African forest elephant
species of mammal
The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is an elephant species native to humid tropical forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin. It was first described in 1900. With an average shoulder height of 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in), it is the smallest of the three extant elephant species. Both sexes have straight, down-pointing tusks, which begin to grow at the age of 1–3 years.
The African forest elephant lives in highly sociable family groups of up to 20 individuals comprising adult cows, their daughters and sons. When young bulls reach sexual maturity, they separate from the family group and form loose bachelor groups for a short time, but usually stay alone. Adult bulls associate with family groups only during the mating season.
The African forest elephant forages on leaves, seeds, fruit, and tree bark of at least 96 plant species. Since it disseminates partly digested seeds for at least 5 km (3.1 mi) through its droppings, it contributes significantly to maintaining the diversity and structure of the Guinean Forests of West Africa and the Congolese rainforests.
During the 20th century, overhunting caused a sharp decline of the African forest elephant population, and by 2013 it was estimated that fewer than 30,000 individuals remained.
The public source identifies “African forest elephant” as species of mammal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around African, forest and elephant.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q189514. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1900 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “African forest elephant” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.