Elephants 'don't do hills' scientists 明らかにする／漏らす

Last updated at 12:30 25 July 2006


Hannibal must have had a hard 職業 crossing the アルプス山脈, によれば new 研究 which shows that elephants hate climbing hills.

Scientists used 全世界の positioning system (GPS) 衛星 跡をつけるing to follow elephants across the African savannah.

They 設立する that the animals studiously try to 避ける sloped 地形, and hills were a 重要な 影響（力） on elephant movement and land use.

Even minor hills 代表する a major energy 障壁 for animals as big as elephants, the 研究員s discovered.

An elephant needed to 上げる its calorie 消費 劇的な to climb a hill - which meant finding a lot more to eat.

The 研究員s, led by Professor Fritz Vollrath from Oxford University, 焦点（を合わせる）d on the Samburu/Isiolo/Laikipia 地区s of northern Kenya which cover 32,000 square kilometres and are home to around 5,400 elephants.

They 設立する that elephant 全住民 濃度／密度 dropped 意味ありげに with 増加するing hill slopes. 計算／見積りs showed that the energy cost of trudging up hills was a likely explanation.

A 4,000 キログラム elephant would need an extra 100 kilojoules, or 25 calories, of energy for every vertical metre climbed - around 2,500 per cent of the cost of level walking.

"Climbing 100 metres would '燃やす' 10,000 kilojoules which would have to be either 補充するd by an extra half hour of foraging or paid for by using up 団体／死体 reserves," the 研究員s wrote in the 定期刊行物 現在の Biology.

"明確に, climbing is something that an elephant should not do lightly, but should 重さを計る very carefully."

Megafauna such as elephants probably took a "rather different 見解（をとる） of their surroundings" than more lightweight animals, the scientists 結論するd.

"This is 特に true of the heavyweights, like elephants, are herbivores for which energy replenishment is so much more time 消費するing than it is for carnivores," they 追加するd.

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