Fig. 1.

Averaged helminth egg counts for every elephant host sampled for each experiment; investigating egg distribution within (a) an individual bolus (centre and edge samples), 474 samples from 119 elephants and (b) multiple boluses (centre and edge samples from different boluses), 120 samples from 20 elephants, (c) when determining optimal sampling time, 94 samples from 47 elephants, and (d) if storage methods had any impact on egg recovery during faecal egg counts (FEC), 132 samples from 33 elephants. Helminth eggs were always aggregated within host elephants, with few hosts having substantial parasite burdens (in excess of 200 EPG) and the majority having none or insubstantial levels of infection.