Eight long-time elephant watchers on Kenya's Mount Elgon name 35 plants the animals may use as medicine
Eight local experts told Bernhard Nocht Institute researchers of 39 resources, 35 of them plants, that Kenya's Mount Elgon elephants may use as medicine. The list comes from decades of the informants watching the animals, so each entry is a lead that field observation still has to test.
The Scientist · Science desk
What happened
- A Bernhard Nocht Institute team, publishing in Scientific Reports, interviewed eight local experts on Kenya's Mount Elgon who have spent decades alongside its elephants.
- The experts named 39 resources they believe the elephants use on purpose: 35 plant species from 23 families and four kinds of soil, mineral or clay.
- Earlier published research had reported antibacterial, anti-inflammatory or antiparasitic properties for some of the listed plant species.
- Informants also reported elephant mothers giving plant-based medicine to their offspring.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint Self-medication on Mount Elgon remains a hypothesis until someone watches the elephants directly, because testimony cannot show that illness drives what they eat.
- What's now possible capability Field teams can point direct observation at herbarium-verified species and use the Mode 4 criteria as a written test for what treatment-like feeding looks like.
- What it sets up precedent This is the first systematic list of its kind for wild elephants, so later field and laboratory studies of the species will probably start from these candidate plants.
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The study rests on eight informants. The authors sort behaviour with a five-stage framework for animal self-medication. The tier they single out as most compelling, Mode 4, covers cases in which informants perceived sick animals intentionally eating resources that are neither especially nutritious nor palatable, often in small amounts, at unusual times or in distinctive ways [8]. The team measured how often different informants mentioned each plant [14], but the published summary does not give those counts, so a reader cannot yet tell a plant all eight named from one named once.
Interviews were a deliberate choice. The team, based at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine and led by Fabien Schultz, wanted to work in the elephants' natural setting [1][2]. They chose not to disturb the animals and drew on wildlife scouts, a former ranger, a retired agricultural officer and community elders [4][5]. Decades of watching are a real asset, though an interview cannot supply a control. Evidence of self-medication would need a count of how often healthy elephants eat the same bark or clay, and whether sick ones do better afterwards.
The botanical work is the strongest part of the study. Every cited species was prepared as a herbarium specimen, identified at the East African Herbarium and cross-referenced against international databases [13]. The pharmacological support comes from earlier studies of the plants themselves [15]. Those studies do not show whether an elephant eating a plant in the small amounts Mode 4 describes takes in enough of any compound to matter.
The overlap with human medicine can be read two ways. Of the 39 resources, 34 are also used medicinally by local people [7], so only five are not [16]. People and elephants may have found the same active plants. Or observers who know those remedies may be quicker to notice an elephant eating one and to call it treatment. An interview study cannot separate the two readings, and I'd expect some of the second effect in any list built this way. Informants explicitly called 25 entries "medicine for elephants," about 64% of the list [12][17]. The other 14 are resources they believe the animals use on purpose, without that label [18].
Self-medication in animals has been recognised since the 1970s, and chimpanzees swallowing bitter leaves against intestinal parasites are the textbook case [10]. A few studies have suggested it in elephants, mostly Asian elephants, while systematic work on African species has been rare [11]. According to the study's summary, the informants' accounts suggest some of these behaviours may be passed between generations [19].
What to watch
- Direct field observation comparing how often sick and healthy Mount Elgon elephants eat the listed plants and clays.
- Laboratory tests of the listed species at the small quantities informants describe elephants eating.
- Observations of calves learning plant use from their mothers, which would test the claim that the behaviour passes between generations.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence65
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
The study was published in Scientific Reports and conducted by the JRG Ethnopharmacology and Zoopharmacognosy at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), with the Mount Elgon Foundation, Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences, EAWLS-Mount Elgon Elephant Project, the National Museums of Kenya and other local partners.
- [2]
The team was led by Dr. Fabien Schultz and shifted the focus from zoo and laboratory studies to the natural environment of elephants on Mount Elgon.
- [3]
The team interviewed eight local experts who have lived and worked alongside elephants for decades and, for the first time, systematically documented which plants wild elephants appear to use for medicinal purposes.
- [4]
The informants were wildlife scouts, a former ranger, a retired agricultural officer who grew up on Mount Elgon and local community elders, all with more than 20 years of experience living in the area or working with elephant herds.
- [5]
Rather than disturb elephants in their habitat, the researchers relied on long-term observations by people who live alongside them, gathered through semi-structured interviews.
- [6]
The eight experts described 39 natural resources they believe elephants in the Mount Elgon region intentionally use: 35 plant species from 23 families and four types of soil, mineral or clay.
- [7]
In 34 cases (87%), the resources were also used medicinally by local people.
- [8]
Behaviours were categorised with a five-stage framework for animal self-medication; 'Mode 4' cases, described as particularly compelling, are situations in which informants perceived sick animals intentionally consuming specific resources that are neither especially nutritious nor palatable, often in small amounts, at unusual times or in distinctive ways.
- [9]
Local experts reported elephant mothers administering plant-based "medicine" to their offspring.
- [10]
Since the 1970s it has been known that animals can treat themselves; chimpanzees deliberately consume bitter leaves to combat intestinal parasites. The phenomenon is called zoopharmacognosy.
- [11]
A few studies have suggested possible self-medication in elephants, particularly Asian elephants, but systematic investigations of African elephant species have been rare.
- [12]
Twenty-five of the resources were explicitly described as "medicine for elephants."
- [13]
The researchers prepared herbarium specimens of all cited species, had them botanically identified at the East African Herbarium and cross-referenced their names with international databases.
- [14]
The reports were analysed with ethnobotanical metrics, including how frequently different informants mentioned each plant, which parts are used and which ailments they traditionally treat.
- [15]
The team reviewed pharmacological literature; previous studies reported antibacterial, anti-inflammatory or antiparasitic properties for some of the species.
- [16]
Five of the 39 resources are not also used medicinally by local people.
- [17]
Resources explicitly called medicine for elephants are about 64% of the 39 listed.
- [18]
14 of the 39 resources were believed to be used intentionally but were not explicitly described as medicine for elephants.
- [19]
The traditional ecological knowledge of Mount Elgon's elephants suggests that some of these behaviours may be socially transmitted across generations.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- discovermagazine.comAfrican Elephants May Eat Medicinal Plants to Treat Ailments Like Upset Stomachs and Exhaustion
1 article · September 25, 2026
- phys.orgAfrican elephants and medicinal plants: Possible self-medication documented through local ecological knowledge
1 article · September 25, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- Wildlife conservation
- Zoopharmacognosy
Entities
- Mount Elgon Foundation
- EAWLS-Mount Elgon Elephant Project
- Scientific Reports
- Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine
- National Museums of Kenya