If you’re a guitarist, you’ll know that the kind of wood that goes into making an instrument is very important to how the thing sounds. And getting the right wood for making high-quality guitars is both an art and a science. This brings me to elephant poop.
Ebony is a prized wood, with some of the best found deep in the Congo Basin in Africa. Ebony trees depend upon large quantities of elephant dung to grow big, tall, and healthy. They also need elephants to spread their seeds. However, elephants in the Congo Basin are under immense pressure due to habitat loss and poaching for ivory. If the elephant population declines beyond a certain level, then there won’t be sufficient dung for ebony trees. Fewer ebony trees mean tighter supplies for guitar makers.
How do we know this? Taylor Guitars, a manufacturer out of California, funded a study because their business depends on the availability of ebony trees and, in turn, the number of elephants.
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