain and climbed up its beautiful green slopes and built houses and planted gardens and were quite happy and the wizard sat on the top and was happy too one day the people in uganda heard a queer sound like a storm in the distance and a great black cloud was moving swiftly along but it did not seem like the usual storms they ran out of their houses to look and the old men said this is no storm it is a flight of locusts Then the locusts settled down on the land and ate up everything.

From province to province they went till there was nothing green left in the country.

When the wizard on Mount Elgon looked out over the land and saw how the locusts had spoiled it, he was very angry, and he sent a hornet with a message to the wizard of the Sese Islands, telling him about it, and said, If you will persuade the locusts to fly over the great lake, I will raise a hurricane and blow them into the water.

when the wizard of the sese islands heard about the locusts he was very angry too and he sent the hornet back with a message telling the wizard to get his hurricane ready for the next morning then he called all the fireflies together and said go over to the mainland and sing to the locusts all night while they are resting on the ground and persuade them to cross the lake so the fireflies flew over at sunset and all night they sang this song as they danced in and out of the shadows over the water of sparkling blue dancing in golden light lie beautiful islands of every hue the country of heart's delight deep cool forests and crystal streams fruit trees and fields of gold these are the islands of boyhood's dreams where no one ever grows old the locusts have no king to teach them wisdom and they did not know how big the lake was for you could put scotland into it and they thought because they saw islands near the shore there would be more beautiful ones lying far out so when they heard the firefly's song they decided to go to the country of heart's delight and in the morning they rose up from the ground in bands and began to fly over the lake Then the wizard from Mount Elgon hurled his hurricane upon them, and they were swept into the water and drowned, and millions and millions and millions of dead locusts were floating on the waters for days afterwards.

That is why the old people in Uganda still call the lake the Locust Killer, but the children learn to call it Lake Victoria, for that is its name on the map.

End of section

They said dreadful things to each other, which are best forgotten.

But we've discovered that we can't just do the same thing everywhere.

So, you know, you know Uganda well, Mount Elgon and Bali, which is over near the Kenya border.

We're working there on mountainsides, essentially, or where there's slopes.

Landslides are a big issue as the soil degrades.