#africanforestelephantloxodontacyclotis — Public Fediverse posts
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African Savannah Elephants Use ‘Names’ to Communicate
New research reveals that African savannah #elephants use unique, ‘names’ to call one another, showcasing their incredible intelligence and deep social bonds. Unlike other animals, these majestic creatures communicate with non-imitative calls, highlighting their advanced cognitive abilities. This discovery opens new doors to understanding the evolution of language and cognition in animals. Dive into the fascinating world of elephant communication! 🐘🌍✨ They face many threats to their survival, help them to survive when you #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
🐘✨ Elephants know each other by name! Exciting new #research reveals African savannah #elephants use unique name-like calls to communicate, showcasing their incredible intelligence, deep social bonds. @palmoildetect #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌍💚 https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8we
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitter🐘🔍 Groundbreaking #research #study shows #elephants don’t just trumpet—they call each other by name! These majestic creatures have complex social lives and advanced #cognition. Help them to survive when you #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🐾🌿https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8we
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterIn a groundbreaking 2024 study, researchers have discovered that African savannah elephants Loxodonta africana communicate with each other using unique name-like calls, similar to how humans use personal names. This discovery, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, places elephants among a rare group of animals known to use individual-specific vocalisations.
The Study and Its Findings
A team of international researchers employed artificial intelligence to analyse 469 rumbles—deep, low-frequency sounds—made by two herds of wild elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park and Samburu National Reserve between 1986 and 2022. The AI model successfully identified the intended recipient of these calls 27.5% of the time, a rate significantly higher than random chance. This finding suggests that the elephants’ calls contain individual-specific information akin to names.
The study also involved playback experiments where recordings of these rumbles were played to the elephants. The subjects responded more rapidly and vocally to calls originally addressed to them compared to those directed at other elephants. This indicates that elephants can recognise and respond to their own ‘names’ even when the call is out of context.
Research: African Savannah Elephants Use ‘Names’ to Call One AnotherImplications for Animal Communication and Cognition
Unlike dolphins and parrots, who call to each other by mimicking their sounds, elephants use unique, non-imitative calls. This discovery is significant as it suggests that elephants have a capacity for abstract thought and complex social cognition. The ability to use arbitrary sounds to label individuals is a trait shared with humans, highlighting the advanced cognitive abilities of elephants. In a fascinating example of interspecies communication (unrelated to the study) an orphaned baby elephant named Tsavo responds to his keeper calling his name at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.
Tsavo the baby elephant responds to his keeper calling his name. Image Credit: Sheldrick Wildlife TrustThe findings also underscore the importance of social bonds among elephants. The need to call each other by name implies a sophisticated social structure and communication system. Understanding these communication patterns gives deeper insights into the evolution of language and cognition in both humans and animals.
Further Reading
- Pardo, M. A., Fristrup, K., Lolchuragi, D. S., Poole, J. H., Granli, P., Moss, C., Douglas-Hamilton, I., & Wittemyer, G. (2024). African elephants address one another with individually specific name-like calls. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02420-w
- Agence France-Presse. (2024, June 11). Elephants call each other by name, study finds. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jun/10/elephant-names-study-ai
- Perfetto, I. (2024, June 11). Elephants talk to each other using name-like calls! Cosmos Magazine. https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/hello-elephants-talk-to-each-other-using-name-like-calls/
- Pardo, M. (2024, June 12). African elephants address one another with name-like calls − similar to humans. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/african-elephants-address-one-another-with-name-like-calls-similar-to-humans-232096
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African Forest Elephants Help Fight Climate Change
Discover the awe-inspiring role of African forest #elephants in the Congo Basin—nature’s master gardeners who literally shape the world around them! These gentle giants roam through muddy, mineral-rich paradises called baïs, fostering the growth of carbon-absorbing trees that make our planet healthier. By tending to these unique landscapes, they are the unsung heroes in the fight against climate change. Want to ensure these ecological architects keep doing their vital work? Join the movement to protect their habitat—say no to palm oil and adopt a vegan lifestyle! 🐘🌳#BoycottPalmOil #BeVegan #Boycott4Wildlife
https://youtu.be/s584AP-BYm0?si=Zrwc5CFFjAxAqmas
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African forest #elephants 🐘 in #Congo 🇨🇩 are essential to fighting #climatechange 🌳💚 by capturing #carbon and dispersing seeds in the rainforest. Help them every time you shop, be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2024/04/28/african-forest-elephants-unsung-heroes-helping-congo-fight-climate-change/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterGentle giant pachyderms #African forest #elephants 🐘🐘 are the unsung heroes helping #climatechange. They capture #carbon in the #DRC’s 🇨🇩🌳rainforest! Help them survive with your supermarket choices #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2024/04/28/african-forest-elephants-unsung-heroes-helping-congo-fight-climate-change/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterThis story was written by Leonie Joubert and originally published by Mongabay on August 15, 2023 and was republished under a Creative Commons licence.
The approach to the “village of elephants” in the Sangha Rainforest in the Central African Republic must be made in complete silence. Not even the faintest rustle of backpack on rain jacket should break the soundscape as visitors wade through the sometimes waist-deep swamp at the forest’s edge. The Indigenous Ba’aka guides must be able to listen for any signs of nearby elephants, so they can steer the visitors clear and avoid a close encounter with these giants. When a few pachyderms saunter out of the dense greenery, the Ba’aka shoo them away calmly.
The thick vegetation gives way suddenly to a baï. This is no mere watering hole. The sandy clearing stretches for half a kilometer, more than a quarter of a mile, in the otherwise unbroken canopy of the world’s second-largest tropical forest.
A handful of researchers camp out on a timber observation platform, overlooking a place that has drawn generations of elephants to its mineral- and salt-laden sand and muddy water. They document how the animals use their trunks or tusks to dig into the sand, eavesdrop on the animals’ conversations, and count the many other species that congregate here.
This is Dzanga baï, a meeting place for critically endangered African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in the Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected Areas where these animals come together in huge numbers to dig for nutrients they can’t get from the otherwise abundant forests.
Baïs are unique to the Congo Basin’s forests, and new research is underway to understand the role these mineral-rich pockets play as a supplement to the elephants’ diet, how this sustains the animals’ population, and how they therefore contribute to the carbon-capture function of the forest.
Unlike the Amazon, the Congo Basin’s forests still have their original megafauna, elephants in particular. And they have these salt-rich clearings. Conservationists are beginning to understand the importance of elephants as forest gardeners here, and how their taste for certain trees and fruits has sculpted a forest that absorbs more carbon per hectare than the Amazon.
The Global Carbon Budget project estimated Africa’s total greenhouse gas emissions for 2021 at 1.45 billion metric tons. Every year, the Congo Basin’s forests soak up 1.1 billion metric tons of atmospheric carbon, storing it in trees and soil; in 2020 carbon credit prices, this service would be worth $55 billion.
Forest elephants, smaller than their better-known savanna cousins or even Asian elephants, prefer certain lower-growing, tasty trees. This picky browsing pressure creates gaps in the canopy that allow other, less palatable but carbon-dense species to reach tremendous heights. Elephants’ appetite for the fruit of these bigger trees then means they spread their seeds far and wide.
A 2019 study from the Ndoki Forest in the Republic of Congo (ROC) and LuiKotale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) estimated that if elephants were removed from these sites, the loss of their forest-shaping food preferences would reduce the forest’s carbon capture by 7%.
This finding makes a case not only to stop deforestation in the Congo Basin, but to protect the elephants too, as a way to slow climate breakdown, the study authors wrote.
Mouangi baï, a vast watering hole in the Republic of Congo’s Odzala-Kokoua National Park, is nicknamed Capitale because of the vast number of elephants drawn to its mineral-laden water, mud, and sand. Image courtesy Gwilli Gibbon/African Parks.Salt licks for elephants, gardeners of the forest
Mouangi baï is only about 250 km (155 mi) from Dzanga baï as the crow flies, but it takes a day or two to travel by road and river to get from one to the other.
Researchers with the conservation organization African Parks and Harvard University’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology are zeroing in on Mouangi and other baïs in Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the ROC, to clarify the link between baïs, elephants and the forest’s tree species composition.
Nicknamed Capitale by the locals, Mouangi baï in Odzala draws hundreds, maybe even thousands, of elephants, according to Gwili Gibbon, research and monitoring head at African Parks, which manages the park along with the ROC government.
“Mouangi is one of our largest and most renowned baïs,” Gibbon says.
At the intersection of two rivers, Mouangi is more than 1 km (0.6 mi) across and spans 91 hectares (225 acres). It’s the largest of a dozen of Odzala’s baïs that the African Parks and Harvard research collaboration is focusing on.
