Forest elephants are sometimes called the 'gardeners of the forest'. This is because they eat huge amounts of fruit and then walk long distances before the seeds pass through their bodies and drop to the forest floor. Many big rainforest trees need an elephant to spread their seeds - without elephants, those trees would struggle to grow in new places. One elephant can spread seeds from dozens of different tree species every single day.
In the Central African Republic, the famous Dzanga Bai clearing is sometimes described as the 'village of elephants'. Dozens of forest elephants visit this mineral-rich clearing almost every day to drink the water and eat the salty clay. The clay gives them important minerals - a bit like taking a vitamin tablet. At peak times you might see 50 to 100 elephants all in the same open space.
Forest elephants communicate using very low sounds called infrasound - sounds so low that human ears cannot hear them. These rumbles travel through the ground as well as the air, letting elephants send messages to each other across the thick forest where they cannot always see far. Scientists discovered this by placing special microphones in the ground and picking up vibrations the researchers themselves could not feel.
Baby forest elephants are looked after by the whole herd, not just their mother. Older females called 'aunties' help to watch over the young ones, and the oldest female - the matriarch - leads the group to the best water sources and remembers where food was found in dry seasons long ago.