28 November 2011

Kenya: Mount Elgon's elephant cave

The elephants of the Mount Elgon region in Kenya are actually ordinary savannah elephants, but since hundreds or even thousands of years they have developed a unique pattern of behaviour unknown to any other elephant group in Africa.
The elephants of the area, and not only them, but also buffaloes, antelope, leopards and hyenas, are coming to the "Kitum Cave", which is over 60 metres wide and penetrates 200 metres, to "lick" the natural salt found on the cave walls. Using their massive tusks elephants scrape the cave's walls, pull off chunks of it, crush them and finally lick up the salt.



The Mount Elgon National Park is located on the border of Kenya and Uganda, about 140 km North East of Lake Victoria. The Kenyan side of the park covers 169 km² while the Ugandan part covers 1110km².

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