The elephant populations of Borneo and Sumatra are highly important for the ecosystem they operate in. Unfortunately due to the <a href="https://seeanimalswild.com/human-beings/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="81" title="Human ...
African Forest elephants

There are three species of elephant, the African savanna elephant, African forest elephant and the Asian elephant.
With the African species, Forest elephants have declined 86% between 1986 and 2015, African Bush elephants declined 60% 1965 and 2015 leaving just over 400,000. African forest elephants are thought to number between 100,000 and 150,000.
Perhaps the most scary fact is that the African forest elephant was only declared as a separate species in 2021 only 2 years ago. These species are not particularly similar – indeed the Asian elephant is more genetically similar to the mammoth, than the African savannah elephant is to the African forest elephant!
The African forest elephants population has declined precipitably in the last few years. Given the recognition that the forest elephant is a separate species only came 2 years ago, it is hard to get accurate historic figures. Never-the-less, the combined african elephant species population was thought to be around 26 million in 1800, and 1.34 million in 1976. The estimate is currently around 100-200,000 forest elephants. One of the problems, is that the African forest elephant is an essential part of the ecosystem. There are many trees, which rely on forest elephants to carry their seeds through the forest, so that they germinate a good distance from the original plant (more than a few of the same plant in the same area, causes the pest that feeds on the tree to multiply to the point where it can kill the tree. While it is true that other animals like gorillas and chimpanzees can do this, they do it far less. Should the forest elephant be lost, the African rainforest is likely to be far less capable of of handling the various changes, like climate change that is coming.
The last strongholds are in Gabon (a survey last year suggested Gabon has 95,000 forest elephants, rather than the 60,000 that was originally thought) and the Republic of the Congo and Democratic republic of the Cong, with smaller populations remaining in other African countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea) and Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Ghana in west Africa. There is much space for forest elephants to greatly recover, if the poaching is able to stop.
Below this, you will see a video on this species, and below this is a list of any times that the african forest elephant has been mentioned within this blog.
Below this, at the bottom of the page, we hope to list places where you can go to see this species in the wild – if you work in conservation or tourism around this species, do get in touch. we would love to list you, and it costs nothing to be listed, we merely work on commission.
Two more elephants found dead in Sumatra
- Tim
- November 25, 2019
Could Bison allow the land to reduce air pollution? – Yes
- Tim
- December 17, 2024
Another report stresses the importance of rewilding for climate change, and reintroductions
- Tim
- April 21, 2023
A report has calculated that the reintroduction of 9 species would do so much benefit to the ecosystems that they are found in, that these reintroductions would help us to ...
Despite only relatively recently being defined as a separate species forest elephants are rapidly disappearing and this could have incredible impacts on the rain forest where they live
- Tim
- October 17, 2020
It was only in 2010 the forest elephants were conclusively shown to be a separate species. Indeed up until this point it had been assumed that they were just different ...
It seems climate successes don’t last: vast peatland to be destroyed for oil below in the Congo basin. Important habitat for forest elephants and gorillas
- Tim
- March 5, 2020
Back at the beginning of 2017 a vast peatland was discovered deep in the Congo Basin. Storing an astounding amount of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 3 years of world carbon ...
Forest elephants make a significant difference to the amount of Carbon that trees hold
- Tim
- July 22, 2019
It is only in the last couple of decades that genetic research was done to find the forest elephants of Africa are a completely different species to the bush elephants ...
Forest elephants
- Tim
- June 3, 2018
It is only in recent times that scientists have looked carefully at the elephants that live in the rainforest of Africa and found that actually they are a different species ...
Palm oil deforestation continues in the Leuser ecosystem
- Tim
- January 14, 2025
The smallest elephant in the world is in danger of being lost
- Tim
- December 14, 2024
The island where the feral species is an elephant
- Tim
- December 12, 2024
Might rising temperatures kill the Congo rainforest? Its a carefully balanced system
- Tim
- March 12, 2021
Recent studies have shown a potential problem for the Congo basin rainforest – one of the remaining “lungs” of the world. It would appear that rising temperatures are having an ...
Elephant counting from space
- Tim
- February 4, 2021
For the first time the population of elephants in addo elephant park in South Africa has been counted from space using computer learning. ...
There is some fear that the global warming temperature is already damaging the African rain-forests ability to survive and thrive
- Tim
- September 29, 2020
A significant portion of the world carbon emissions are taken up bye the rain forests of the tropics. This is something we rely on-without this we would need to become ...
Two more elephants found dead in Sumatra
- Tim
- November 25, 2019
Could Bison allow the land to reduce air pollution? – Yes
- Tim
- December 17, 2024
Another report stresses the importance of rewilding for climate change, and reintroductions
- Tim
- April 21, 2023
A report has calculated that the reintroduction of 9 species would do so much benefit to the ecosystems that they are found in, that these reintroductions would help us to ...
Despite only relatively recently being defined as a separate species forest elephants are rapidly disappearing and this could have incredible impacts on the rain forest where they live
- Tim
- October 17, 2020
It was only in 2010 the forest elephants were conclusively shown to be a separate species. Indeed up until this point it had been assumed that they were just different ...
It seems climate successes don’t last: vast peatland to be destroyed for oil below in the Congo basin. Important habitat for forest elephants and gorillas
- Tim
- March 5, 2020
Back at the beginning of 2017 a vast peatland was discovered deep in the Congo Basin. Storing an astounding amount of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 3 years of world carbon ...