Fruit decline threatens forest elephants Large mammal herbivores in African tropical forests are major consumers of fruit, and many tree species rely on these consumers for dispersal of their seeds. Bush et al. monitored fruit production over three decades in a protected national park in Gabon, showing an 80% decline across the 73 plant species monitored. At the same time, photographic records of forest elephants over the past decade indicate a substantial decline in body condition in these major herbivores. These results suggest that the capacity of the ecosystem to support the elephant population is decreasing, a worrying prospect in an environment that is still protected from other threats such as hunting and deforestation. Science, this issue p. 1219 Plant reproduction has slowed and forest elephant body condition has declined over recent decades in a forest reserve in Gabon. Afrotropical forests host much of the world’s remaining megafauna, although these animals are confined to areas where direct human influences are low. We used a rare long-term dataset of tree reproduction and a photographic database of forest elephants to assess food availability and body condition of an emblematic megafauna species at Lopé National Park, Gabon. Our analysis reveals an 81% decline in fruiting over a 32-year period (1986–2018) and an 11% decline in body condition of fruit-dependent forest elephants from 2008 to 2018. Fruit famine in one of the last strongholds for African forest elephants should raise concern about the ability of this species and other fruit-dependent megafauna to persist in the long term, with potential consequences for broader ecosystem and biosphere functioning.

中文翻译：

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水果供应的长期崩溃威胁着中非森林巨型动物群

水果减少威胁森林大象 非洲热带森林中的大型哺乳动物食草动物是水果的主要消费者，许多树种依靠这些消费者来传播种子。布什等人。监测了加蓬一个受保护国家公园的水果产量长达 30 年，显示监测的 73 种植物物种下降了 80%。与此同时，过去十年对森林大象的摄影记录表明，这些主要食草动物的身体状况大幅下降。这些结果表明，生态系统支持大象种群的能力正在下降，在一个仍然受到保护免受狩猎和森林砍伐等其他威胁的环境中，这是一个令人担忧的前景。科学，这个问题 p。1219 近几十年来，加蓬森林保护区的植物繁殖速度减慢，森林大象的身体状况有所下降。非洲热带森林拥有世界上大部分剩余的巨型动物，尽管这些动物仅限于人类直接影响较低的地区。我们使用了一个罕见的长期树木繁殖数据集和一个森林大象照片数据库来评估加蓬洛佩国家公园标志性巨型动物物种的食物供应和身体状况。我们的分析显示，在 32 年期间（1986-2018 年）结果实下降了 81%，并且从 2008 年到 2018 年，依赖水果的森林大象的身体状况下降了 11%。