The African bush elephant is the elusive cousin of the African savanna elephant. They live in the dense tropical forests of west and central Africa. Their preference for jungle habitats prohibits traditional counting methods such as eye identification. Their populations are usually estimated through “fecal count”—a terrestrial analysis of the density and distribution of feces.
Source: The New Yorker
The African bush elephant is smaller than the African savanna and other African elephants. Their ears are more oval in shape and their tusks are straighter and point downward (the savanna tusks curve outward). There are also differences in the size and shape of skulls and skeletons. Forest elephants also have a much slower reproductive rate than savanna elephants, so they cannot recover from rapid population decline at the same rate. Their last strongholds were in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo, with smaller populations remaining in other African countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea) and Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Ghana. in west Africa.
African forest elephants live in family groups of up to 20 individuals and feed on leaves, grass, seeds, fruit and bark. Since the wild elephant’s diet is mainly fruit, they play an important role in dispersing many species of trees, especially the seeds of large high-carbon trees. Hence, they are called ‘great gardeners of the forest’. To add minerals to their diet, they gather in mineral-rich wells and rock formations found throughout the forest.
