African Forest Elephant

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Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	Elephantidae
Genus:	Loxodonta
Species:	L. cyclotis

Binomial name

Loxodonta cyclotis
Matschie, 1900

The African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) was until recently considered a subspecies of the African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana); however, DNA testing has now shown that there possibly are three extant elephant species: the two African types, typically considered to be different populations of a single species, the African Elephant, and the South Asian species known as the Indian or Asian Elephant. Not all authorities, notably the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group, consider the presently available evidence sufficient for splitting the African Elephant into two species. The North African Elephant - the war elephants of Hannibal - was possibly a now-extinct fourth species or a subspecies of the African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta (cyclotis) pharaoensis^{[citation needed]}) though it is more often allied with the African Bush Elephant; in any case, this population disappeared around the 1st or 2nd century CE. 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 (Debruyne et al. 2003).

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 exceed 2.5 metres (8 feet) in height, while the African Bush Elephant is usually over 3 meters (just under 10 feet) and sometimes almost 4 meters (13 feet) 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.

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 compared with 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.

[edit] References

Debruyne, R., Holt, A. van, 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):687-697. [1]
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.
Shoshani, Jeheskel (November 16, 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 91. ISBN 0-801-88221-4.