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Some African elephants live in grassy open areas called savannas.
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Some African elephants live in grassy open areas called savannas.
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Scientists can easily count the number of savanna elephants from an airplane because there are very few trees.
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But other African elephants live in dense forests.
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Forest elephants are shy and especially hard to find.
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The Central African country of Gabon is home to two-thirds of all African forest elephants.
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The forests in Gabon are extremely dense.
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That makes it hard to know exactly how many forest elephants there are.
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But scientists have found a new way to count them.
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They use evidence that the animals leave behind.
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In other words, they look for elephant waste.
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Researchers collected waste samples over a period of three years.
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The researchers walked about 12 kilometers each day.
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They looked for waste as well as other signs of elephants, including footprints and broken trees.
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They tested the waste samples for DNA.
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They learned that in Gabon, there are about 95,000 forest elephants.
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Earlier estimates were much lower, at 50,000 to 60,000.
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Even with the new information, the International Union for Conservation of Nature believes the population of forest elephants in Central Africa has dropped sharply.
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It estimates the numbers have decreased by 86 percent in the last 31 years.
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Forest elephants are threatened by land clearing and by hunters.
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The researchers who worked on the new elephant count said the animals live throughout Gabon, covering 90 percent of the total surface area.
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Almost 90 percent of the country is covered in forest.
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Emma Stokes is the area director for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
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She said Gabon is "very unique," or special, because elephants can be found in so much of the country.
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During their counting efforts, the researchers looked for fresh waste.
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Sometimes, they would find elephant waste that was too old to be used as evidence.
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When they found a sample, they put it in a small glass container.
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They sent the containers to a laboratory in Libreville, Gabon's capital.
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Scientists looked at about 2,500 samples.
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The samples had to be processed first to remove impurities or organisms that could affect results.
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Stephanie Bourgeois was one of the writers of a published study about the elephant count.
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She said the DNA helped the scientists estimate how many different elephants lived in the area that the samples came from.
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It is the first elephant count in Gabon in 30 years.
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The last count only looked at 14 percent of the area in which elephants live.
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John Poulsen is an ecologist at Duke University in the state of North Carolina.
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He was not involved in the elephant research.
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He said the results of the count are "exciting" because the population estimate rose and because researchers proved a new way of counting elephants can work.
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A similar method is being used for tigers in India.
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Poulsen added, however, that Gabon's government now has a greater responsibility to keep the forest elephants safe.
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Lee White is Gabon's minister of water and forests.
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He said 65 to 70 percent of all African forest elephants live in Gabon.
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He called it a "tragedy" that other Central African countries have not been able to save their elephants.
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He noted that the nations that have not been able to keep their elephants safe have suffered civil wars.
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At the recent United Nations climate change meeting held in Scotland, White said Gabon still has problems ahead.
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He believes climate change has reduced the amount of fruit available in the country's forests.
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Because of this, the elephants are seeking out food from farms.
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This creates a conflict between people and elephants.
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About 10 people die each year from such conflicts.
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"It looks like climate change is starting to impact the forest," White said.
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"And that means the elephants are hungry."
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I'm Dan Friedell.
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