Odzala-Kokoua National Park extends across 1.35 million hectares (3.34 million acres), and while it has a few thousand baïs, often occurring in clusters within the forest, this ecosystem makes up only about 0.2% of the park’s footprint. Nevertheless, these clearings may be integral to the shape of the forest itself, which is why Harvard assistant professor Andrew Davies and doctoral researcher Evan Hockridge are teaming up with African Parks to understand the importance of the salty watering holes in supporting elephant populations, which then shape the forest mosaic.
The baïs are clearly a hotspot that elephants seek out for their rare minerals in an ecosystem rooted in the nutrient-poor soils typical of the region.
“The elephants use their tusks to scrape topsoil off in specific areas, and eat the finer dust on the surface,” says Hockridge, a landscape ecologist. “They also dig large mining sites or wells, as much as a meter [3 feet] deep.”
The animals’ excavations go even deeper at times, down to where water carries the salt in a more accessible form. The need to ingest the mineral-rich dust, mud and water keeps the animals returning to these sites.
An elephant digging for salt-rich mud in the Dzanga baï in the Sangha Rainforest in the Central African Republic. Image courtesy Jan Teede.But how the baïs formed in the first place — they’re present in the Congo Basin, but not in the Amazon — and why they remain clear of forest encroachment are still a mystery.
Hockridge says no one has tried to establish if the now-extinct megafauna of the Amazon once made similar clearings there, or if baï size correlates to the size of the animals visiting them.
“One hypothesis is that megafauna effectively create large, nutrient-rich, lick-like clearings. But it hasn’t been quantified that baïs are manufactured or maintained by megafauna,” he says.
The researchers say they hope to answer this puzzle: Do large mammals like elephants maintain and stabilize the baïs?
Anecdotes from the DRC might give the first glimpse of an answer, according to Harvard’s Davies.
“Baïs may be closing in the DRC, and it could be because the elephants are in a war zone, so they don’t have the big bulldozer effect,” he says.
The hypothesis is that if fewer elephants visit and maintain these clearings, the baïs will be swallowed up by the forest.
Gibbon’s African Parks team has set up experimental plots in the Odzala, where they’ve buried salt in the sand at a similar depth to which elephants excavate. Researchers are monitoring these sites to see if more animals will congregate around the plots, whether this impacts the vegetation cover in and around the baïs, and whether there’s a shift in the carbon-capture potential of the surrounding forests.
This study is centered in Odzala, although the researchers say they hope to expand the work into the Ndoki region of the Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected Areas.
Indigenous Ba’aka trackers work with researchers and tourist operators in various parks in Odzala-Kokoua National Park and the Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected Areas. Their knowledge of animal behaviour and forest life is essential to accessing these wildernesses. Image courtesy Jan Teede.Baïs have a busy social scene
It isn’t just elephants that congregate at the baïs. These watering holes have a bustling social scene.
Gibbon describes the flocks of African green pigeons (Treron calvus) that gather at Capitale at dawn and dusk; buffalo and several bird species that visit during daylight hours; and the hyenas that can be heard calling after dark as the elephants mine for salt.
Wildlife refuges like these in the Congo Basin are also home to the critically endangered western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), two unusual forest and swamp-dwelling antelope — the bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus) and sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekii) — as well as central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes), bonobos (Pan pansicus), and the endangered gray parrot (Psittacus erithacus).
The forests of Gabon, southern Cameroon and southern Central African Republic also have a high number of baïs, and the findings from these studies could eventually be extrapolated to give an idea of the implications for the Congo Basin more widely.
“The area that baïs’ cover is tiny, but they sustain the elephant population,” Davies says. “If our hypothesis is correct, without the baïs you’d have no elephants; without elephants there’s be no big trees with high carbon density, so carbon storage would go down.”
If the forest loses the baïs, it could lose more than just the elephants or see a change in its carbon-capturing treescape. The baïs would no longer draw the many other animals that thrive in these mineral-dense watering holes, and the tourists and environmental researchers drawn to them too.
Citation:
Berzaghi, F., Longo, M., Ciais, P., Blake, S., Bretagnolle, F., Vieira, S., … Doughty, C. E. (2019). Carbon stocks in central African forests enhanced by elephant disturbance. Nature Geoscience, 12(9), 725-729. doi:10.1038/s41561-019-0395-6
Banner image: Elephants dig for salt-rich mud in the Dzanga baï in the Sangha Rainforest in the Central African Republic. Image courtesy Jan Teede.
This story was written by Leonie Joubert and originally published by Mongabay on August 15, 2023 and was republished under a Creative Commons licence.
ENDS
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https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20
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African Forest Elephants’s Movements Depend on Their Personalities
African forest #elephants roam the dense rainforests of West and Central Africa where they subsist largely on a diet of fruit. They shape forests by dispersing fruit and seeds, browsing, and creating an extensive trail network.
But because it’s difficult to track animals in thick forest, little is known about the movements of the African forest #elephant. This is troubling as #poaching of forest elephants for their #ivory as well as habitat fragmentation have decimated their populations over the past two decades. Their numbers have reduced from 700,000 to fewer than 150,000. Help them to survive #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
African forest #elephants 🩶🐘🐘🩶 are critically endangered in #Gabon 🇬🇦 from #poaching #palmoil #deforestation and #climatechange. Tracking their movements can help better protect them #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🪔☠️🔥🧐🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/01/23/how-forest-elephants-move-depends-on-water-humans-and-also-their-personality/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOn top of this, climate change might be reducing the availability of fruit in the forest, potentially leading to elephant famine.
Knowing how they move can help us to better protect them. Gabon, holds 50% of Africa’s remaining forest elephants. In 2017, the Gabon Parks Agency initiated an elephant GPS collaring programme to improve the understanding of forest elephant movements and guide their management.
We supported the Gabon Parks Agency’s collaring programme, providing scientific advice on study design, analysing data, and reporting on elephant movements.
Over six missions in four years, Dr Pete Morkel and his field team from the Gabon Parks Agency darted and affixed satellite collars on over 96 forest elephants. This happened in and around seven national parks.
We used this dataset of forest elephant movements – the largest ever assembled – to assess the factors influencing elephant movement behaviour.
Specifically, we asked the questions: to what extent do characteristics – like sex, habitat quality and human activity – determine the distance they move, their home range size, their exploratory behaviour, and their daily activity.
We found that all of these characteristics affected elephant behaviour. We also found that individual elephants consistently moved in different ways from each other. This told us that they have personalities.
These insights can provide clues into how elephants can be better managed to conserve their populations and to reduce conflict with humans, particularly crop raiding by elephants.
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotisDrivers of elephant movement
We found that, on average, elephants moved nearly 2500 km a year.
In terms of intrinsic characteristics, sex was a key driver of elephant movement behaviour.
Male African Forest Elephants generally had larger home ranges and were slightly more active at night than females. They also spent less time in exploratory movements, these are long, persistent movements to new locations.
Food availability didn’t seem to affect movement behaviour. It might be that the rainforest habitat provided ample forage for elephants. However, we suspected that our measure of vegetation density was too coarse and didn’t capture availability of important diet items, like fruit and bark.
Water was key to elephant movements. Forest elephants, like savanna elephants, can lose up to 10% of the water in their bodies in a single hot day. We saw that forest elephants didn’t stray too far from water sources, such as rivers. During high rainfall, elephants moved longer distances and made more directed, exploratory movements.
Elephants also altered their movement behaviour in response to human activity. In areas of higher human disturbance, elephants moved less, had smaller home ranges, were less active during the day, and exhibited fewer exploratory movements. Like animals worldwide, elephants shortened their movements to avoid human-modified landscapes.
While environmental and human drivers explained some of the variation in elephant movements, much of the variation was explained by the individual identity of the elephant.
Exploring further, we found elephant personalities to vary between “idlers” to “explorers”. We identified individual differences in the relationships between movement behaviours, consistent with the concept of “behavioural syndromes”. In other words, an elephant that moved farther in a month also tended to have a larger home range and exhibited more exploratory behaviour.
Some forest elephants liked to explore, and others liked to stay put a bit more. And within these, there was enormous individual variation.
Forest elephant conservation
Our study offers some answers for elephant management, but also highlights complicating challenges.
For instance, the design of protected areas and habitat corridors must recognise that elephants may be reluctant to use habitat too far from perennial water sources or do so only in the wet season.
Unsurprisingly, elephant habitat should be protected from human disturbance, although further investigation into the types of human activities that most affect elephants is still necessary.
Variation in individual elephant behaviour – their personality – might complicate the development of general strategies for conservation if elephants respond in different ways to management.
Then again, it also accentuates the importance of conserving such a wide-ranging, intelligent and socially-complex species.
John Poulsen, Associate Professor of Tropical Ecology, Duke University and Christopher Beirne, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of British Columbia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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African Forest Elephants’s Movements Depend on Their Personalities
African forest #elephants roam the dense rainforests of West and Central Africa where they subsist largely on a diet of fruit. They shape forests by dispersing fruit and seeds, browsing, and creating an extensive trail network.
