Elephants are not choosy...

Crops not on an elephant's menu...(or taking away the menu altogether)

Noah has been attempting to persuade some farmers to change the crops they grow, or even to give them up altogether and return to just farming cattle, which is the traditional Maasai pastime, in order to reduce visits from elephants.

Elephants find farm food irresistible

Elephants, you see, will eat pretty much most things that humans grow.

However, they do have at least some dietary fussiness. A subsequent strategy for some farmers may therefore be to plant those crops which elephants positively will not touch such as:

• chilli
• tobacco
• chrysanthemums

(Chrysanthemums produce pyrethrum, a substance that can be used as an insecticide).

All of the above are cash crops which could, in themselves, earn the farmers valuable income which can then be used to buy the staple food they would have otherwise grown.

What elephants particularly like

Of the crops grown in TransMara region, elephants seem to particularly enjoy eating:

• maize
• bananas
• pumpkins
• millet
• sorghum
• cassava
• tomato
• sugar
• cane
• kale
• potato
• beans

Growing pumpkins is, if you'll excuse the pun, a special recipe for disaster in high conflict areas.

Usually pumpkins are grown around livestock enclosures (or burmas) and are well liked by the elephants.

So when an elephant comes along, in attempting to get to the ripening vegetables, they often cause severe damage to the structure of the enclosure.