Elephant Footprints Create Habitat for Tiny Aquatic Creatures

Researchers discover diverse communities of invertebrates inhabiting the water-filled tracks of elephants in Uganda.

Written byCatherine Offord

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BIG SHOES TO FILL: University of Graz undergraduate researcher Isabella Schaberl passes a water-filled elephant footprint, home to rich communities of tiny invertebrates, in Kibale National Park, Uganda.COURTESY WOLFRAM REMMERS

Wolfram Remmers, a graduate student at the University of Koblenz and Landau in Germany, had always wanted to visit a rainforest. So when the chance to take a summer field course with a nongovernmental organization, the Tropical Biology Association in Kibale National Park, cropped up in 2014, he leapt at the opportunity. “It was my first time in Africa,” Remmers says. “I was always fascinated in the biology of the tropics—and I was not disappointed!”

Spread over nearly 300 square miles in southern Uganda, Kibale National Park is famous for its diverse primate communities, as well as sizeable resident populations of big cats, birds, and the world’s largest land animal, the African bush elephant. The park has been a study site for more than four ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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