But because it’s difficult to track animals in thick forest, little is known about the movements of the African forest #elephant. This is troubling as #poaching of forest elephants for their #ivory as well as habitat fragmentation have decimated their populations over the past two decades. Their numbers have reduced from 700,000 to fewer than 150,000. Help them to survive #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
African forest #elephants 🩶🐘🐘🩶 are critically endangered in #Gabon 🇬🇦 from #poaching #palmoil #deforestation and #climatechange. Tracking their movements can help better protect them #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🪔☠️🔥🧐🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/01/23/how-forest-elephants-move-depends-on-water-humans-and-also-their-personality/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOn top of this, climate change might be reducing the availability of fruit in the forest, potentially leading to elephant famine.
Knowing how they move can help us to better protect them. Gabon, holds 50% of Africa’s remaining forest elephants. In 2017, the Gabon Parks Agency initiated an elephant GPS collaring programme to improve the understanding of forest elephant movements and guide their management.
We supported the Gabon Parks Agency’s collaring programme, providing scientific advice on study design, analysing data, and reporting on elephant movements.
Over six missions in four years, Dr Pete Morkel and his field team from the Gabon Parks Agency darted and affixed satellite collars on over 96 forest elephants. This happened in and around seven national parks.
We used this dataset of forest elephant movements – the largest ever assembled – to assess the factors influencing elephant movement behaviour.
Specifically, we asked the questions: to what extent do characteristics – like sex, habitat quality and human activity – determine the distance they move, their home range size, their exploratory behaviour, and their daily activity.
We found that all of these characteristics affected elephant behaviour. We also found that individual elephants consistently moved in different ways from each other. This told us that they have personalities.
These insights can provide clues into how elephants can be better managed to conserve their populations and to reduce conflict with humans, particularly crop raiding by elephants.
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotisDrivers of elephant movement
We found that, on average, elephants moved nearly 2500 km a year.
In terms of intrinsic characteristics, sex was a key driver of elephant movement behaviour.
Male African Forest Elephants generally had larger home ranges and were slightly more active at night than females. They also spent less time in exploratory movements, these are long, persistent movements to new locations.
Food availability didn’t seem to affect movement behaviour. It might be that the rainforest habitat provided ample forage for elephants. However, we suspected that our measure of vegetation density was too coarse and didn’t capture availability of important diet items, like fruit and bark.
Water was key to elephant movements. Forest elephants, like savanna elephants, can lose up to 10% of the water in their bodies in a single hot day. We saw that forest elephants didn’t stray too far from water sources, such as rivers. During high rainfall, elephants moved longer distances and made more directed, exploratory movements.
Elephants also altered their movement behaviour in response to human activity. In areas of higher human disturbance, elephants moved less, had smaller home ranges, were less active during the day, and exhibited fewer exploratory movements. Like animals worldwide, elephants shortened their movements to avoid human-modified landscapes.
While environmental and human drivers explained some of the variation in elephant movements, much of the variation was explained by the individual identity of the elephant.
Exploring further, we found elephant personalities to vary between “idlers” to “explorers”. We identified individual differences in the relationships between movement behaviours, consistent with the concept of “behavioural syndromes”. In other words, an elephant that moved farther in a month also tended to have a larger home range and exhibited more exploratory behaviour.
Some forest elephants liked to explore, and others liked to stay put a bit more. And within these, there was enormous individual variation.
Forest elephant conservation
Our study offers some answers for elephant management, but also highlights complicating challenges.
For instance, the design of protected areas and habitat corridors must recognise that elephants may be reluctant to use habitat too far from perennial water sources or do so only in the wet season.
Unsurprisingly, elephant habitat should be protected from human disturbance, although further investigation into the types of human activities that most affect elephants is still necessary.
Variation in individual elephant behaviour – their personality – might complicate the development of general strategies for conservation if elephants respond in different ways to management.
Then again, it also accentuates the importance of conserving such a wide-ranging, intelligent and socially-complex species.
John Poulsen, Associate Professor of Tropical Ecology, Duke University and Christopher Beirne, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of British Columbia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels
The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Did you enjoy visiting this website?
Palm Oil Detectives is 100% self-funded
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Say thanks on Ko-Fi#AfricanElephant #AfricanForestElephantLoxodontaCyclotis #AfricanNews #animalBehaviour #AnimalBiodiversityNews #animalIntelligence #animals #Bantrophyhunting #BorneanPygmyElephantElephasMaximusBorneensis #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #climatechange #conservation #deforestation #elephant #elephants #EndangeredSpecies #Gabon #ivory #Mammal #News #Pachyderm #pachyderms #palmoil #poaching #research #SeedDispersers
-
African Forest Elephants’s Movements Depend on Their Personalities
African forest #elephants roam the dense rainforests of West and Central Africa where they subsist largely on a diet of fruit. They shape forests by dispersing fruit and seeds, browsing, and creating an extensive trail network.
But because it’s difficult to track animals in thick forest, little is known about the movements of the African forest #elephant. This is troubling as #poaching of forest elephants for their #ivory as well as habitat fragmentation have decimated their populations over the past two decades. Their numbers have reduced from 700,000 to fewer than 150,000. Help them to survive #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
African forest #elephants 🩶🐘🐘🩶 are critically endangered in #Gabon 🇬🇦 from #poaching #palmoil #deforestation and #climatechange. Tracking their movements can help better protect them #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🪔☠️🔥🧐🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/01/23/how-forest-elephants-move-depends-on-water-humans-and-also-their-personality/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOn top of this, climate change might be reducing the availability of fruit in the forest, potentially leading to elephant famine.
Knowing how they move can help us to better protect them. Gabon, holds 50% of Africa’s remaining forest elephants. In 2017, the Gabon Parks Agency initiated an elephant GPS collaring programme to improve the understanding of forest elephant movements and guide their management.
We supported the Gabon Parks Agency’s collaring programme, providing scientific advice on study design, analysing data, and reporting on elephant movements.
Over six missions in four years, Dr Pete Morkel and his field team from the Gabon Parks Agency darted and affixed satellite collars on over 96 forest elephants. This happened in and around seven national parks.
We used this dataset of forest elephant movements – the largest ever assembled – to assess the factors influencing elephant movement behaviour.
Specifically, we asked the questions: to what extent do characteristics – like sex, habitat quality and human activity – determine the distance they move, their home range size, their exploratory behaviour, and their daily activity.
We found that all of these characteristics affected elephant behaviour. We also found that individual elephants consistently moved in different ways from each other. This told us that they have personalities.
These insights can provide clues into how elephants can be better managed to conserve their populations and to reduce conflict with humans, particularly crop raiding by elephants.
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotisDrivers of elephant movement
We found that, on average, elephants moved nearly 2500 km a year.
In terms of intrinsic characteristics, sex was a key driver of elephant movement behaviour.
Male African Forest Elephants generally had larger home ranges and were slightly more active at night than females. They also spent less time in exploratory movements, these are long, persistent movements to new locations.
Food availability didn’t seem to affect movement behaviour. It might be that the rainforest habitat provided ample forage for elephants. However, we suspected that our measure of vegetation density was too coarse and didn’t capture availability of important diet items, like fruit and bark.
Water was key to elephant movements. Forest elephants, like savanna elephants, can lose up to 10% of the water in their bodies in a single hot day. We saw that forest elephants didn’t stray too far from water sources, such as rivers. During high rainfall, elephants moved longer distances and made more directed, exploratory movements.
Elephants also altered their movement behaviour in response to human activity. In areas of higher human disturbance, elephants moved less, had smaller home ranges, were less active during the day, and exhibited fewer exploratory movements. Like animals worldwide, elephants shortened their movements to avoid human-modified landscapes.
While environmental and human drivers explained some of the variation in elephant movements, much of the variation was explained by the individual identity of the elephant.
Exploring further, we found elephant personalities to vary between “idlers” to “explorers”. We identified individual differences in the relationships between movement behaviours, consistent with the concept of “behavioural syndromes”. In other words, an elephant that moved farther in a month also tended to have a larger home range and exhibited more exploratory behaviour.
Some forest elephants liked to explore, and others liked to stay put a bit more. And within these, there was enormous individual variation.
Forest elephant conservation
Our study offers some answers for elephant management, but also highlights complicating challenges.
For instance, the design of protected areas and habitat corridors must recognise that elephants may be reluctant to use habitat too far from perennial water sources or do so only in the wet season.
Unsurprisingly, elephant habitat should be protected from human disturbance, although further investigation into the types of human activities that most affect elephants is still necessary.
Variation in individual elephant behaviour – their personality – might complicate the development of general strategies for conservation if elephants respond in different ways to management.
