Diet of forest elephants and their role in seed dispersal in the Bossematie Forest Reserve, Ivory Coast

We followed fresh tracks of forest elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis Matschie, 1900) in the heavily exploited semi-deciduous Bossematie Forest Reserve (southeastern Ivory Coast) and documented the elephants' diet. The aim was to learn which ecological types of plants elephants eat in the very disturbed forest, as well as estimate the role of forest elephants in the dispersal of seeds in the study area. When comparing the 147 food plants with the flora of the study area, it appeared that elephants selected trees (P < 0.001) and avoided shrubs (P < 0.001) as well as herb and grass species (P = 0.002). In contrast to results of studies in more natural forests, the elephants preferred shade tolerant (P = 0.024) and avoided light tolerant species (P = 0.008). They preferred the fruits (P = 0.043) and bark (P < 0.001) of shade tolerant species and avoided the bark of light tolerant species (P = 0.008). We estimated that in our study area elephants dispersed seeds at a mean distance of 5 to 12 km and were responsible for the dispersal of at least 66 species (more than 10 % of identified spermatophytes in the forest).