The study area is dissected by an east-west highway and a
park road along the floodplain in the west (Fig. 3). Elephant tracks
that crossed these roads were followed for habitat and diet studies
(Pradhan & Wegge 2007; Pradhan et al. 2008). Tracks selected
for this work were spread across the whole length of the roads
to ensure that the whole study area was evenly sampled; during
vehicle reconnaissance, several recent crossings were usually
encountered from which widely spaced ones were selected for sampling.
A total of 80 fresh dung samples were collected along the
tracks during the course of three months in the dry season. The
sizes (diameter) of the boli were measured to the nearest 1.0 cm.
Since boli are not usually perfectly circular, we used the average of
two diameters. Three boli were measured in this way, and the average
bolus size was calculated. Then, we sliced off a piece of dung,
approximately 4 cm
×
1 cm in size, from the surface of each sample.
The sample was either transferred to a tube containing 70% EtOH
(62 samples) or air dried with no desiccant added (18 samples). All
samples were subsequently stored at room temperature until DNA
extraction could be undertaken.