Description
Female forest elephants have a close bond with all of their families for all their lives. A mother with offspring drinking from a spring. Credit: Michelle Gadd/USFWS
Date 1 August 2011, 16:07
Source Elephant mother and calves http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/6841454314/
Author U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters http://www.flickr.com/people/50838842@N06
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elephant_mother_and_calves_(6841454314).jpg

The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is a forest-dwelling species of elephant found in the Congo Basin. It is the smallest of the three extant species of elephant, but still the third-largest living terrestrial animal. The African forest elephant and the African bush elephant, Loxodonta africana, were considered to be one species until genetic studies indicated that they separated an estimated 2–7 million years ago.