African forest elephants, a smaller cousin of the savanna elephants that inhabit the dense rain forests of central Africa, are natural climate-change mitigators. They shape their forest habitats by dispersing seeds from large, carbon-storing trees through their dung. Some of the seeds of trees responsible for the greatest carbon sequestration do not germinate until they are digested by the elephants.

As they forage for food, African forest elephants trample the dense underbrush, which promotes the growth of taller, denser carbon-capturing trees. Because the litter left from foraging is not easily decomposed, more carbon is accumulated in the soil. A 2019 report in Nature Geoscience estimates that one forest elephant can increase net carbon capture capacity by almost 250 acres, the equivalent of one year’s worth of emissions from more than 2,000 cars. African forest elephants are critically endangered as a result of illegal poaching and habitat loss.