Forest Elephants News

On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast we take a look at a project that aims to preserve the rainforests of the Congo Basin in Central Africa and the biodiversity…

Elephant poachers are using logging roads to infiltrate some of the last remaining pristine forests in Central Africa, according to a study published in July. The study’s authors also revealed…

PALEMBANG, Indonesia — The planned construction of a bridge and private port in southern Sumatra threatens to damage one of the last remaining habitats of the island’s critically endangered elephants.…

The government of the Republic of Congo has, according to its own maps, opened up new areas for oil exploration in sections of the world’s largest peatlands and Nouabalé-Ndoki National…

DJOUM, Cameroon — “This right there used to be hell.” It’s early February 2019, deep in the tropical rainforest in southeastern Cameroon, the day after a night of heavy downpour.…

TABIR, Indonesia — Several hours into the search, Karina was still hiding, deep in the undergrowth, far from the road. The mission, led by a team of forest rangers, police…

In Myanmar, more than 5,000 elephants have been put to work in the logging industry over the past century, accounting for one of the world’s largest captive elephant populations. They…

Male elephants wander. As they mature and prepare to breed, they roam great distances in search of estrous females. These movements are key to elephant population dynamics: by breeding with…

Authorities in Indonesia have arrested two of four suspects alleged to have killed a rare Sumatran elephant and hacked off one of its tusks last month. Police in East Aceh…

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia have blamed poachers for the death of an elephant found with one of its tusks hacked off, in one of the world’s most…

Leveraging the most comprehensive dataset ever compiled for the gorillas and chimpanzees that live in western Central Africa, scientists have concluded that there are more of the two subspecies than…

The government of the United Kingdom announced today that it plans to introduce a stringent ban on the trade of ivory. “Ivory should never be seen as a commodity for…

A court in the Republic of Congo has convicted three men of killing elephants for their tusks, and sentenced them to five years in jail as well as fined them…

The equatorial ecosystems of the Albertine Rift are packed with plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Formed as tectonic plates in eastern Africa have slowly pulled away from…

PALEMBANG, Indonesia -- Wildlife activists in Indonesia suspect poachers poisoned an elephant found with its tusks hacked off in a protected forest in southern Sumatra. The body of the male…

As timber companies move into Central Africa’s forests, apes increasingly have to find ways to survive in the altered forests they call home. Scientists still don’t know the full impact…

Camera traps have proven to be a powerful tool in conservationists’ arsenal for monitoring forests and wildlife. But the mountains of data they capture need to be sifted through in…

The UK government has announced that it will shut down the legal ivory trade within its borders. “The decline in the elephant population fueled by poaching for ivory shames our…

The Liberian government designated a new national park in August 2017 that will protect an important population of Critically Endangered western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), as well as several other…

The ivory trade in Central Africa appears to be diminishing, according to a new report from TRAFFIC, a U.K.-based watchdog NGO. But that finding might be misleading, say the authors,…

Hundreds of pieces of jewelry, sculptures and vases made of elephant ivory were destroyed at New York City's Central Park on Thursday. The ivory, weighing nearly two tons, is estimated…

The first DNA analysis of ancient straight-tusked elephant fossils may be changing what we know about elephant evolution. Scientists have presumed that a species of giant elephant called Palaeoloxodon antiquus,…

The chimpanzee nest was a few months old, but there it was, right next to the tracks of the endangered forest elephant. We were in a conservation area that had…

The path of a major highway project in eastern Nigeria has been altered in response to concerns from local and international groups about its impact on wildlife and communities. The…

New research suggests that more than 25,000 forest elephants were killed for their ivory in Gabon’s Minkébé National Park, one of the largest and most important wildlife preserves in Central…

On the trail of a conservation group conducting a wildlife monitoring survey, we stop the 4x4 on the road and walk along the red earth to check on camera traps.…

The multi-billion-dollar illegal ivory trade is almost entirely being fueled by recently killed African elephants, a new study has found. Tusks in illegal seizures usually come from elephants killed within…

Every year, poachers kill around 30,000 African elephants for the illegal wildlife trade. The insatiable demand for ivory, mainly to supply Asian markets, has resulted in elephant population declines of…

The boundaries of Odzala-Kokoua National Park contain some of the best-preserved old-growth rainforest in the Republic of Congo. Its terrain varies from hills rising to 350 meters (1,148 feet) to…

Critics say funding for palm oil monitoring is "woefully inadequate."