ELEPHANTS & IVORY

© IFAW/F. Onyango/Tsavo East National Park, Kenya
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Distinguishing one independent population from another [is] one of the most basic requirements
for successful conservation and management, especially of exploited species. ”7
Scientists have estimated that there are
some five to more than 50 million species of
organisms on the planet. 8 The wide range of
uncertainty is usually explained away by the
existence of untold numbers of viruses, bacteria,
nematodes, insects, and other organisms that
remain to be discovered, described, classified
and named, especially in tropical forests and
in the world’s oceans. Such uncertainty takes
on new meaning, however, when we look at the
elephants. Even though they are the largest
surviving land mammals, conservationists have
yet to agree even on how many species remain!
Before we can begin to identify independent
populations and implement appropriate
conservation measures for each, we must be able
to distinguish individual species.
In 1978, when Asian elephants were first listed
on Appendix I of the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), two species
were recognized: the African elephant, Loxodonta
africana, and the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus.
The situation remained unchanged when African
elephants were added to Appendix I in 1989.
Although our scientific understanding of
elephant taxonomy has advanced considerably
over the past 30 years, the conservation
community has failed to keep up. While state-of-
the-art molecular genetics techniques reveal
that there are at least three and, possibly, more
species of living elephants, 9 CITES and IUCN – the
World Conservation Union (the keeper of the
Red List of Threatened Species), 10 among others,
continue to recognize the existence of only two.
Moreover, they rationalize their intransigence,
claiming that “more extensive research is required
to support the proposed re-classification”. 11
Ignoring the opinions of the wider scientific
community (such as the one cited in opening
quotation above), they curiously argue that
“Premature allocation into more than one species
may leave hybrids in an uncertain conservation
status”. The obvious answer to that argument
is that failure to recognize a genetically distinct
species may actually leave an entire species in an
uncertain conservation status.
A recent genetics study 12 confirms that the
African elephants belong to at least two distinct
species – the African savanna (or bush) elephant
(L. africana) and the African forest elephant
(L. cyclotis). The evidence now indicates that
these two species are “as or more divergent” as
mammoths and Asian elephants, having separated
some 2.6-5.6 million years ago. Major differences
between African savanna and African forest
elephants, and Asian elephants are summarized in
Table 1. 13
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