Then again, it also accentuates the importance of conserving such a wide-ranging, intelligent and socially-complex species.
John Poulsen, Associate Professor of Tropical Ecology, Duke University and Christopher Beirne, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of British Columbia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels
The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Did you enjoy visiting this website?
Palm Oil Detectives is 100% self-funded
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Say thanks on Ko-Fi#AfricanElephant #AfricanForestElephantLoxodontaCyclotis #AfricanNews #animalBehaviour #AnimalBiodiversityNews #animalIntelligence #animals #Bantrophyhunting #BorneanPygmyElephantElephasMaximusBorneensis #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #climatechange #conservation #deforestation #elephant #elephants #EndangeredSpecies #Gabon #ivory #Mammal #News #Pachyderm #pachyderms #palmoil #poaching #research #SeedDispersers
-
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
Location: Central and West Africa – Guineo-Congolian tropical forests, including Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and surrounding regions.
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
The African Forest #Elephant is a Critically Endangered species found in the dense #rainforests of Central and #WestAfrica. They are smaller than their savanna relatives, with straighter tusks and rounder ears, uniquely adapted to their forested habitat. As ecosystem engineers, these elephants play a crucial role in maintaining Afrotropical forests by dispersing seeds and mitigating against climate change by shaping forest composition. However, relentless #poaching for ivory, habitat destruction due to #palmoil, #cocoa and #tobacco agriculture, and human-elephant conflict have decimated their population. Recent studies have shown that African Forest Elephants’ movement patterns vary significantly between individuals, with some elephants exploring vast distances while others remain in small home ranges. This variation poses unique challenges for conservation efforts. Resist and fight for their survival each time you shop, be #vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
African Forest #Elephants are ecosystem engineers fighting #ClimateChange in #WestAfrica. Yet #poaching and #palmoil #deforestation have rendered them critically endangered 😿🐘 Help them and be #vegan #BoycottPalmOil 🌴⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterSupremely intelligent and sensitive African Forest #Elephants 🐘🩶 face several grave threats, incl. #PalmOil #Deforestation and #poaching in #Gabon 🇬🇦 #Congo 🇨🇩 #WestAfrica. Fight for them when you #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🔥🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterRapid land use change, including palm oil plantations across their range is driving the direct loss and fragmentation of habitat, is an increasing threat to African elephants across their range.
IUCN red list
Appearance and Behaviour
African Forest Elephants are smaller than their savanna counterparts, with a shoulder height of 2 to 3 metres. They have a more compact build, rounded ears, and long, narrow tusks that point downward, (Gobush et al., 2021). Their grey skin is often darker due to the humid rainforest environment. They live in small, matriarchal family groups and display remarkable individual variation in movement behaviours. Some elephants, known as “explorers,” travel vast distances, while others, the “idlers,” remain within confined home ranges. These behavioural differences complicate conservation efforts, as strategies must account for their diverse space-use needs.
These elephants are highly intelligent and social, living in small, matriarchal family groups that navigate the rainforest together. Their deep infrasonic rumbles travel through the ground, allowing communication over vast distances, even in the thickest jungle. Recent research has revealed that their vocalisations have a structure akin to human syntax—complex combinations of calls used to convey intricate meanings (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024).
Other research has found that the foraging, seed dispersal and exploration of African Forest Elephants helps to mitigate African forests against climate change. A 2019 study from the Ndoki Forest in the Republic of Congo (ROC) and LuiKotale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) estimated that if elephants were removed from these sites, the loss of their forest-shaping food preferences would reduce the forest’s carbon capture by 7%.
Diet
Forest Elephants are frugivorous and play an irreplaceable role as seed dispersers, particularly for large fruiting trees. They are responsible for spreading the seeds of over 41 timber species, including Bobgunnia fistuloides (pao rosa), a tree prized for its high-value wood (Blake et al., 2009; Campos-Arceiz & Blake, 2011). Without these elephants, the rainforest’s ability to regenerate and store carbon would be drastically diminished.
Reproduction and Mating
With a gestation period of 22 months—the longest of any land mammal—female African Forest elephants give birth only once every four to six years (Gobush et al., 2021). Due to their slow reproductive rate, population recovery is incredibly difficult, making conservation efforts even more urgent. Calves remain under their mother’s care for over a decade, learning crucial survival skills in the rainforest.
Geographic Range
African Forest Elephants roam vast home ranges, some spanning over 2,000 km² (Beirne et al., 2021). Their movements are largely dictated by fruiting cycles, water availability, and human encroachment. A recent study found that they exhibit remarkable individual variation in movement patterns—some acting as ‘explorers,’ roaming far and wide, while others remain within familiar territories (Beirne et al., 2021). Roads and logging concessions disrupt these traditional routes, forcing elephants into human settlements and escalating conflict.
Threats
- Illegal Wildlife Trade and Poaching: The illegal and criminal trade in elephant ivory continues to drive rampant poaching. Despite international bans, demand remains high in black markets (Wittemyer et al., 2014; Maisels et al., 2013).
- Palm Oil Agriculture Expansion: Forests are being obliterated for palm oil, cocoa, tobacco and rubber plantations, erasing habitat at an alarming rate (Scalbert et al., 2022).
- Logging, Mining, and Infrastructure Expansion: The development of roads and infrastructure for timber and mining grants poachers greater access to once-inaccessible forest areas (Beirne et al., 2021).
- Human-Elephant Conflict: Shrinking forests push elephants into farmland, leading to fatal clashes with farmers trying to protect their crops (Ngama et al., 2016).
- Climate Change: Disruptions in rainfall patterns and fruiting cycles impact the food supply of African Forest Elephants, forcing them into riskier migration routes where they can come into contact with poachers or conflict with farmers.
- Slow Reproduction Rate: African Forest Elephants have a long gestation periods and high calf mortality, their populations cannot recover quickly from losses.
Elephants and Language: Call Combinations and Syntax
Groundbreaking research has revealed that African Forest Elephants use complex call combinations, akin to human syntax, to communicate in high-stakes situations (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024). Their vocal repertoire includes:
- Low-frequency rumbles: Used to coordinate movements and social interactions. These deep sounds can travel several kilometres through dense rainforest.
- Broadband roars: Express distress, urgency, or aggression, particularly in response to predators or conflict.
- Combined calls: When rumbles and roars are merged, they create new meanings. These combinations are more frequently used in competitive situations, suggesting that elephants alter their vocal signals to convey specific messages in dangerous or high-emotion contexts.
The ability to combine calls strategically may help elephants navigate social disputes, secure access to resources, or reunite with separated family members. This discovery sheds light on the cognitive abilities of these animals and their sophisticated social lives.
Large herbivores such as elephants contribute to tree diversity
A recent study using satellite data has highlighted the critical role that large herbivores play in promoting tree diversity in forest ecosystems. The…
Echoes of the Ancients: The Wisdom and Power of Elephants
World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12th, honours the gentle and nurturing giants of Asia and Africa, who are revered for their deep…
African Forest Elephants Help Fight Climate Change
Discover the awe-inspiring role of African forest elephants in the Congo Basin—nature’s master gardeners who literally shape the world around them! These gentle…
African Forest Elephants and Timber Concessions
Timber and palm oil concessions now cover vast portions of forest elephant habitat, with little understanding of how these logging operations impact elephant populations (Scalbert et al., 2022). While elephants can persist in selectively logged forests, they require large, undisturbed areas to sustain viable populations. Key findings include:
- African Forest Elephants regenerate forests: By dispersing seeds of high-carbon tree species, they facilitate the regrowth of timber species, making their role essential for maintaining the economic value of these forests.
- Logging alters movement patterns: While some elephants adapt to fragmented landscapes, others are displaced, forced into human-dominated areas where they are at greater risk of poaching and conflict.
- Forest loss drives ecological collapse: Without elephants maintaining seed dispersal, many commercially valuable trees may struggle to regenerate, ultimately degrading the timber industry’s long-term viability.
You can support this beautiful animal
Africa Conservation Foundation
Further Information
Beirne, C., Houslay, T. M., Morkel, P., Clark, C. J., Fay, M., Okouyi, J., White, L. J. T., & Poulsen, J. R. (2021). African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior. Scientific Reports, 11, 12634. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91627-z
Gobush, K.S., Edwards, C.T.T, Maisels, F., Wittemyer, G., Balfour, D. & Taylor, R.D. 2021. Loxodonta cyclotis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T181007989A181019888. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T181007989A181019888.en. Downloaded on 08 June 2021.
