Prior to European colonization, scientists believe that Africa may have
held as many as 20 million elephants; by 2016 only 352,271 remained far worse than anticipated.
The Great Elephant Census was a project that aimed to count all the continent's elephants by air. It involved 90 scientists and 286 crew members have taken part in the ambitious study over the past two years - and the final total was far less than they had estimated.
Project lead by Ecologist Mike Chase told CNN: 'When you think of how many elephants occurred in areas 10 or 20 years ago, it's incredibly disheartening.
'Historically these ecosystems supported many thousands of elephants compared to the few hundreds or tens of elephants we counted.'
The results were revealed on the same day that scientists said 65% of African's forest elephants had been wiped out.
The study found females begin giving birth when they are around 23, about a decade later than their Savannah counterparts. And female forest elephants only produce a calf every five or six years, compared to the three- to four-year interval of their Savannah kin.
Some of the worst poaching is taking place in forest-elephant range states such as Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo - poor countries that suffer from bad governance and conflict.
The findings come ahead of a major United Nations' meeting in Johannesburg at the end of September where Zimbabwe and Namibia will push for permission to sell ivory stocks, a move opposed by many other African countries.
Read more:New elephant study shows catastrophic decline in Africa - CNN.com
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