African Forest Elephant
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- See also: African Bush Elephant
| African Forest Elephant[1] | |
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| Conservation status | |
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Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)
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Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | Elephantidae |
| Genus: | Loxodonta |
| Species: | L. cyclotis |
| Binomial name | |
| Loxodonta cyclotis Matschie, 1900 |
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The African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is a forest dwelling elephant of the Congo Basin. Formerly considered either a synonym or a subspecies of the African Savanna Elephant (Loxodonta africana), a 2010 study established that the two are distinct species.[2][3] The disputed Pygmy Elephants of the Congo basin, often assumed to be a separate species (Loxodonta pumilio) by cryptozoologists, are probably Forest Elephants whose diminutive size and/or early maturity is due to environmental conditions.[4]
Differences include the African Forest Elephant's long, narrow mandible (the African Bush Elephant's is short and wide), its rounded ears (an African Bush Elephant's ears are more pointed), straighter and downward tusks, considerably smaller size, and number of toenails. The male African Forest Elephant rarely exceeds 2.5 metres (8 ft) in height, while the African Bush Elephant is usually over 3 metres (just under 10 feet) and sometimes almost 4 metres (13 ft) tall. With regard to the number of toenails: the African Bush Elephant normally has 4 toenails on the frontfoot and 3 on the hindfoot, the African Forest Elephant normally has 5 toenails on the frontfoot and 4 on the hindfoot (like the Asian elephant), but hybrids between the two species occur. The African Forest Elephant is a herbivore and commonly eats leaves, fruit, and bark, with occasional visits to mineral licks. They eat a high proportion of fruit and are sometimes the only disperser of some tree species such as Balanites wilsoniana and Omphalocarpum spp.
Owing to poaching and the high demand for ivory, the African Forest Elephant population approached critical levels in the 1990s and early 2000s.[5][6] Late in the 20th century, conservation workers established a DNA identification system to trace the origin of poached ivory. It had long been known that the ivory of the African Forest Elephant was particularly hard, with a pinkish tinge, and straight (whereas that of the African Bush Elephant is curved). The DNA tests, however, indicated that the two populations were much more different than previously appreciated — indeed, in its genetic makeup, the African Forest Elephant is almost two-thirds as distinct from the African Bush Elephant as the Asian Elephant is.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Shoshani, Jeheskel (16 November 2005). "Order Proboscidea (pp. 90-91)". In Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). p. 91. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=11500010.
- ^ Rohland, Nadin; Reich, David; Mallick, Swapan; Meyer, Matthias; Green, Richard E.; Georgiadis, Nicholas J.; Roca, Alfred L.; Hofreiter, Michael (2010). "Genomic DNA Sequences from Mastodon and Woolly Mammoth Reveal Deep Speciation of Forest and Savanna Elephants". PLoS Biology 8 (12): p. e1000564. December 2010. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000564. http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000564
- ^ Steenhuysen, Julie (December 22, 2010). "Africa has two species of elephants, not one". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BK6I920101222
- ^ Debruyne R, van Holt A, Barriel V & Tassy P (2003). "Status of the so-called African pygmy elephant (Loxodonta pumilio (NOACK 1906)): phylogeny of cytochrome b and mitochondrial control region sequences". Comptes Rendus de Biologie 326 (7): 687–69. PMID 14556388.
- ^ Barnes RFW, Beardsley K, Michelmore F, Barnes KL, Alers MPT and Blom A (1997). "Estimating Forest Elephant Numbers with Dung Counts and a Geographic Information System". The Journal of Wildlife Management (Allen Press) 61 (4): 1384–1393. doi:10.2307/3802142. JSTOR 3802142.
- ^ Barnes RFW, Alers MPT and Blom A (1995). "A review of the status of forest elephants Loxodonta africana in central Africa". Biological Conservation 71 (2): 125–132. doi:10.1016/0006-3207(94)00014-H. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V5X-4007DK3-15&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=a336f70e473be30469af9ae1761d91de.
- IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG): Statement on the Taxonomy of extant Loxodonta (February, 2006).
- Roca, Alfred L.; Nicholas Georgiadis, Jill Pecon-Slattery, Stephen J. O'Brien. (24 August 2001). "Genetic Evidence for Two Species of Elephant in Africa". Science 293 (5534): 1473–1477. doi:10.1126/science.1059936. PMID 11520983.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Loxodonta cyclotis |
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Wikispecies has information related to: Loxodonta cyclotis |
- BBC Wildlife Finder - video clips from the BBC archive
- ARKive - Images and movies of the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis)
- PBS Nature: Tracking Forest Elephants
- Forest Elephant Program
- Elephant Information Repository - An in-depth resource on elephants
- The Elephant Listening Project - Information on forest elephants and their vocalizations.
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