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Mother elephants in Kenya are mixing medicinal plants into their milk to treat sick calves, study finds

From the Newshound archive · first published 24 September 2026 · last updated 25 September 2026.

Elephant mothers in Kenya's Mount Elgon region chew medicinal plants with roots before feeding the mixture to sick calves, researchers have found.
Elephant mothers in Kenya's Mount Elgon region chew medicinal plants with roots before feeding the mixture to sick calves, researchers have found.

Scientists at Hamburg's Bernard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine say this may be the earliest documented instance of a non-human animal both producing and administering medicine to others of its kind. Near Mount Elgon in western Kenya, mother elephants were observed chewing particular roots and leaves, then blending the resulting pulp into their breast milk before nursing sick calves. The study identified 35 plant species and four types of soil or clay the herd used for medicinal purposes.

The so-called 'salt-mining elephants' of Mount Elgon were already known for entering caves to gouge out minerals with their tusks.

Wildlife scouts observed calves working the plant-and-milk mixture in their mouths before spitting out the solid remains, pointing to deliberate treatment rather than incidental feeding.

Dr Elodie Freymann of Brown University said the findings show 'just how entangled our medicines are with the non-human world.'

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