Hedwig, D., & Kohlberg, A. (2024). Call combination in African forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299656
Scalbert, M., Vermeulen, C., Breuer, T., & Doucet, J. L. (2022). The challenging coexistence of forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis and timber concessions in central Africa. Mammal Review, 52(3), 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12305
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Take Action in Five Ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
Enter your email address
Sign Up
Join 3,528 other subscribers2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings
Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao
Health Physician Dr Evan Allen
The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert
How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20
https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20
https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Pledge your support#Africa #African #AfricanForestElephantLoxodontaCyclotis #Angola #Bantrophyhunting #Benin #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #BurkinaFaso #Cameroon #CentralAfricanRepublic #climatechange #cocoa #Congo #CriticallyEndangeredSpecies #deforestation #DemocracticRepublicOfCongo #elephant #elephants #Forest #Gabon #Guinea #ivory #Mammal #Nigeria #Pachyderm #pachyderms #palmoil #poaching #pollination #pollinator #rainforests #SeedDispersers #SierraLeone #timber #tobacco #vegan #WestAfrica
-
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
Location: Central and West Africa – Guineo-Congolian tropical forests, including Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and surrounding regions.
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
The African Forest #Elephant is a Critically Endangered species found in the dense #rainforests of Central and #WestAfrica. They are smaller than their savanna relatives, with straighter tusks and rounder ears, uniquely adapted to their forested habitat. As ecosystem engineers, these elephants play a crucial role in maintaining Afrotropical forests by dispersing seeds and mitigating against climate change by shaping forest composition. However, relentless #poaching for ivory, habitat destruction due to #palmoil, #cocoa and #tobacco agriculture, and human-elephant conflict have decimated their population. Recent studies have shown that African Forest Elephants’ movement patterns vary significantly between individuals, with some elephants exploring vast distances while others remain in small home ranges. This variation poses unique challenges for conservation efforts. Resist and fight for their survival each time you shop, be #vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
African Forest #Elephants are ecosystem engineers fighting #ClimateChange in #WestAfrica. Yet #poaching and #palmoil #deforestation have rendered them critically endangered 😿🐘 Help them and be #vegan #BoycottPalmOil 🌴⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterSupremely intelligent and sensitive African Forest #Elephants 🐘🩶 face several grave threats, incl. #PalmOil #Deforestation and #poaching in #Gabon 🇬🇦 #Congo 🇨🇩 #WestAfrica. Fight for them when you #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🔥🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterRapid land use change, including palm oil plantations across their range is driving the direct loss and fragmentation of habitat, is an increasing threat to African elephants across their range.
IUCN red list
Appearance and Behaviour
African Forest Elephants are smaller than their savanna counterparts, with a shoulder height of 2 to 3 metres. They have a more compact build, rounded ears, and long, narrow tusks that point downward, (Gobush et al., 2021). Their grey skin is often darker due to the humid rainforest environment. They live in small, matriarchal family groups and display remarkable individual variation in movement behaviours. Some elephants, known as “explorers,” travel vast distances, while others, the “idlers,” remain within confined home ranges. These behavioural differences complicate conservation efforts, as strategies must account for their diverse space-use needs.
These elephants are highly intelligent and social, living in small, matriarchal family groups that navigate the rainforest together. Their deep infrasonic rumbles travel through the ground, allowing communication over vast distances, even in the thickest jungle. Recent research has revealed that their vocalisations have a structure akin to human syntax—complex combinations of calls used to convey intricate meanings (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024).
Other research has found that the foraging, seed dispersal and exploration of African Forest Elephants helps to mitigate African forests against climate change. A 2019 study from the Ndoki Forest in the Republic of Congo (ROC) and LuiKotale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) estimated that if elephants were removed from these sites, the loss of their forest-shaping food preferences would reduce the forest’s carbon capture by 7%.
Diet
Forest Elephants are frugivorous and play an irreplaceable role as seed dispersers, particularly for large fruiting trees. They are responsible for spreading the seeds of over 41 timber species, including Bobgunnia fistuloides (pao rosa), a tree prized for its high-value wood (Blake et al., 2009; Campos-Arceiz & Blake, 2011). Without these elephants, the rainforest’s ability to regenerate and store carbon would be drastically diminished.
Reproduction and Mating
With a gestation period of 22 months—the longest of any land mammal—female African Forest elephants give birth only once every four to six years (Gobush et al., 2021). Due to their slow reproductive rate, population recovery is incredibly difficult, making conservation efforts even more urgent. Calves remain under their mother’s care for over a decade, learning crucial survival skills in the rainforest.
Geographic Range
African Forest Elephants roam vast home ranges, some spanning over 2,000 km² (Beirne et al., 2021). Their movements are largely dictated by fruiting cycles, water availability, and human encroachment. A recent study found that they exhibit remarkable individual variation in movement patterns—some acting as ‘explorers,’ roaming far and wide, while others remain within familiar territories (Beirne et al., 2021). Roads and logging concessions disrupt these traditional routes, forcing elephants into human settlements and escalating conflict.
Threats
- Illegal Wildlife Trade and Poaching: The illegal and criminal trade in elephant ivory continues to drive rampant poaching. Despite international bans, demand remains high in black markets (Wittemyer et al., 2014; Maisels et al., 2013).
- Palm Oil Agriculture Expansion: Forests are being obliterated for palm oil, cocoa, tobacco and rubber plantations, erasing habitat at an alarming rate (Scalbert et al., 2022).
- Logging, Mining, and Infrastructure Expansion: The development of roads and infrastructure for timber and mining grants poachers greater access to once-inaccessible forest areas (Beirne et al., 2021).
- Human-Elephant Conflict: Shrinking forests push elephants into farmland, leading to fatal clashes with farmers trying to protect their crops (Ngama et al., 2016).
- Climate Change: Disruptions in rainfall patterns and fruiting cycles impact the food supply of African Forest Elephants, forcing them into riskier migration routes where they can come into contact with poachers or conflict with farmers.
- Slow Reproduction Rate: African Forest Elephants have a long gestation periods and high calf mortality, their populations cannot recover quickly from losses.
Elephants and Language: Call Combinations and Syntax
Groundbreaking research has revealed that African Forest Elephants use complex call combinations, akin to human syntax, to communicate in high-stakes situations (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024). Their vocal repertoire includes:
- Low-frequency rumbles: Used to coordinate movements and social interactions. These deep sounds can travel several kilometres through dense rainforest.
- Broadband roars: Express distress, urgency, or aggression, particularly in response to predators or conflict.
- Combined calls: When rumbles and roars are merged, they create new meanings. These combinations are more frequently used in competitive situations, suggesting that elephants alter their vocal signals to convey specific messages in dangerous or high-emotion contexts.
The ability to combine calls strategically may help elephants navigate social disputes, secure access to resources, or reunite with separated family members. This discovery sheds light on the cognitive abilities of these animals and their sophisticated social lives.
Large herbivores such as elephants contribute to tree diversity
A recent study using satellite data has highlighted the critical role that large herbivores play in promoting tree diversity in forest ecosystems. The…
Echoes of the Ancients: The Wisdom and Power of Elephants
World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12th, honours the gentle and nurturing giants of Asia and Africa, who are revered for their deep…
African Forest Elephants Help Fight Climate Change
Discover the awe-inspiring role of African forest elephants in the Congo Basin—nature’s master gardeners who literally shape the world around them! These gentle…
African Forest Elephants and Timber Concessions
Timber and palm oil concessions now cover vast portions of forest elephant habitat, with little understanding of how these logging operations impact elephant populations (Scalbert et al., 2022). While elephants can persist in selectively logged forests, they require large, undisturbed areas to sustain viable populations. Key findings include:
- African Forest Elephants regenerate forests: By dispersing seeds of high-carbon tree species, they facilitate the regrowth of timber species, making their role essential for maintaining the economic value of these forests.
- Logging alters movement patterns: While some elephants adapt to fragmented landscapes, others are displaced, forced into human-dominated areas where they are at greater risk of poaching and conflict.
- Forest loss drives ecological collapse: Without elephants maintaining seed dispersal, many commercially valuable trees may struggle to regenerate, ultimately degrading the timber industry’s long-term viability.
You can support this beautiful animal
Africa Conservation Foundation
Further Information
Beirne, C., Houslay, T. M., Morkel, P., Clark, C. J., Fay, M., Okouyi, J., White, L. J. T., & Poulsen, J. R. (2021). African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior. Scientific Reports, 11, 12634. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91627-z
Gobush, K.S., Edwards, C.T.T, Maisels, F., Wittemyer, G., Balfour, D. & Taylor, R.D. 2021. Loxodonta cyclotis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T181007989A181019888. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T181007989A181019888.en. Downloaded on 08 June 2021.
