Salt could be key to saving Africa's largest land mammals

Elephants, giraffes and rhinos need the mineral to survive and will go to great lengths to find it

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Africa’s biggest animals may be rare, in part, because there isn’t enough salt for them, says a new study.

In research led by Northern Arizona University, scientists discovered that the availability of salt may limit the numbers of elephants, rhinos and giraffes (endangered animals known as mega-herbivores) that areas like West and Central Africa can support.

“We found that salt plays an important role in shaping the density and distribution of large mammals across Africa,” lead author Dr Andrew Abraham, now a research associate at City University of New York, told BBC Science Focus.