Elephants eat about 150-200 lbs of food per day, but they have a relatively

inefficient digestive system. They only actually digest about 60% of what they

eat. This means that 40% comes out the other end as an incredibly useful little

package that contains seeds and fertilizer together. This wonderous package

gets dropped behind the elephant as it’s walking and then the rest of the herd

walks through it all, planting the seeds. This benefits not only the plants, whose

range expands to wherever the elephants migrate, but also the other species

who rely on those plants for survival. This is one of the ways that elephants are

a keystone species. When we protect and conserve elephants, we protect and

conserve a wide variety of other species.

 Who knew poop was so important?