African forest Elephant

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.

Forest elephants have been found to be more closely related to an extinct Asian elephant than to African Savannah elephants

The first analysis of the genome of the Straight-tusked elephant (a long extinct species) may well rewrite the elephant family tree – while at the current time there are 3 species of elephant (African forest, African bush and Asian Elephant) there are many more long extinct species.

It also suggests that the straight tusked elephant, long thought to be closely related to the Asian elephant, is actually an African elephant species. It does perhaps give another warning, to not classify animals by how they look but by their genes – convergent evolution can often mean species that look similar have little recent genetic links at all.

There has been much argument about whether the African forest is indeed a separate species. This debate must now be over. 2/3 of the African forest elephant has been lost in the last 15 years, we must stop arguing about its genes and get down to the work of saving this species.

African Savannah Elephant

African Savannah Elephant

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. 

One of the other issues with poaching is that elephants are very intelligent, and can communicate over long distances. As a result if for instance an elephant is killed in the north of the Kruger, elephants hundreds of miles south will become far more aggressive towards humans and cars. This in turn reduces the number of tourists that are willing to visit the reserve.

Perhaps one encouraging fact, is that the African savannah elephant has enough space for a far larger population if only poaching can come to an end. It is also a simple fact, that any reserve with elephants (like lions) can attract visitors- provided it is well run.

Limpopo Transfrontier park including Kruger sabi sands and other conservation areas
Greater Serengeti

Forest elephants make a significant difference to the amount of Carbon that trees hold

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 found out on the Savanna – which is the species most people see. Talking about these elephant species, bare in mind that the forest elephant has been shown to be more closely related to the mammoth than to the African Savanna elephant. 

Continue reading “Forest elephants make a significant difference to the amount of Carbon that trees hold”

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