Issue link: https://nest.uberflip.com/i/596850
any people don't understand the vital role that elephants play in the delicate dance preformed throughout the African ecosystems. Elephants are considered a keystone species in the African landscape and play a key role in maintaining the balance of all other species inthe community. Elephants pull down trees and break up thorny bushes, which helpcreate grasslands for other animals to survive. They create salt licks thatare rich in nutrients for other animals. They also dig waterholes in dry river bedsthat other animals can use as a water source, and their foot prints createdeep holes that water can collect in. Elephants create trails that act as firebreakers and water run offs. Other animals, including humans,depend on the openings elephants create in the forest and brush and in the waterholes they dig. Elephant dung (droppings) is important to the environment as well. Baboons and birds pick through dung for undigested seedsand nuts. The nutrient-rich manure replenishes depleted soils sothat humans can have a nutrient rich soil to plant crops in. Elephant droppings are also a vehicle for seeddispersal. Some seeds will not germinate unless they have passed through an elephant's digestive system. With the dispersal more trees are created - this is why elephants are often called Nature's Gardeners. Of course with more trees comes more forests and more forests mean more global carbon capture. Simple put without elephants many other species will die off and humans as well as the earth as we know it will be in grave jeopardy. Increased global warming will spiral and the damage will be wide spread and may be irreversible. Losing a keystone species will impact us all.