Population Survey

Information below extracted from the email correspondence. Method used: walked transects (indirect observations of dung and tracks) and camera traps (direct sightings of individuals). Species: Loxodonta cyclotis or Loxodonta africana forest ecotype. Elephants are permanently resident in the Chinko Project Area during the wet and the dry season but elephants seems to be more mobile during the wet season when they also walk deep in to the savanna dominated northern part of the Chinko Project Area (based on tracks from the rainy season encountered all over the Chinko Project Area by Aebischer Thierry during the dry season). For the Chinko Project Area we currently estimate a minimum elephant population of 50 individuals. During the rainy season 2015 fresh tracks of at least 25 individuals could be observed in the Protection Zone of Ngoy in the Chinko Project Area. A second group of similar size (most likely a different group than the other) was encountered at the same time by many collaborators and villagers from the next community in Bakouma. We have photographic evidence for 3 individuals of this time period in the Ngoy Protection Zone. The elephant population in the Chinko Project Area could be as big as 150 individuals and additional but very few individuals are likely to be present in neighboring areas like the Zemongo reserve, adjacent hunting blocks in eastern CAR and the forest of Bangassou.