Hedwig, D., & Kohlberg, A. (2024). Call combination in African forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299656
Scalbert, M., Vermeulen, C., Breuer, T., & Doucet, J. L. (2022). The challenging coexistence of forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis and timber concessions in central Africa. Mammal Review, 52(3), 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12305
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Take Action in Five Ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
Enter your email address
Sign Up
Join 3,528 other subscribers2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings
Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao
Health Physician Dr Evan Allen
The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert
How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20
https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20
https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Pledge your support#Africa #African #AfricanForestElephantLoxodontaCyclotis #Angola #Bantrophyhunting #Benin #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #BurkinaFaso #Cameroon #CentralAfricanRepublic #climatechange #cocoa #Congo #CriticallyEndangeredSpecies #deforestation #DemocracticRepublicOfCongo #elephant #elephants #Forest #Gabon #Guinea #ivory #Mammal #Nigeria #Pachyderm #pachyderms #palmoil #poaching #pollination #pollinator #rainforests #SeedDispersers #SierraLeone #timber #tobacco #vegan #WestAfrica
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African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
Location: Central and West Africa – Guineo-Congolian tropical forests, including Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and surrounding regions.
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
The African Forest #Elephant is a Critically Endangered species found in the dense #rainforests of Central and #WestAfrica. They are smaller than their savanna relatives, with straighter tusks and rounder ears, uniquely adapted to their forested habitat. As ecosystem engineers, these elephants play a crucial role in maintaining Afrotropical forests by dispersing seeds and mitigating against climate change by shaping forest composition. However, relentless #poaching for ivory, habitat destruction due to #palmoil, #cocoa and #tobacco agriculture, and human-elephant conflict have decimated their population. Recent studies have shown that African Forest Elephants’ movement patterns vary significantly between individuals, with some elephants exploring vast distances while others remain in small home ranges. This variation poses unique challenges for conservation efforts. Resist and fight for their survival each time you shop, be #vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
African Forest #Elephants are ecosystem engineers fighting #ClimateChange in #WestAfrica. Yet #poaching and #palmoil #deforestation have rendered them critically endangered 😿🐘 Help them and be #vegan #BoycottPalmOil 🌴⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterSupremely intelligent and sensitive African Forest #Elephants 🐘🩶 face several grave threats, incl. #PalmOil #Deforestation and #poaching in #Gabon 🇬🇦 #Congo 🇨🇩 #WestAfrica. Fight for them when you #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🔥🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterRapid land use change, including palm oil plantations across their range is driving the direct loss and fragmentation of habitat, is an increasing threat to African elephants across their range.
IUCN red list
Appearance and Behaviour
African Forest Elephants are smaller than their savanna counterparts, with a shoulder height of 2 to 3 metres. They have a more compact build, rounded ears, and long, narrow tusks that point downward, (Gobush et al., 2021). Their grey skin is often darker due to the humid rainforest environment. They live in small, matriarchal family groups and display remarkable individual variation in movement behaviours. Some elephants, known as “explorers,” travel vast distances, while others, the “idlers,” remain within confined home ranges. These behavioural differences complicate conservation efforts, as strategies must account for their diverse space-use needs.
These elephants are highly intelligent and social, living in small, matriarchal family groups that navigate the rainforest together. Their deep infrasonic rumbles travel through the ground, allowing communication over vast distances, even in the thickest jungle. Recent research has revealed that their vocalisations have a structure akin to human syntax—complex combinations of calls used to convey intricate meanings (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024).
Other research has found that the foraging, seed dispersal and exploration of African Forest Elephants helps to mitigate African forests against climate change. A 2019 study from the Ndoki Forest in the Republic of Congo (ROC) and LuiKotale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) estimated that if elephants were removed from these sites, the loss of their forest-shaping food preferences would reduce the forest’s carbon capture by 7%.
Diet
Forest Elephants are frugivorous and play an irreplaceable role as seed dispersers, particularly for large fruiting trees. They are responsible for spreading the seeds of over 41 timber species, including Bobgunnia fistuloides (pao rosa), a tree prized for its high-value wood (Blake et al., 2009; Campos-Arceiz & Blake, 2011). Without these elephants, the rainforest’s ability to regenerate and store carbon would be drastically diminished.
Reproduction and Mating
With a gestation period of 22 months—the longest of any land mammal—female African Forest elephants give birth only once every four to six years (Gobush et al., 2021). Due to their slow reproductive rate, population recovery is incredibly difficult, making conservation efforts even more urgent. Calves remain under their mother’s care for over a decade, learning crucial survival skills in the rainforest.
Geographic Range
African Forest Elephants roam vast home ranges, some spanning over 2,000 km² (Beirne et al., 2021). Their movements are largely dictated by fruiting cycles, water availability, and human encroachment. A recent study found that they exhibit remarkable individual variation in movement patterns—some acting as ‘explorers,’ roaming far and wide, while others remain within familiar territories (Beirne et al., 2021). Roads and logging concessions disrupt these traditional routes, forcing elephants into human settlements and escalating conflict.
Threats
- Illegal Wildlife Trade and Poaching: The illegal and criminal trade in elephant ivory continues to drive rampant poaching. Despite international bans, demand remains high in black markets (Wittemyer et al., 2014; Maisels et al., 2013).
- Palm Oil Agriculture Expansion: Forests are being obliterated for palm oil, cocoa, tobacco and rubber plantations, erasing habitat at an alarming rate (Scalbert et al., 2022).
- Logging, Mining, and Infrastructure Expansion: The development of roads and infrastructure for timber and mining grants poachers greater access to once-inaccessible forest areas (Beirne et al., 2021).
- Human-Elephant Conflict: Shrinking forests push elephants into farmland, leading to fatal clashes with farmers trying to protect their crops (Ngama et al., 2016).
- Climate Change: Disruptions in rainfall patterns and fruiting cycles impact the food supply of African Forest Elephants, forcing them into riskier migration routes where they can come into contact with poachers or conflict with farmers.
- Slow Reproduction Rate: African Forest Elephants have a long gestation periods and high calf mortality, their populations cannot recover quickly from losses.
Elephants and Language: Call Combinations and Syntax
Groundbreaking research has revealed that African Forest Elephants use complex call combinations, akin to human syntax, to communicate in high-stakes situations (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024). Their vocal repertoire includes:
- Low-frequency rumbles: Used to coordinate movements and social interactions. These deep sounds can travel several kilometres through dense rainforest.
- Broadband roars: Express distress, urgency, or aggression, particularly in response to predators or conflict.
- Combined calls: When rumbles and roars are merged, they create new meanings. These combinations are more frequently used in competitive situations, suggesting that elephants alter their vocal signals to convey specific messages in dangerous or high-emotion contexts.
The ability to combine calls strategically may help elephants navigate social disputes, secure access to resources, or reunite with separated family members. This discovery sheds light on the cognitive abilities of these animals and their sophisticated social lives.
Large herbivores such as elephants contribute to tree diversity
A recent study using satellite data has highlighted the critical role that large herbivores play in promoting tree diversity in forest ecosystems. The…
Echoes of the Ancients: The Wisdom and Power of Elephants
World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12th, honours the gentle and nurturing giants of Asia and Africa, who are revered for their deep…
African Forest Elephants Help Fight Climate Change
Discover the awe-inspiring role of African forest elephants in the Congo Basin—nature’s master gardeners who literally shape the world around them! These gentle…
African Forest Elephants and Timber Concessions
Timber and palm oil concessions now cover vast portions of forest elephant habitat, with little understanding of how these logging operations impact elephant populations (Scalbert et al., 2022). While elephants can persist in selectively logged forests, they require large, undisturbed areas to sustain viable populations. Key findings include:
- African Forest Elephants regenerate forests: By dispersing seeds of high-carbon tree species, they facilitate the regrowth of timber species, making their role essential for maintaining the economic value of these forests.
- Logging alters movement patterns: While some elephants adapt to fragmented landscapes, others are displaced, forced into human-dominated areas where they are at greater risk of poaching and conflict.
- Forest loss drives ecological collapse: Without elephants maintaining seed dispersal, many commercially valuable trees may struggle to regenerate, ultimately degrading the timber industry’s long-term viability.
You can support this beautiful animal
Africa Conservation Foundation
Further Information
Beirne, C., Houslay, T. M., Morkel, P., Clark, C. J., Fay, M., Okouyi, J., White, L. J. T., & Poulsen, J. R. (2021). African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior. Scientific Reports, 11, 12634. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91627-z
Gobush, K.S., Edwards, C.T.T, Maisels, F., Wittemyer, G., Balfour, D. & Taylor, R.D. 2021. Loxodonta cyclotis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T181007989A181019888. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T181007989A181019888.en. Downloaded on 08 June 2021.
