The elephant in the room: mapping the footsteps of historic elephants with big game hunting collections

<div><p></p><p>This article examines the artefacts of big game hunting in female elephants from East Africa, natural history collections of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A contextual object biography approach is utilized to analyse the life histories of these specimens through the use of archival and isotopic evidence. Emphasis is placed on the example of an elephant shot on Mt Elgon, Kenya, in 1902, parts of which were preserved and shipped to England for curation and display in the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent. The results of isotopic analyses on some of the remains reveal a life history that has implications for developing conservation strategies for modern elephant populations in the region and contribute baseline data critical for interpreting the isotopic signatures of ancient ivory believed to have been exported from eastern Africa.</p></div

Map of δ¹⁵N values and annual precipitation.

<p>Circle colour represents the δ¹⁵N value of the sample from that location. Base map is of annual precipitation (mm) from the WorldClim database [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref101" target="_blank">101</a>].</p

Map of δ¹⁸O values and elevation.

<p>Circle colour represents the δ¹⁸O value of the sample from that location. Base map is of elevation above sea level (m) from the WorldClim database [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref101" target="_blank">101</a>].</p

Location of historic and modern provenanced East African elephant tissue samples.

<p>Caravan routes adapted from [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref036" target="_blank">36</a>] and base maps of global vegetation/land surface cover from [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref037" target="_blank">37</a>] European Space Agency 2010 & UCLouvain GlobCover Project and geological map provided by the French Geological Survey (BRGM) through SIGAfrique of bedrock age at a scale of 10 metres with the permission of OneGeology [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref038" target="_blank">38</a>].</p

Map of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values and geology.

<p>Circle colour represents the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr value of the sample from that location. Base map is of bedrock geology provided by the French Geological Survey (BRGM) through SIGAfrique of bedrock age at a scale of 10 metres with the permission of OneGeology [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref038" target="_blank">38</a>].</p

δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values for modern, historic, and unprovenanced elephant samples from East Africa.

<p>(A1-3) Three plots of modern (post-1950) and historic elephant tissue samples collected from museum specimens, national parks in Tanzania (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.s001" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>), and including modern published data from [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref039" target="_blank">39</a>,<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref041" target="_blank">41</a>,<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref042" target="_blank">42</a>]. Colours of all samples correspond to habitat following [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref041" target="_blank">41</a>] for East African elephant habitats: green is forest/mountain, black is savanna mosaic (incorporates woodland/bushland/grassland habitats) and red is arid (incorporates arid bushland and grassland habitats), with habitat descriptions following [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref097" target="_blank">97</a>]. (A1) δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of collagen, (A2) δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values of carbonate, and (A3) δ¹³C and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values, from collagen and carbonate respectively. (B1-3) Three plots of all samples included in (A1-3) are lightly shaded and in blue open circles, the unprovenanced ivory samples from museum collections (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.s001" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>). (B1) δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of collagen, (B2) δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values of carbonate, and (B3) δ¹³C and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values, from collagen and carbonate respectively.</p

δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values for modern and historic provenanced elephant samples from East Africa.

<p>(A1-3) Three plots of modern (post-1950) elephant tissue samples collected from museum specimens and national parks in Tanzania (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.s001" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>). Colours of all samples correspond to habitat following [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref041" target="_blank">41</a>] for East African elephant habitats: green is forest/mountain, black is savanna mosaic (incorporates a wide range of woodland/bushland/grassland habitats) and red is arid (incorporates arid bushland and grassland habitats), with habitat descriptions following [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.ref097" target="_blank">97</a>]. (A1) δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of collagen, (A2) δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values of carbonate, and (A3) δ¹³C and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values, from collagen and carbonate respectively. (B1-3) Three plots of historic (1896–1909) elephant tissue samples collected from museum specimens (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0163606#pone.0163606.s001" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>). (B1) δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of collagen, (B2) δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values of carbonate, and (B3) δ¹³C and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values, from collagen and carbonate respectively.</p