Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42630252›Full record

ArticleEcosystems (New York, N.Y.)2026

The "Too-Few Elephant Problem": Quantitative Analysis of Historical Elephant Tree-Toppling Rates Across Africa.

Sally Archibald, Anya P Courtenay, Fezile Mtsetfwa, Domingos Fortunato P F da Silva, Katherine Bunney, Robert Guldemond, Penny Mograbi, Caitlin Ransom, Casey M Ryan, Norman Owen-Smith

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Ecosystems (New York, N.Y.), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Sally ArchibaldSchool of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Anya P CourtenaySchool of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Fezile MtsetfwaSchool of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Domingos Fortunato P F da SilvaDepartment of Exact and Natural Sciences of ISCED-Huambo, Avenida Allioun Blondy Beye - Bairro Académico, P.O. Box No. 2376, Huambo, Angola.
Katherine BunneyElephants Alive, P.O. Box 960, Hoedspruit, 1380 South Africa.
Robert GuldemondConservation Ecology Research Unit, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Penny MograbiSchool of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Caitlin RansomSouth African Environmental Observation Network, Pretoria, South Africa.
Casey M RyanSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Norman Owen-SmithSchool of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Elephants were a major driver of tree stem mortality in Africa, but their impacts are now spatially constrained and they no longer topple trees across the continent. Thus, most African landscapes lack a key ecological agent that helped maintain diversity and functioning. Even ecologists living in Africa fail to anticipate the rampant destruction of trees that can occur when elephants live in and move through landscapes. If we can build in a consensus on the degree of above-ground tree turnover that is inherent in different contexts, it would inform restoration projects and ecological definitions of degradation. We collated empirical data on treefall in ecosystems with and without elephants and predicted past tree loss spatially. The metrics used (%trees or #trees ha Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10021-026-01089-5.

Indexed as

Above-Ground BiomassDegradationElephant DensityElephant ImpactsMegaherbivore RestorationRewildingTree LossTree TopkillVegetation Dynamics

Identifiers

PMID42630252
PMCPMC13493457

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.