Habitat
Loxodonta cyclotis used to
reside through most of the western and central parts of Africa,
but because of hunters poaching them for their meat and ivory
tusks, elephants now mainly reside in western Africa, in the
congo basin (Blake et al., 2009). The forests that create the elephant’s
habitat have three different sections: the swampy on the south,
the wet lowlands, and the dry north (Blake and Inkamba-Nkulu, 2004). In the past
when elephants were not being poached and in ‘favorable’
habitats African forest elephants would reside about three
elephants per square kilometer.
The most favorable habitat for the
Loxodonta cyclotis is deep in the dense forests with a
reliable source of water, which is common in the forests, and plenty
of fruiting trees to sustain the forest elephants gigantic mass, and
mineral deposits for the rest of the minerals needed to help the
elephant function. Within these forests are 'bais', clearings,
where most of the mineral diposits are located. These clearings are
mainly kept clear by the elephants (Blake and Inkamba-Nkulu, 2004). All of these favorable conditions are met in the
congolo-equatorial and subequatorial zones where there is a mean
annual rainfall of one thousand four hundred and twenty-two
millimeters (Blake and Inkamba-Nkulu, 2004).
But this favorable habitat is shrinking in size and the range in which the elephants can travel because of hunters poaching for bushmeat and the elephant’s ivory tusks.
In this habitat also lives some other well know organisms such as the Gorilla gorilla gorilla 'Western Gorilla', Gorilla beringei 'Eastern Gorilla', Panthera pardus 'Leopard', Pan troglodytes troglodytes 'Chimpanzee' (Blake and Inkamba-Nkulu, 2004) and Mangifera indica 'Mango'.