African forest elephant
| African forest elephant | |
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| An African forest elephant with its calf | |
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| Species: | L. cyclotis
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The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is an elephant which lives in the forests of the Congo Basin.
It is often considered a separate species from the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana); a 2010 study said that the two elephants were two different species. However, since the two groups can interbreed successfully, they may only be separate subspecies of Loxodonta africana. They are probably forest elephants whose small size is adapted to the rainforest conditions.
Differences
[change | change source]The differences include that the African forest elephant has a long, narrow mandible (the African bush elephant's is short and wide), it has rounded ears (an African bush elephant's ears are more pointed), straighter and downward tusks, smaller size, and more toenails. The male African forest elephant rarely grows more than 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. 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).
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Diet
[change | change source]The African forest elephant is a herbivore (plant eater) and commonly eats leaves, grass, fruit, and bark, and sometimes visits places where it can lick salt.
Other websites
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- BBC Wildlife Finder - video clips from the BBC archive Archived 2010-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
- ARKive - Images and movies of the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) Archived 2006-03-01 at the Wayback Machine
- PBS Nature: Tracking Forest Elephants Archived 2008-05-03 at the Wayback Machine
- Forest Elephant Program
- Elephant Information Repository Archived 2009-03-18 at the Wayback Machine - An in-depth resource on elephants
- The Elephant Listening Project - Information on forest elephants and their vocalizations.