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

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plants in <strong>the</strong> wet season and C3 in <strong>the</strong> dry season is made more visible in growing animals<br />

due to a high collagen turnover rate (Sukumar and Ramesh 1992: 536-538; 1995: 372).<br />

The researchers, like van der Merwe et al. (1988), also noticed that more <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> carbon in<br />

collagen was incorporated <strong>from</strong> C3 plants, thus under-representing <strong>the</strong> C4 component.<br />

This may be explained by higher protein contribution <strong>of</strong> C3 to <strong>the</strong> diet (per unit <strong>of</strong><br />

quantity consumed), so that C3 plants are more important to <strong>the</strong> diet <strong>of</strong> elephants for<br />

growth. The carbon <strong>from</strong> C4 grasses may be more important for o<strong>the</strong>r metabolic<br />

functions however (Sukumar and Ramesh 1992: 536; 1995: 368-373).<br />

Figure 36: Percentage <strong>of</strong> time spent in feeding on C3 (browse) plants on average during<br />

different seasons by adult elephants (solid circles, upper line) and sub-adult elephants<br />

(open circles, bottom line). The dry season is <strong>from</strong> December to April and <strong>the</strong> wet season<br />

is May to November (Sukumar and Ramesh 1992: 538).<br />

113

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