Longitudinal study reveals seasonal and tourism-related gut microbiome shifts in Asian elephants, highlighting the biological impacts of anthropogenic disturbance.
Key Points
To determine whether gut microbiome composition in wild Asian elephants varies across seasons in association with climatic fluctuations and wildlife tourism activity.
Collected longitudinal fecal samples over a 6-month period from wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) residing in two national parks in Sri Lanka.
Profiled gut microbial communities using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to evaluate changes across months and tourist vehicle traffic levels.
Sampling month and specific national park were significantly associated with compositional differences in the elephant gut microbiome.
A distinct portion of temporal gut microbial variation was specifically associated with tourist vehicle traffic.