African Forest Elephant

Due to decades of heavy poaching, just 400 African forest elephants remain in Cameroon. Like their savannah and Asian cousins, African forest elephants can live for up to 65 years and are considered "gardeners of the forest." Compared to savanna elephants, the forest elephant is in much more serious danger of becoming extinct.

Common Name:

African Forest Elephant

Scientific Name:

Loxodonta cyclotis

IUCN Red List Status:

Critically Endangered

Weight: 

2-4 tonnes

Size:

1.8-3 m (5.9-9.8 ft) at shoulder

Habitats:

Dense tropical forests

First pregnancy:

23 years

Gestation period:

22 – 24 months

Time between pregnancies:

5 – 6 years

Population doubling time:

60 years

Continent:

Africa

GC Sites:

Dja Faunal Reserve, Cameroon

Minkebe National Park, Gabon

Partners:

Governments of Gabon and Cameroon

African Forest Elephant Global Population Size Over Time by Year and Estimated Population:

1800 — 26 million*

1976 — 1.34 million*

1989 — 172k

2003 — 80k-210k

2021 — <100k

*Some historical numbers are forest and savanna elephants combined, as they were not recognized as separate species until 2021

Current and historic ranges of the African savanna and forest elephants.

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Until 2021, all African elephants were considered to be the same species: Loxodonta africana. The smaller, straight-tusked elephants that lived in the continent's dense tropical forests were considered a subspecies, Loxodonta africana cyclotis. It was only in 2021 that the taxonomy was finally changed to match what scientists had long argued: that the forest elephant, Loxodonta cyclotis, is its own species.

At the same time, African elephants were downgraded from Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List to Endangered for the African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and Critically Endangered for the newly split African forest elephant.

Forest elephants are smaller than their savannah cousins; have straighter, downward-pointing tusks; have smoother skin, rather than the moisture-collecting wrinkled skin of savannah elephants; and have rounder ears, from which they derive their Latin name "cyclotis."

African forest elephants, like their savannah and Asian cousins, can live for up to 65 years and are considered "gardeners of the forest." Forest elephants need to eat a huge amount of vegetation to extract the nutrients required to power the biological machine that is an elephant’s massive body, meaning that they are capable of changing the vegetation structure of a forest.

The dung produced is also an incredible fertilizer, and the seeds of fruits or acacia pods pass through the elephant undigested, helping to disperse plant species and regenerate the forest.

Did you know? In 2021, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the National Park Service of Gabon conducted the first forest elephant count in more than 30 years. They reported an estimated 95,000 forest elephants in Gabon. Prior to this the population had been estimated at 50,000 to 60,000 individuals.

Threats

Compared to savanna elephants, the forest elephant is in much more serious danger of becoming extinct. According to recent studies, poachers have slaughtered 65% of the world’s remaining forest elephant population in just 12 years, reducing the population from more than 200,000 to around 100,000 elephants and reducing their range by 30%.

The forest elephant population has declined by approximately 95% in the past 100 years due to the advent of modern firearms. As a result, the escalation of elephant poaching has risen to an unprecedented scale.

Around 50% of all surviving forest elephants are now in Gabon, despite Gabon only covering 13% of the total forest area of the region. Less than 20% of the remaining forest elephant populations may be in the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite this country covering 62% of Central Africa’s forests.

Did you know? Forest elephants are important "gardeners" of the forest that can disperse seeds of trees more than 5km. Many of these tree species would not survive without elephants.

Around 95% of the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the largest countries in Africa and the epicentre of Africa’s tropical rainforest eco-system is likely to be almost empty of elephants.

In February 2013, the Gabonese government announced the loss of at least half of the elephants in Minkébé National Park – and Gabon has the largest population of surviving forest elephants and even there they continue to disappear at rates that indicate complete eradication within the next two decades.

The PLOS ONE study of 2013 on forest elephant decline, emphasized the combination of the rapid increase in demand for ivory in China and its ease of sale there, together with the lack of effective governance in Central Africa and the unprecedented access for poachers to the depths of the forests via unprotected roads, such roads a by-product of the timber industry which itself results in elephant habitat destruction.

Conservation Action

Global Conservation’s efforts to save forest elephants and their habitat are multi-pronged and cross-national between Cameroon and Gabon.

Global Conservation is entering into our first GC Projects in Central Africa, where we will deploy Global Park Defense to address critical threats to Dja World Heritage Park in Cameroon, Minkébé National Park in Gabon, and their connected landscapes.

Due to its UNESCO World Heritage status, Dja Faunal Reserve has received solid support from the European Union and won numerous legal battles against deforestation. Until now, protection of elephants has not been a priority – and some would say it’s almost too late. Our plan is to deploy Global Park Defense to protect this forest and allow its elephant numbers to increase 30% in the next five years.

The wildlife and habitat of this very important forest ecosystem are threatened by illegal logging, commercial hunting of ivory from forest elephants, bushmeat hunting, agro-industrial plantations, mining and infrastructure development. Despite its largely intact primary forest habitat, the animals within that forest are being killed by poachers at an alarming rate.

Additionally, forests less than one kilometer outside the reserve are being demolished for industrial-scale rubber plantations, threatening the integrity of the ecosystem. Eventually, Dja could become cut off from surrounding forests, reducing the ability of wildlife to move.

These threats are exacerbated by the remoteness of the region, the thick forest habitat and a lack of capacity in the Cameroonian Conservation Service, enabling criminal operations to operate across borders and rampant harvesting of resources to go undetected.

Did you know? Elephants have very sensitive feet that can sense vibrations from sounds like thunder or the calls of other elephants from more than 16 km (10 miles) away.

One of the most alarming trends in the Dja ecosystem is the steep decline of critically endangered African forest elephants. Only 219 elephants are estimated to remain in Dja; nearly 10,000 of them lived here in the year 2000, representing a 97% decline in the population in around 20 years.

In 2018, rangers seized 106 elephant tusks from poachers and arrested two suspects near Djoum, Cameroon.

Unfortunately, poaching has continued despite sustained efforts by the Cameroon Ministry of Forest and Wildlife and their partners to stop it. Much of this poaching is carried out by organized criminal syndicates who cross between Cameroon and Gabon.

Rangers from both Dja World Heritage Park in Cameroon and Minkébé National Park in Gabon will work together against the criminal syndicates killing tens of thousands of forest elephants. Our goal is to increase the number of elephants in Dja by 30% over the next 5 years, and to stop elephant poaching entirely within Dja.

Global Park Defense combines community protection, SMART patrolling, surveillance, patrol operations, intelligence, and arrest and prosecution support in a proven methodology to reduce wildlife crime and illegal activities within endangered national parks in developing countries.

We will build Dja’s first Command Center, establish community protection units in four villages bordering the park, and purchase ranger transport vehicles for effective rapid response to intelligence and surveillance by Dja Rangers and Community Ecoguards.

Key Goals

• Build a regional program working between Dja World Heritage Park in Cameroon and Minkébé National Park in Gabon

• Strengthen capacity (e.g. training, equipment) for site-based protection by MINFOF Law enforcement officers in the Dja Complex and with ANPN Gabon Rangers

• Increase patrol coverage and frequency in important areas for wildlife

• Enable cross-border collaboration and information sharing to investigate and disrupt transnational wildlife trade

• Engage local communities in the fight against illegal logging and wildlife poaching

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