Social structure of the forest elephant, Loxodonta cyclotis in the Taï National Park, South-West Côte d'Ivoire

The elephant is an essential species in its living environment. Despite this undeniable role, this species is endangered on Ivorian territory. The present work aims to determine the social structure of the forest elephant in the Taï National Park (TNP), one of the last refuge sites for this species. The method used consisted of installing 87 camera traps (CT) on the elephants' distribution area in the TNP, with an equidistance of 6 km between two neighbouring CTs. At the end of this work, it appears that the forest elephant population of the TNP contains 19% solitary individuals and 39% juveniles. The mean group size was estimated to be 2.7 ± 0.75 individuals (including solitary individuals) and 4.5 ± 1.04 individuals (excluding solitary individuals). These characteristics are comparable to or even better than those obtained before the 1980s, when elephant poaching in the TNP intensified. This similarity of the characteristics of the elephant population noted by this study and those obtained before the 1980s, could reflect a reconstitution of the population of the forest elephant population in the TNP, following the takeover by the Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves, since 2002.