Forest elephants are smaller than their savannah cousins but still enormous — a fully grown male can weigh up to 3,000 kilograms, about the same as three small cars. Their ears are more oval-shaped and their tusks point downwards, which helps them push through dense vegetation. They are also much shyer and harder to spot than savannah elephants.
Forest elephants are sometimes called 'gardeners of the forest' because of the incredible role they play in spreading seeds. When an elephant eats fruit and walks many kilometres through the forest before going to the toilet, it deposits seeds far from the parent tree — often in exactly the kind of cleared, nutrient-rich spot where a new tree can grow. Some trees in Central African forests can only spread this way.
Forest elephants live in small family groups and communicate using very low sounds called infrasound — so low that human ears cannot hear them. They use these sounds to call to each other through thick forest where they cannot see far. Researchers with special microphones have recorded entire 'conversations' between elephants kilometres apart.
Cameroon's Dja Biosphere Reserve and the forests around the Congo Basin are crucial refuges for forest elephants. Conservation organisations work with local communities to reduce poaching and protect the great migration routes that elephants have used for thousands of years. Protecting the elephant also means protecting the entire forest ecosystem it lives in.