Devastating decline of forest elephants in Central AfricaForest elephants separated from savanna elephants about 5 million years ago. Poaching for ivory is the main cause of decline. Many central African countries have opened up their forests to selective logging and mining concessions - this enables access for poachers. The result of this is road networks that have been proliferating. Shows map of road access in West/Central Africa by 2032.
The result is massive range reduction of African elephants. In 1980 there were 1.2 million African elephants, now there are around 250,000, down to 200,000 by 2020?
They conduced elephant surveys - line transects or reconnaissance walks through the forests. Count the dung counted per km walked. Relate to human population density, distance from roads, whether the sites have guards or not. Corruption was also highly correlated. Most ivory poaching driven by international crime cartels.
Map of elephant density. Functional density of elephants has plummeted everywhere except Gabon. Startling map.
Consequences of forest elephant loss:
!. No seed dispersal of elephant obligate trees. This guild
Beaune et al (20130 For Ecol Management Doom of the elephant dependent trees in a Congo tropical rainforest
Blake et al (2009) Forest elephants - tree planters of the Congo
2. Forest clearings close up (e.g. bais)
3. Nutrient dispersal may be restricted (Doughty et al 2013 Nature Geoscience)
The elephant decline is documented in these papers:
Maisels et al 2013 PLos One and Mailsels et al 2014 for update
The result is massive range reduction of African elephants. In 1980 there were 1.2 million African elephants, now there are around 250,000, down to 200,000 by 2020?
They conduced elephant surveys - line transects or reconnaissance walks through the forests. Count the dung counted per km walked. Relate to human population density, distance from roads, whether the sites have guards or not. Corruption was also highly correlated. Most ivory poaching driven by international crime cartels.
Map of elephant density. Functional density of elephants has plummeted everywhere except Gabon. Startling map.
Consequences of forest elephant loss:
!. No seed dispersal of elephant obligate trees. This guild
Beaune et al (20130 For Ecol Management Doom of the elephant dependent trees in a Congo tropical rainforest
Blake et al (2009) Forest elephants - tree planters of the Congo
2. Forest clearings close up (e.g. bais)
3. Nutrient dispersal may be restricted (Doughty et al 2013 Nature Geoscience)
The elephant decline is documented in these papers:
Maisels et al 2013 PLos One and Mailsels et al 2014 for update
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