Hedwig, D., & Kohlberg, A. (2024). Call combination in African forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299656
Scalbert, M., Vermeulen, C., Breuer, T., & Doucet, J. L. (2022). The challenging coexistence of forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis and timber concessions in central Africa. Mammal Review, 52(3), 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12305
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Take Action in Five Ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
Enter your email address
Sign Up
Join 3,528 other subscribers2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings
Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao
Health Physician Dr Evan Allen
The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert
How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20
https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20
https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Pledge your support#Africa #African #AfricanForestElephantLoxodontaCyclotis #Angola #Bantrophyhunting #Benin #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #BurkinaFaso #Cameroon #CentralAfricanRepublic #climatechange #cocoa #Congo #CriticallyEndangeredSpecies #deforestation #DemocracticRepublicOfCongo #elephant #elephants #Forest #Gabon #Guinea #ivory #Mammal #Nigeria #Pachyderm #pachyderms #palmoil #poaching #pollination #pollinator #rainforests #SeedDispersers #SierraLeone #timber #tobacco #vegan #WestAfrica
-
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
Location: Central and West Africa – Guineo-Congolian tropical forests, including Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and surrounding regions.
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
The African Forest #Elephant is a Critically Endangered species found in the dense #rainforests of Central and #WestAfrica. They are smaller than their savanna relatives, with straighter tusks and rounder ears, uniquely adapted to their forested habitat. As ecosystem engineers, these elephants play a crucial role in maintaining Afrotropical forests by dispersing seeds and mitigating against climate change by shaping forest composition. However, relentless #poaching for ivory, habitat destruction due to #palmoil, #cocoa and #tobacco agriculture, and human-elephant conflict have decimated their population. Recent studies have shown that African Forest Elephants’ movement patterns vary significantly between individuals, with some elephants exploring vast distances while others remain in small home ranges. This variation poses unique challenges for conservation efforts. Resist and fight for their survival each time you shop, be #vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
African Forest #Elephants are ecosystem engineers fighting #ClimateChange in #WestAfrica. Yet #poaching and #palmoil #deforestation have rendered them critically endangered 😿🐘 Help them and be #vegan #BoycottPalmOil 🌴⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterSupremely intelligent and sensitive African Forest #Elephants 🐘🩶 face several grave threats, incl. #PalmOil #Deforestation and #poaching in #Gabon 🇬🇦 #Congo 🇨🇩 #WestAfrica. Fight for them when you #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🔥🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterRapid land use change, including palm oil plantations across their range is driving the direct loss and fragmentation of habitat, is an increasing threat to African elephants across their range.
IUCN red list
Appearance and Behaviour
African Forest Elephants are smaller than their savanna counterparts, with a shoulder height of 2 to 3 metres. They have a more compact build, rounded ears, and long, narrow tusks that point downward, (Gobush et al., 2021). Their grey skin is often darker due to the humid rainforest environment. They live in small, matriarchal family groups and display remarkable individual variation in movement behaviours. Some elephants, known as “explorers,” travel vast distances, while others, the “idlers,” remain within confined home ranges. These behavioural differences complicate conservation efforts, as strategies must account for their diverse space-use needs.
These elephants are highly intelligent and social, living in small, matriarchal family groups that navigate the rainforest together. Their deep infrasonic rumbles travel through the ground, allowing communication over vast distances, even in the thickest jungle. Recent research has revealed that their vocalisations have a structure akin to human syntax—complex combinations of calls used to convey intricate meanings (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024).
Other research has found that the foraging, seed dispersal and exploration of African Forest Elephants helps to mitigate African forests against climate change. A 2019 study from the Ndoki Forest in the Republic of Congo (ROC) and LuiKotale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) estimated that if elephants were removed from these sites, the loss of their forest-shaping food preferences would reduce the forest’s carbon capture by 7%.
Diet
Forest Elephants are frugivorous and play an irreplaceable role as seed dispersers, particularly for large fruiting trees. They are responsible for spreading the seeds of over 41 timber species, including Bobgunnia fistuloides (pao rosa), a tree prized for its high-value wood (Blake et al., 2009; Campos-Arceiz & Blake, 2011). Without these elephants, the rainforest’s ability to regenerate and store carbon would be drastically diminished.
Reproduction and Mating
With a gestation period of 22 months—the longest of any land mammal—female African Forest elephants give birth only once every four to six years (Gobush et al., 2021). Due to their slow reproductive rate, population recovery is incredibly difficult, making conservation efforts even more urgent. Calves remain under their mother’s care for over a decade, learning crucial survival skills in the rainforest.
Geographic Range
African Forest Elephants roam vast home ranges, some spanning over 2,000 km² (Beirne et al., 2021). Their movements are largely dictated by fruiting cycles, water availability, and human encroachment. A recent study found that they exhibit remarkable individual variation in movement patterns—some acting as ‘explorers,’ roaming far and wide, while others remain within familiar territories (Beirne et al., 2021). Roads and logging concessions disrupt these traditional routes, forcing elephants into human settlements and escalating conflict.
Threats
- Illegal Wildlife Trade and Poaching: The illegal and criminal trade in elephant ivory continues to drive rampant poaching. Despite international bans, demand remains high in black markets (Wittemyer et al., 2014; Maisels et al., 2013).
- Palm Oil Agriculture Expansion: Forests are being obliterated for palm oil, cocoa, tobacco and rubber plantations, erasing habitat at an alarming rate (Scalbert et al., 2022).
- Logging, Mining, and Infrastructure Expansion: The development of roads and infrastructure for timber and mining grants poachers greater access to once-inaccessible forest areas (Beirne et al., 2021).
- Human-Elephant Conflict: Shrinking forests push elephants into farmland, leading to fatal clashes with farmers trying to protect their crops (Ngama et al., 2016).
- Climate Change: Disruptions in rainfall patterns and fruiting cycles impact the food supply of African Forest Elephants, forcing them into riskier migration routes where they can come into contact with poachers or conflict with farmers.
- Slow Reproduction Rate: African Forest Elephants have a long gestation periods and high calf mortality, their populations cannot recover quickly from losses.
Elephants and Language: Call Combinations and Syntax
Groundbreaking research has revealed that African Forest Elephants use complex call combinations, akin to human syntax, to communicate in high-stakes situations (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024). Their vocal repertoire includes:
- Low-frequency rumbles: Used to coordinate movements and social interactions. These deep sounds can travel several kilometres through dense rainforest.
- Broadband roars: Express distress, urgency, or aggression, particularly in response to predators or conflict.
- Combined calls: When rumbles and roars are merged, they create new meanings. These combinations are more frequently used in competitive situations, suggesting that elephants alter their vocal signals to convey specific messages in dangerous or high-emotion contexts.
The ability to combine calls strategically may help elephants navigate social disputes, secure access to resources, or reunite with separated family members. This discovery sheds light on the cognitive abilities of these animals and their sophisticated social lives.
Large herbivores such as elephants contribute to tree diversity
A recent study using satellite data has highlighted the critical role that large herbivores play in promoting tree diversity in forest ecosystems. The…
Echoes of the Ancients: The Wisdom and Power of Elephants
World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12th, honours the gentle and nurturing giants of Asia and Africa, who are revered for their deep…
African Forest Elephants Help Fight Climate Change
Discover the awe-inspiring role of African forest elephants in the Congo Basin—nature’s master gardeners who literally shape the world around them! These gentle…
African Forest Elephants and Timber Concessions
Timber and palm oil concessions now cover vast portions of forest elephant habitat, with little understanding of how these logging operations impact elephant populations (Scalbert et al., 2022). While elephants can persist in selectively logged forests, they require large, undisturbed areas to sustain viable populations. Key findings include:
- African Forest Elephants regenerate forests: By dispersing seeds of high-carbon tree species, they facilitate the regrowth of timber species, making their role essential for maintaining the economic value of these forests.
- Logging alters movement patterns: While some elephants adapt to fragmented landscapes, others are displaced, forced into human-dominated areas where they are at greater risk of poaching and conflict.
- Forest loss drives ecological collapse: Without elephants maintaining seed dispersal, many commercially valuable trees may struggle to regenerate, ultimately degrading the timber industry’s long-term viability.
You can support this beautiful animal
Africa Conservation Foundation
Further Information
Beirne, C., Houslay, T. M., Morkel, P., Clark, C. J., Fay, M., Okouyi, J., White, L. J. T., & Poulsen, J. R. (2021). African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior. Scientific Reports, 11, 12634. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91627-z
Gobush, K.S., Edwards, C.T.T, Maisels, F., Wittemyer, G., Balfour, D. & Taylor, R.D. 2021. Loxodonta cyclotis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T181007989A181019888. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T181007989A181019888.en. Downloaded on 08 June 2021.
