Elephants' Tail Hairs Tell a Story of Competition on the Savanna

Wildlife researchers have gained an intimate look an elephant family with a clever set of tools: GPS receivers on the animals to track their movements, and chemical analyses of their tail hairs to get detailed histories of their diet. The tail hairs of the family known as "the Royals," led by three sisters called Victoria, Anastasia, and Cleopatra, show that the family roams Kenya's savanna in search of resources, and sometimes gets out-competed. Lead researcher Thure Cerling described the Royals as