Greetings,

By now you’ve read about our African Savannah and Asian elephant conservation projects, so in today’s eNewsletter we will tell you about our African Forest elephant and Ex-Situ projects. The African Forest elephant is newly recognized as its own species, and we are happy to see the international community rally around protecting this amazing and very endangered species. We also have some extremely exciting research work to help elephants everywhere fight the deadly Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV). This virus has co-evolved with elephants over millions of years with little impact but as elephant numbers dwindle and habitats become fragmented, natural protection against EEHV does not appear to occur as it should.

Forest elephants are the newest recognized species of elephant, living primarily in central and west Africa. Their population has severely declined in recent decades due to poaching and armed conflict. Though regional populations are small and difficult to monitor, IEF is making their protection a funding priority. We also know that EEHV affects all elephants, regardless of species and whether in human care or in the wild. Two of our 3 ex-situ projects are on the leading edge of EEHV research that will lead to the development of a vaccine protocol to lessen the impact of EEHV when contracted by young elephants.

Forest Elephant Projects:

Collaring Forest Elephants-Ziama: Using satellite collars to track movements of two established elephant herds in the Ziama Biosphere Reserve, this project allows researchers to learn vital information to establish an early warning system for farmers to mitigate conflict and to inform conservation decisions.

Safeguarding the Populations of Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) in the Port-Gauthier and Dassioko Forest Reserves in Côte d’Ivoire: This project is conducting regular patrols to stop poaching and find and remove snares in two of the remaining intact habitats for forest elephants while also teaching coexistence techniques to local farmers and community members.

Conserving African Forest Elephants Mpem and Djim National Park, Cameroon: Studying the transition zone between forest and savannah habitats, this important project is monitoring population numbers of the African Savannah elephant and the African forest elephant as well as hybrids of the two, determining key threats, identifying conflict areas, supporting 10 park rangers to conduct patrols, and working with communities to introduce sustainable alternative livelihoods and conservation education.

Ex-Situ Projects:

EEHV Genomics and Pathogenesis: Continuing our many years of support to this project, researchers are analyzing the multiple strains of Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus and sequencing their genomes which serves as the foundation for most other EEHV research worldwide.

Realization of an Effective Vaccine Against Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus: Using tools previously developed by this research team, a vaccine to induce protective immunity for elephants against EEHV is being developed.

Musth Variation Among Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus): Applications for Conservation: Studying musth in elephants in Sri Lanka and those in human care, this project will be used with social environmental data to help understand how male Asian elephants respond to changing environments.