African Forest Elephant

African Forest Elephant
マルミミゾウ
Character Data
Romaji		Marumimi zou
Debut		Kemono Friends (2015 Game)
Animal Data
Scientific Name		Loxodonta cyclotis
Distribution		Africa
Diet		Herbivore
Avg. Lifespan		60–70 years
Read More		African forest elephant
Conservation

African Forest Elephant

KF3

Nexon Game

“I am African Bush Elephant-dono's body double, African Forest Elephant. I look just like African Bush Elephant-dono, so I voluntarily act as her body double everyday... ... Hm, was I asked to do the part? Dear me, being a body double is done voluntarily, right? Is there something wrong with that?”
—African Forest Elephant's introduction

African Forest Elephant is an Elephantid Friend that first appeared in the original Kemono Friends mobile game.

Appearance

In her old design, most of African Forest Elephant's color palette is umber and dark beige, except for her pale sleeveless yellow midriff shirt. The midriff is accompanied with a brown bow tie. African Forest Elephant also has a green apple and a scarf, similar to an elephant's trunk. Her hair is styled in a shoulder-length fashion, and has fluffy bangs. The sides of her bangs fade to ivory, resembling an elephant's tusks. She wears a very short pleated skirt held by a knotted belt, black jump boots, khaki tights, and matching gloves. Just like the real life African Forest Elephant she's based on, she bears gigantic ears and a tufted tail.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role
2015	Nexon Game	↪ Minor character, playable
2019	Kemono Friends 3	↪ Minor character, playable

In Real Life

A male African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis)

The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is a forest-dwelling species of elephant. It is the smallest of the three extant species of elephant, but still one of the largest living terrestrial animals.

African forest elephants are most populous in central and western Africa. Areas of high density are characterized by lowland tropical rainforests, semi-evergreen and semi-deciduous tropical rainforests, and swamps.

The African Forest Elephant is thought to have rounder ears and straighter tusks than the African Bush Elephant, and it has also been noted that the African Bush Elephant and the African Forest Elephant have a different number of toe nails. Until recently, however, they were considered to be the same species.

The African Forest Elephant is a herbivorous animal, meaning that it only eats plants and other vegetation. They predominantly eat leaves and fruit from trees, herbs, and low-lying shrubs.

The African Forest Elephant mainly uses its immense tusks for digging roots out of the ground, and to strip the bark off trees. The African Forest Elephant also uses its tusks to defend itself from predators such as Lions, and to fight with other male African Forest Elephants during the mating season. Males are generally fairly solitary but females and their young form small family groups known as herds. This allows the more vulnerable offspring to be more easily protected.

The tusks of the African Forest Elephant are relatively straight instead of curved, enabling them to move through the thick jungle with greater ease. Their tusks are an essential tool in the spreading of seeds throughout Africa's forests and are therefore vital to the natural processes of their native eco-systems.

Despite African Forest Elephants' ability to communicate with one another through up to a couple of miles of dense jungle, the sound they make is so low that it cannot be heard by Humans. African forest elephants, along with other elephants, communicate among widely dispersed social groups through these low-frequency sounds (5 Hz).

An elephant's trunk is the most versatile of all mammalian appendages, being used as a nose, arm, hand and multipurpose tool. It is powerful enough to kill a lion with a single swipe, yet the finger-like lobes at the end are adept enough to pluck a feather from the ground.

Poaching for ivory and meat has traditionally been the major cause of the species' decline. Although illegal hunting remains a significant factor in some areas, particularly in Central Africa, currently the most important perceived threat is the loss and fragmentation of habitat caused by ongoing human population expansion and rapid land conversion. The African Elephant is subject to varying degrees of legal protection in all Range States. Although up to 70% of the species range is believed to lie in unprotected land, most large populations occur within protected areas.

Trivia

The African forest elephant commonly eats leaves, fruit, and bark

• Elephants have been referred to as "forest gardeners" due to their significant role in seed dispersal and maintaining plant diversity.

• There are many parasitic species that use African elephants as their host. There is a wide variety to the kind of parasites that infect African elephant. African elephants do have a mutualistic relationship with birds, as the birds will feed on the skin parasites of the elephants, providing them a meal while ridding the elephants of some parasites.

References

1. "Loxodonta africana". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

2. "African Forest Elephant". a-z-animals.

3. "ADW: Loxodonta cyclotis: INFORMATION". Animal Diversity Web.