Elephants get stomach aches too

BANDARLAMPUNG, Lampung: Even the elephant, the largest land mammal on Earth, has to watch its diet as a prognosis said the stomach aches suffered by 16 elephants at the Way Kambas elephant training center was a result of gorging too much grass.

Many people initially thought the elephants had consumed some sort of toxin. However the head of the Way Kambas National Park, Suherti Reddy, said trainers had been stuffing the elephants with too much grass.

"The stomach aches that the elephants have been suffering were from overeating green grass and not (caused by) poison," he said as quoted by Antara.

Reddy said the 16 elephants which have been suffering from stomach aches for more than a week have now been injected with medicine and vitamin-B complex to aid their recovery.

The elephants have also been put back on their original diet of banana leaves and palm midribs.

The Way Kambas elephant training center has 148 trainers and 30 trainer elephants taming about 117 wild elephants.

The center, located within the 130,000-hectare Way Kambas National Park, is one of Lampung's main tourist attractions.

Reddy said income from foreign and domestic tourists helped support the center's operational expenses. (mds)