November 27, 2025 2:54 PM
Elephant dung DNA reveals hidden forest populations, study shows
There are thousands more endangered African forest elephants than previously thought, thanks to a new counting method using the DNA extracted from their dung, a study showed on Thursday. The species of elephant, important in helping rainforests to regenerate, is notoriously hard to assess since they are spread across remote, dense jungles in 22 African countries, precluding aerial counts. But scientists have come up with a new method: counting individual elephants based on an analysis of their...