African forest elephant

Prepared
Voronko Evhenia
African forest elephants are the elusive
cousin of the African savanna elephant.
They inhabit the dense rainforests of west
and central Africa. Their preference for
dense forest habitat prohibits traditional
counting methods such as visual
identification. Their population is usually
estimated through "dung counts"—an
analysis on the ground of the density and
distribution of the feces.
African forest elephants are smaller than African
savanna elephants, the other African elephant
species. Their ears are more oval-shaped and their
tusks are straighter and point downward (the tusks
of savanna elephants curve outwards). There are
also differences in the size and shape of the skull
and skeleton. Forest elephants also have a much
slower reproductive rate than savanna elephants,
so they cannot bounce back from population
declines as quickly at the same rate. Their last
strongholds are located in Gabon and the
Republic of Congo, with smaller populations
remaining in other African countries.
African forest elephants live in family
groups of up to 20 individuals and forage on
leaves, grasses, seeds, fruit, and tree bark.
Since the diet of forest elephants is
dominated by fruit, they play a crucial role
in dispersing many tree species, particularly
the seeds of large trees which tend to have
high carbon content. They are therefore
referred to as the 'mega-gardener of the
forest'. To supplement their diet with
minerals, they gather at mineral-rich
waterholes and mineral licks found
throughout the forest.
WHY THEY MATTER
African elephants have less room to roam than ever before as expanding human populations
convert land for agriculture, settlements and developments.
Forest elephants are primarily threatened by poaching for
bushmeat and ivory. Tens of thousands of elephants are killed
each year to meet the illegal international demand for ivory. In
January 2012, over 200 elephants were slaughtered in a raid by
invading Sudanese poachers in a single national park in
Cameroon. Many governments do not have adequate financial
or human resources to protect their elephants, conduct regular
population estimates or enforce regulations. This allows
poaching to become a chronic, significant problem. Thriving but
unmonitored domestic ivory markets in a number of African
countries—some of which have few elephants of their own
remaining—also fuel the illegal international trade. Anecdotal
evidence from the field suggests many elephants across central
Africa are also being hunted for their meat but the scale of the
problem has yet to be determined.
 STOPPING POACHING
In the Congo Basin, WWF strives to eliminate illegal hunting in protected areas and end the
hunting of forest elephants. WWF advocates for sustainable hunting of less vulnerable species
in buffer zones and community hunting reserves which contributes to the survival of wildlife
outside of protected areas. This also provides affordable meat to a poor and growing human
population.

WWF brought together neighboring countries in the Congo Basin to join forces to protect
wildlife from poaching. The Sangha Tri-national Anti-poaching Brigade of Gabon, Congo and
Central African Republic, is an example of WWF’s regional approach to tackle illegal elephant
poaching. These “wildlife soldiers” move freely within the area and pursue poachers across
borders as a result of this international cooperation. They have also established Monitoring the
Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) methodologies in several protected area sites.
for listening