Elephants are nature's greatest ecological engineers. As they tramp through their habitat, the create microsystems in which reptiles and amphibians are able to flourish.

A recent study pointed these damages out and I know NONE of this will come as a surprise to herpers. Notice what they call the heavy damage, sounds a bit like laying tin to me.

HABITAT DAMAGE CATEGORIES
High - main trunk pushed over and/or uprooted
Medium - damage to the main trunk (not pushed over) and more than 50% of branches and foliage damaged
* Low - no damage to the main trunk and minimal damage to branches and foliage
....
"They will do everything from digging with their front legs, pulling up grass to knocking down big trees. So they actually change the shape of the landscape."

Not to mention their great ability to fertilize the landscape.

He added that elephants' digestive system was not very good at processing many of the seeds that they eat.
"As the faeces are also a great fertiliser, the elephants are also able to rejuvenate the landscape by transporting seeds elsewhere," Dr Schulte told BBC News.

They had 4 areas that they looked at and the species count was variable.

"Eighteen herpetofaunal (amphibians and reptiles) species... were sampled in areas of high elephant damage. Medium damage areas were comprised of 12 species, while areas of low damage had 11 species.
"The control site (fenced area) had the lowest species richness with only eight species."

For the full article, click here.