Forest elephants rebound to 145,000 as protection efforts take hold

For the first time, scientists have a clear count of African forest elephants — and the number is higher than expected. More than 145,000 of these shy, elusive giants now roam the rainforests of Central Africa, according to a December assessment by the IUCN's African Elephant Specialist Group. The breakthrough came from DNA-based surveying techniques that finally separated forest elephants from their savanna cousins, giving conservationists a real baseline for the first time since the species was formally recognized as distinct in 2021.

Counting forest elephants is genuinely hard. They vanish into dense understory, their dark skin absorbs light, and they avoid human detection by instinct. Researchers conducted 153 separate population surveys between 2016 and 2024 across three-quarters of the species' known range — mostly in Central Africa, with dwindling populations in West Africa and small numbers in the East and South. The surveys directly counted 135,690 elephants, and researchers estimate another 11,000 in unsurveyed areas.

"This is the first time we have a clear picture of the status of the forest elephant," said Fiona Maisels, the conservation scientist who led the assessment for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Before this, forest and savanna elephants were lumped together in counts, making it impossible to track one species' actual trajectory.

The context matters here. Forest elephants have collapsed by more than 86% in the past three decades. Habitat loss from logging, agriculture, and infrastructure development has fragmented populations and trapped them in shrinking patches of forest. Poaching decimated numbers through the 2000s and 2010s. Farmers kill elephants that raid crops. The threats haven't disappeared — they've simply shifted.

Where protection works, numbers climb

But something has changed in the last few years. Poaching has declined measurably. Anti-poaching patrols, community-based conservation programs, and habitat restoration projects have begun to stabilize populations in key regions. In Gabon, where the government invested heavily in protection and enforcement, the forest elephant population has grown by an estimated 14% since 2004.

"There are some really good conservation stories," Maisels noted. "In places where there's been good protection and good management, the numbers are going up."

That's the quiet victory here. This count doesn't mean forest elephants are out of danger — habitat loss remains the dominant threat, and human-elephant conflict will only intensify as both species compete for shrinking space. But it shows that when resources are invested in protection, when communities are brought into decision-making, and when governments actually enforce conservation law, these populations can recover.

The real test comes next. With a baseline now established, conservationists can measure whether the momentum holds, whether Gabon's gains can be replicated elsewhere, and whether the underlying drivers of habitat loss can be addressed. The number 145,000 is not a victory lap. It's a checkpoint.