Endangered elephants discovered outside Lagos, Nigeria

Just 100 kilometres from downtown Lagos, Omo Forest is home to an estimated 100 forest elephants, shy relatives of their larger savannah cousins. But the survival of this rare species is hanging in the balance, threatened by rampant deforestation in their natural habitat.

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byAbdulateef Ahmed

September 7, 2025

This handout picture taken on January 3, 2017 and released by the Omo Forest Initiative shows elephants walking in the Omo Forest, a home for elephants, northeast of Africa's biggest city Lagos. - Omo, spreading across some 1,325 square kilometres (510 square miles) of southwestern Ogun state, was protected as a government reserve nearly a century ago. A UNESCO "biosphere reserve" of global importance, it is one of the last patches of pristine rainforest left in Nigeria. Nigeria's deforestation rates are among the highest in the world, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. (Photo by Handout / Omo Forest Initiative / AFP)

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Abdulateef Ahmed

Abdulateef Ahmed, Digital News Editor and; Research Lead, is a self-driven researcher with exceptional editorial skills. He's a literary bon vivant keenly interested in green energy, food systems, mining, macroeconomics, big data, African political economy, and aviation..