Country Area - 923,770 km²
Range Area - 20,088 km² (2%)
Protected Range - 78%
Information Quality Index (IQI) - 0.09
CITES Appendix - I
Listing Year - 1990
Nigeria's elephants live in small, relict populations, some in forests in the south of the country and others in savannas in the north. The only relatively well-protected population is in Yankari National Park in central eastern Nigeria, but poaching continues to be a threat even there (Dunn, pers. comm., 2015). Yankari NP is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society under contract from the Bauchi State Government.
Five populations have been reported as lost.
Nigeria published an elephant conservation plan in 1991 (Natural Resources Conservation Council, 1991), which is now out of date.
In recent analyses of ivory seizure data in ETIS, prepared for CITES, Nigeria has been identified as a country with a worrying involvement in illegal ivory trade (CITES Secretariat, 2012; Milliken et al., 2013, 2016). Nigeria was requested by the CITES Standing Committee, at its 65th meeting, to prepare a National Ivory Action Plan. Nigeria has submitted a National Ivory Action Plan and a first progress report (CITES, n.d.-a).
The estimated number of elephants in areas surveyed in the last ten years in Nigeria is 94 at the time of the last survey for each area. There may be an additional 169 to 463 elephants in areas not systematically surveyed. These guesses likely represent a minimum number, and actual numbers could be higher than those reported. Together, this estimate and guess apply to 11,281 km², which is 56% of the estimated known and possible elephant range. There remains an additional 44% of the range for which no elephant population estimates are available.
There has been a reduction in the estimated numbers since the AESR 2007 because the survey of Yankari NP has been treated as an informed guess with a minimum number observed, rather than as a total count. There has been a corresponding increase in guesses.
An aerial total count of Yankari NP was carried out in 2011 in which 361 elephants were observed. However, there was a possibility that some groups were counted twice so the minimum estimate was 82, the size of the largest group. The central part of the park where the elephants are concentrated is thickly wooded, and elephants may have been missed (Bergl et al., 2011). This informed guess of 82-361 elephants replaces the previous aerial total count estimate of 348 from 2006 (Omondi et al., 2006). Since at least 50 elephants had been killed since the previous survey, it seems unlikely that the numbers have increased (Bergl et al., 2011). The AESR 2007 only showed known range in the east of the park, but more recent information from rangers and two satellite-collared elephants have revealed that elephants occur throughout the area. Poaching in Yankari NP is removing 10-20 animals per year, which would be unsustainable for this size of population (Dunn, pers. comm., 2015).
It is believed that elephants no longer occur in Kambari, south of Yankari NP (Dunn, pers. comm., 2015), so this has been recorded as a lost population.
An aerial survey of Sambisa Game Reserve and Marguba Forest Reserve in 2006 found no elephants and heavy human settlement (Omondi et al., 2006). Since there have been no recent records in this area and this was the main base for the Boko Haram insurgents, it seems likely that elephants no longer exist here; these populations are now recorded as lost populations. However, there may still be a small group of elephants to the south of Sambisa GR, in Adamawa State (Awi, 2007) and this is shown by a point record. It is believed that elephants no longer cross into the Chad Basin area and Chad Basin National Park from Waza National Park in Cameroon (Saidu, pers. comm., 2015) so these areas have been changed to doubtful range and the Chad Basin National Park has been recorded as a lost population.
Gashaka Gumti National Park is separated by less than 10 km from Faro National Park in neighbouring Cameroon. Elephants have not been seen in the park for ten years (Sommer, pers. comm., 2016) so this has been recorded as a lost population.
Elephants still occur in the forests along the Cameroon border in the Cross River state, including the Okwangwo (Dunn et al., 2014) and Oban Divisions of the Cross River National Park (Abanyam & Imong, 2015) and the Mbe Mountains (Dunn et al., 2014), forming a cross-border population with Korup National Park in Cameroon (Tooze, 1994). However, no surveys have been carried out in this area since 1998 (Obot et al., 1998) and the estimate of 74 from the AESR 2007 has been retained.
A small population of elephants has survived in the swamp forests of Andoni Island, in the Niger Delta. Ijeomah & Esaen (2011) provided photographs of elephant dung taken in 2010 and it is believed that there are still between two and 14 individuals (Pronatura, n.d.). This guess updates a guess of six to ten from 2002 (Mshelbwala, pers. comm., 2002). There is another relict population in the Taylor Creek Reserve on the main Niger River. Blench & Dendo (2007) expressed doubt about the continued survival of this population; however, elephant signs were observed in 2012 (Akani et al., 2014) and the estimate of 25 from the AESR 2007 has been retained (Thouless, 1993).
There are some small elephant populations in forests in the south west of Nigeria, including Omo Forest Reserve north-east of Lagos where there were sightings in 2015 and the estimate of 30 from the AESR 2007 has been retained (Mshelbwala, 1998). However, it is believed that they have been extirpated from the adjoining Oluwa Forest Reserve (Ikemeh, 2009), which was not recorded as a population in the AESR 2007.
There have also been recent sightings of a minimum of 12 elephants from the Okomu Game Sanctuary (Saidu, pers. comm., 2015) and this estimate replaces a guess of 40 from 1991 (Natural Resources Conservation Council, 1991). Ikemeh (2009) recorded the presence of elephants in the Akure Ofusu and Idanre Forest Reserves and these have been added as known range. Elephant signs were found in a small portion of the Ifon Game Reserve in 2007 (Adeleke et al., 2007) with a guess of 5-8 individuals. There was previously no estimate for this population so this has been added as known range.
The Old Oyo National Park, which was previously recorded as possible range, was not mentioned in Ikemeh’s (2009) study of elephants in south-west Nigeria, so it has been changed to doubtful range.
Kainji Lakes National Park is close to the Benin border. In the AESR 2007 it was recorded as possible range with no estimate. Meduna et al. (2009) stated that all the elephants had left the park and gone to Benin as a result of disturbance from illegal grazing. However, some were seen in 2014 (Saidu, pers. comm., 2015). Seven elephants were observed to the west of Kainji Lakes NP in 2013 (Isikhuemen, pers. comm., 2016) and this has been entered as a guess and a new population.
There is a small elephant population to the north-west of Kaduna in the north-central part of the country. This range includes the Kamuku National Park, Mando Forest Reserve, Alawa Game Reserve and Kwiambana Game Reserve (Amusa et al., 2015). There are estimated to be 26 elephants (Saidu, pers. comm., 2015) and the population is highly mobile (Amusa et al., 2013) especially because there is little water in the protected areas. This guess replaces one of 80-120 from 1993 (Hurst, pers. comm., 1994).
There used to be a population in the transboundary region with Niger around Babban Rafi, but there has been no recent information from here so this has been changed to doubtful range.