![]() The great rainforests of Central and West Africa provide forest elephants with a vast larder to choose from. The disappearance of these gentle giants would herald the end of these vital rainforest oases, impoverishing the entire ecosystem as a result. These clearings are in turn frequented by many different species seeking out the water, minerals, and clay soils the elephants unearth. The architects of these fragile amphitheatres of Eden are of course the forest elephants, who excavate and compact pits with their tusks and feet. In Dzanga Bai (meaning “village of the elephants”) in the CAR, it is not uncommon to be able to observe sixty to seventy elephants congregating, interacting, and feeding in what is one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Most observations are therefore limited to forest clearings known as “bais”, a word from the Babenzélé language spoken by the nomadic pygmy peoples who also inhabit these forests. This amounts to almost seven elephants killed every single day for ten years, and serves as a stark warning that nowhere in Central Africa can be considered truly safe from poaching.īecause they spend most of their time in small family groups of 3 to 4 female relatives, with the males roaming the forests by themselves, they can be very difficult to study. However, a recent study estimates that in just the span of one decade from 2004-2014, the population in Minkébé National Park declined by 78-81%, a loss of more than 25,000 elephants. Although a diminutive country by African standards, around 88% of its landmass is covered by forest. Gabon is home to the largest population of forest elephants. They have been observed living in savannah environments in many areas including Gabon and West Africa, and just to make things more complicated, savannah elephants are known to live happily in forests in Kenya and elsewhere. Eleftheria Palkopoulou points out that reproductive hybrids amongst closely related mammals are not unprecedented, furthermore she stresses that the “capacity for hybridization is the norm rather than the exception in many mammalian species over a time scale of millions of years”.įorest elephants occur in the tropical rainforests of Central Africa and in fragmented habitats in West Africa. It is often said that truly distinct species cannot interbreed. ![]() Observed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, western Uganda and parts of West Africa, hybridisation is quite a divisive topic amongst geneticists and taxonomists. One of the main reasons scientific bodies like IUCN have only just defined forest elephants as separate species, is that they have been known to produce fertile hybrids with savannah elephants. This allows them to move around the rainforest so effectively that they seem able to melt away in a moment, and it is partly why they have been so understudied. Having lower forequarters is a trait shared with other rainforest dwelling mammals of Central Africa, like the striking and enigmatic Western Bongo ( Tragelaphus eurycerus). Their ears are smaller and more rounded, and their forequarters are lower than their hindquarters, making forest elephants’ bodies more compact. Compared to their savannah cousins, their tusks are much straighter, thinner, and direct mainly downwards. The two species have therefore been living separately for a very long time.Ī close inspection of forest elephants reveals they are morphologically quite different too. This is around the same time Asian elephants split from the woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius) and as humans split from chimpanzees. ![]() Despite being recognised as a separate species by some experts since 1900, this year marks the first time IUCN has declared forest and savannah elephants as two distinct species.Īccording to genetic analysis, forest elephants and savannah elephants diverged from their common ancestor around 5.5 million years ago. Yet most people would be forgiven for not knowing about them. ![]() Their population is believed to have declined a staggering 86% in just 31 years. The magnificent, intelligent, and highly endangered forest elephant ( Loxodonta cyclotis) made headlines in March this year when the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) updated its status to critically endangered. I doubt many of these children, let alone most adults, are aware that there are two different species which inhabit the African continent. Ask any child in the world and they would probably be able to identify one from a line-up. Whenever African elephants are mentioned, it is understandably the savannah elephant ( Loxodonta africana) that receives all the headlines.
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