Tracing the Source of the Elephant And Hippopotamus Ivory from ...

diet as interpreted from the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios will typify the
habitat from which the elephant derived. For example, increasing habitat change is
correlated with an increasing proportion of grass in the diet (Laws 1970, cited by van
Hoven 1983: 47). The habitat also influences the degree of seasonal change in diet, in
addition to the size of the elephant’s home range, and both of these factors will in turn
affect the stable oxygen and strontium isotope signatures. Therefore, due to the
geographical differences in the habitats of Africa, each region of Africa (East, West, and
South) will be examined separately in terms of diet and feeding and ranging behavior.
The main geographical focus, as determined in Chapter Four, is North and East Africa.
As no elephants currently inhabit North Africa, the environment and diet of elephants that
once lived there in the Late Bronze Age will have to be reconstructed. Furthermore,
while South and West Africa are not considered as likely sources for Late Bronze Age
ivory in the eastern Mediterranean, the studies from South and West Africa will illustrate
the diet and behavior associated with those types of habitat which may have existed in
North or East Africa during the Late Bronze Age.
East Africa
Studies by Kabigumila (1993) and Barnes (1983) examined the diet and feeding
behavior of African elephants in the national parks of Tanzania, while a more general
study by Eltringham (1980) looked at range usage by large mammals in Uganda. In
general, the vegetation of East Africa includes both C3 (browse) and C4 (graze) plants,
with the grasses almost exclusively C4 (Tieszen and Imbamba 1980: 237), but as
mentioned previously, seasonal variation in diet will affect the ratio of browse to graze.
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