A dense forest simply could not survive under the weight of their influence and only clumpy groups of trees and scrub could survive. The grasslands were tattered also. Elephants do not clip vegetation evenly as cattle do. They pull it out with their trunks or kick it up with their front feet. Hence, open lands consisted of small grass patches and bare, uprooted soil.
Elephants dig for minerals and create mud wallows that can eventually become large permanent holes.
The geographical shape of the land would have been altered by this. Soils would be greatly exposed and erosion must have become more accelerated than at present. This description evokes a more open landscape than the lust subtropical forest that surrounds the Aucilla River today. In this view elephants may be no better than humans in creating wastelands and devastating habitats. After an area is cleaned out, the elephants move on to lay waste to another area.