Elephant Database
African Elephant Specialist Group

Sierra Leone
2016 African Elephant Status Report

All Years for Sierra Leone: 201620132007200219981995

Summary Totals for Sierra Leone

Estimates from SurveysGuesses% Known and
Possible Range
Area (km2)
Survey categoryEstimate± 95% CLFromTo
Informed Guesses08010026.4357
Other Guesses000.00
Degraded Data555537.7510
Totals 201500135155  
Totals 200600195215  
Assessed Range64.1867
Unassessed Range35.9486
Total Range1001,353

Summary Totals for Sierra Leone

Data Category Definite Probable Possible Speculative
Informed Guesses008020
Other Guesses00055
Totals 2015008075
Totals 20060080135

Interpretation of Changes in Estimates from Previous Report

 Estimates from SurveysGuessesArea
Cause of Change Estimate ± 95% CL From To% Known and PossibleTotal
Population Lost00-60-600.00
No Change000064.1867
Totals00-60-6064.1867

Interpretation of Changes in Estimates from Previous Report

Cause of Change Definite Probable Possible Speculative
Population Lost000-60
Totals000-60

Interpretation of Changes in Estimates from Previous Report (2007 scaling)

Cause of Change Definite Probable Possible Speculative
Population Lost000-60
Totals000-60

Area of Range Covered by Each Data Category (km²)

Data CategoryKnown RangePossible RangeTotal Range
Informed Guesses3570357
Other Guesses5100510
Unassessed Range3690486
Totals1,23601,353

Sierra Leone: Elephant Estimates

Cause ofSurvey Details2 Number of Elephants Area Map Location
Input ZoneChange1TypeReliab.YearEstimate95% C.L. SourcePFS3 (km²) Lon. Lat.
+ Bagbe River Forest-OE19955 45*Kortenhoven, pers. comm., 20021349 11.1W 9.3N
-OE19955 45*Kortenhoven, pers. comm., 2002349 11.1W 9.3N
+ Gola East Forest ReservePLOE20110Lindsell, 20111287 11.2W 7.4N
PLOE20110Lindsell, 2011287 11.2W 7.4N
+ Gola North Forest Reserve-OE198750Grubb et al., 19981242 10.9W 7.6N
-OE198750Grubb et al., 1998242 10.9W 7.6N
+ Outamba Kilimi National Park-OD200680 20*Nandjui & Danquah, pers. comm., 20061358 12.1W 9.7N
-OD200680 20*Nandjui & Danquah, pers. comm., 2006358 12.1W 9.7N

* Range of informed guess

1Key to Causes of Change (only tracked since 2007): DA: Different Area; DD: Data Degraded; DT: Different Technique; NA: New Analysis; NG: New Guess; NP: New population; PL: Population Lost; RS: Repeat Survey (RS ́ denotes a repeat survey that is not statistically comparable for reasons such as different season); –––: No Change

2Key to Survey Types: AC: Aerial Count, not specified; AS: Aerial Sample Count; AT: Aerial Total Count; DC: Dung Count; EX: Extrapolation from GIS; GD: Genetic Dung Count; GS: Ground Sample Count; GT: Ground Total Count; IG: Informed Guess; IR: Individual Registration; OG: Other Guess. Survey Type is followed by an indicator of survey quality, ranked from 1 to 3 (best to worst). Survey Reliability is keyed A-E (best to worst) as outlined in this table.

3PFS: Priority for Future Surveys, ranked from 1 to 5 (highest to lowest). Based on the precision of estimates and the proportion of national range accounted for by the site in question, PFS is a measure of the importance and urgency for future population surveys. All areas of unassessed range have a priority of 1. See Introduction for details on how the PFS is derived.

Note that totals for the Definite, Probable, and Possible categories are derived by pooling the variances of individual estimates, as described at http://www.africanelephantdatabase.org/reliability. As a result, totals do not necessarily match the simple sum of the entries within a given category.

IUCNSpecies Survival Commission

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