Akacia Tree with Elephant Sketch

The beautiful and gracious Acacia 'Umbrella" tree is a favourite of mine. While growing up on the Serengeti Plains I have watched the elephants pulling off their bark and plucking the new leaves from the top of the trees to eat. They stand tall and regal on the grasslands and grow up to 20 meters high, they are very drought resistant and are found in Southern Africa including the northern parts of South Africa.

There is an interesting alliance between Acacia trees and elephants. Elephants eat the seed pods which contain beetle larvae and eat the seeds. Although the elephants eat the pods they don't grind them up enough to destroy the seeds like monkeys do. However the elephants' digestive juices kill off all the larvae and 90% of the seeds that pass through an elephant will germinate. Those seeds left in pods on the ground are almost all eaten by beetles.

(The Ark of the Covenant is said to be made out of acacia wood.)