Hedwig, D., & Kohlberg, A. (2024). Call combination in African forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299656
Scalbert, M., Vermeulen, C., Breuer, T., & Doucet, J. L. (2022). The challenging coexistence of forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis and timber concessions in central Africa. Mammal Review, 52(3), 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12305
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Take Action in Five Ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
Enter your email address
Sign Up
Join 3,528 other subscribers2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings
Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao
Health Physician Dr Evan Allen
The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert
How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20
https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20
https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Pledge your support#Africa #African #AfricanForestElephantLoxodontaCyclotis #Angola #Bantrophyhunting #Benin #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #BurkinaFaso #Cameroon #CentralAfricanRepublic #climatechange #cocoa #Congo #CriticallyEndangeredSpecies #deforestation #DemocracticRepublicOfCongo #elephant #elephants #Forest #Gabon #Guinea #ivory #Mammal #Nigeria #Pachyderm #pachyderms #palmoil #poaching #pollination #pollinator #rainforests #SeedDispersers #SierraLeone #timber #tobacco #vegan #WestAfrica
-
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
Location: Central and West Africa – Guineo-Congolian tropical forests, including Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and surrounding regions.
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
The African Forest #Elephant is a Critically Endangered species found in the dense #rainforests of Central and #WestAfrica. They are smaller than their savanna relatives, with straighter tusks and rounder ears, uniquely adapted to their forested habitat. As ecosystem engineers, these elephants play a crucial role in maintaining Afrotropical forests by dispersing seeds and mitigating against climate change by shaping forest composition. However, relentless #poaching for ivory, habitat destruction due to #palmoil, #cocoa and #tobacco agriculture, and human-elephant conflict have decimated their population. Recent studies have shown that African Forest Elephants’ movement patterns vary significantly between individuals, with some elephants exploring vast distances while others remain in small home ranges. This variation poses unique challenges for conservation efforts. Resist and fight for their survival each time you shop, be #vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
African Forest #Elephants are ecosystem engineers fighting #ClimateChange in #WestAfrica. Yet #poaching and #palmoil #deforestation have rendered them critically endangered 😿🐘 Help them and be #vegan #BoycottPalmOil 🌴⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterSupremely intelligent and sensitive African Forest #Elephants 🐘🩶 face several grave threats, incl. #PalmOil #Deforestation and #poaching in #Gabon 🇬🇦 #Congo 🇨🇩 #WestAfrica. Fight for them when you #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🔥🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/09/11/african-forest-elephant-loxodonta-cyclotis/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterRapid land use change, including palm oil plantations across their range is driving the direct loss and fragmentation of habitat, is an increasing threat to African elephants across their range.
IUCN red list
Appearance and Behaviour
African Forest Elephants are smaller than their savanna counterparts, with a shoulder height of 2 to 3 metres. They have a more compact build, rounded ears, and long, narrow tusks that point downward, (Gobush et al., 2021). Their grey skin is often darker due to the humid rainforest environment. They live in small, matriarchal family groups and display remarkable individual variation in movement behaviours. Some elephants, known as “explorers,” travel vast distances, while others, the “idlers,” remain within confined home ranges. These behavioural differences complicate conservation efforts, as strategies must account for their diverse space-use needs.
These elephants are highly intelligent and social, living in small, matriarchal family groups that navigate the rainforest together. Their deep infrasonic rumbles travel through the ground, allowing communication over vast distances, even in the thickest jungle. Recent research has revealed that their vocalisations have a structure akin to human syntax—complex combinations of calls used to convey intricate meanings (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024).
Other research has found that the foraging, seed dispersal and exploration of African Forest Elephants helps to mitigate African forests against climate change. A 2019 study from the Ndoki Forest in the Republic of Congo (ROC) and LuiKotale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) estimated that if elephants were removed from these sites, the loss of their forest-shaping food preferences would reduce the forest’s carbon capture by 7%.
Diet
Forest Elephants are frugivorous and play an irreplaceable role as seed dispersers, particularly for large fruiting trees. They are responsible for spreading the seeds of over 41 timber species, including Bobgunnia fistuloides (pao rosa), a tree prized for its high-value wood (Blake et al., 2009; Campos-Arceiz & Blake, 2011). Without these elephants, the rainforest’s ability to regenerate and store carbon would be drastically diminished.
Reproduction and Mating
With a gestation period of 22 months—the longest of any land mammal—female African Forest elephants give birth only once every four to six years (Gobush et al., 2021). Due to their slow reproductive rate, population recovery is incredibly difficult, making conservation efforts even more urgent. Calves remain under their mother’s care for over a decade, learning crucial survival skills in the rainforest.
Geographic Range
African Forest Elephants roam vast home ranges, some spanning over 2,000 km² (Beirne et al., 2021). Their movements are largely dictated by fruiting cycles, water availability, and human encroachment. A recent study found that they exhibit remarkable individual variation in movement patterns—some acting as ‘explorers,’ roaming far and wide, while others remain within familiar territories (Beirne et al., 2021). Roads and logging concessions disrupt these traditional routes, forcing elephants into human settlements and escalating conflict.
Threats
- Illegal Wildlife Trade and Poaching: The illegal and criminal trade in elephant ivory continues to drive rampant poaching. Despite international bans, demand remains high in black markets (Wittemyer et al., 2014; Maisels et al., 2013).
- Palm Oil Agriculture Expansion: Forests are being obliterated for palm oil, cocoa, tobacco and rubber plantations, erasing habitat at an alarming rate (Scalbert et al., 2022).
- Logging, Mining, and Infrastructure Expansion: The development of roads and infrastructure for timber and mining grants poachers greater access to once-inaccessible forest areas (Beirne et al., 2021).
- Human-Elephant Conflict: Shrinking forests push elephants into farmland, leading to fatal clashes with farmers trying to protect their crops (Ngama et al., 2016).
- Climate Change: Disruptions in rainfall patterns and fruiting cycles impact the food supply of African Forest Elephants, forcing them into riskier migration routes where they can come into contact with poachers or conflict with farmers.
- Slow Reproduction Rate: African Forest Elephants have a long gestation periods and high calf mortality, their populations cannot recover quickly from losses.
Elephants and Language: Call Combinations and Syntax
Groundbreaking research has revealed that African Forest Elephants use complex call combinations, akin to human syntax, to communicate in high-stakes situations (Hedwig & Kohlberg, 2024). Their vocal repertoire includes:
- Low-frequency rumbles: Used to coordinate movements and social interactions. These deep sounds can travel several kilometres through dense rainforest.
- Broadband roars: Express distress, urgency, or aggression, particularly in response to predators or conflict.
- Combined calls: When rumbles and roars are merged, they create new meanings. These combinations are more frequently used in competitive situations, suggesting that elephants alter their vocal signals to convey specific messages in dangerous or high-emotion contexts.
The ability to combine calls strategically may help elephants navigate social disputes, secure access to resources, or reunite with separated family members. This discovery sheds light on the cognitive abilities of these animals and their sophisticated social lives.
Large herbivores such as elephants contribute to tree diversity
A recent study using satellite data has highlighted the critical role that large herbivores play in promoting tree diversity in forest ecosystems. The…
Echoes of the Ancients: The Wisdom and Power of Elephants
World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12th, honours the gentle and nurturing giants of Asia and Africa, who are revered for their deep…
African Forest Elephants Help Fight Climate Change
Discover the awe-inspiring role of African forest elephants in the Congo Basin—nature’s master gardeners who literally shape the world around them! These gentle…
African Forest Elephants and Timber Concessions
Timber and palm oil concessions now cover vast portions of forest elephant habitat, with little understanding of how these logging operations impact elephant populations (Scalbert et al., 2022). While elephants can persist in selectively logged forests, they require large, undisturbed areas to sustain viable populations. Key findings include:
- African Forest Elephants regenerate forests: By dispersing seeds of high-carbon tree species, they facilitate the regrowth of timber species, making their role essential for maintaining the economic value of these forests.
- Logging alters movement patterns: While some elephants adapt to fragmented landscapes, others are displaced, forced into human-dominated areas where they are at greater risk of poaching and conflict.
- Forest loss drives ecological collapse: Without elephants maintaining seed dispersal, many commercially valuable trees may struggle to regenerate, ultimately degrading the timber industry’s long-term viability.
You can support this beautiful animal
Africa Conservation Foundation
Further Information
Beirne, C., Houslay, T. M., Morkel, P., Clark, C. J., Fay, M., Okouyi, J., White, L. J. T., & Poulsen, J. R. (2021). African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior. Scientific Reports, 11, 12634. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91627-z
Gobush, K.S., Edwards, C.T.T, Maisels, F., Wittemyer, G., Balfour, D. & Taylor, R.D. 2021. Loxodonta cyclotis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T181007989A181019888. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T181007989A181019888.en. Downloaded on 08 June 2021.
Hedwig, D., & Kohlberg, A. (2024). Call combination in African forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299656
Scalbert, M., Vermeulen, C., Breuer, T., & Doucet, J. L. (2022). The challenging coexistence of forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis and timber concessions in central Africa. Mammal Review, 52(3), 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12305
African Forest Elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
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