African elephants destroy trees and thus maintain a more open savannah. They prevent the ecosystem from advancing to later stages of forest succession. Two mai

African elephants destroy trees and thus maintain a more open savannah. They prevent the ecosystem from advancing to later stages of forest succession. Two main feeding behaviors do this: 1) stripping whole branches and bark which kills the tree; 2) uprooting the trees and eating the roots. Presumably mammoths could be similar...