How elephants keep forests - and music - alive

Planting a tree is an act of hope, but in some forests, it is also a puzzle. Few species capture this tension like ebony, a tree long admired for its jet-black wood and vital to instruments from violins to guitars.

Despite centuries of human use, the ebony tree’s life cycle remained poorly understood. A chance partnership between a guitar maker, scientists, and Indigenous communities has now uncovered a surprising ally for ebony’s survival: elephants.

How the ebony project started

When Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars bought an ebony mill in Cameroon, he wanted to replant what the industry had taken. Around the same time, UCLA ecologist Thomas Smith was studying how animals drive rainforest regeneration.

Their paths crossed, and The Ebony Project was born. This partnership with the Indigenous Baka and local Bantu communities aimed not only to grow ebony but also to learn its hidden requirements.

Elephants help ebony trees survive

The research revealed that African forest elephants are essential for ebony’s regeneration. These animals eat the fruit, carry seeds far from the parent tree, and deposit them in dung.

Inside this natural package, the seeds are shielded from rodents that would otherwise devour them. Without elephants, forests show 68 percent fewer ebony saplings.

“People think, ‘Oh, it’s a shame these magnificent creatures are threatened,’ but what they don’t understand is that we won’t just lose elephants, we’ll also lose the ecological functions they provide,” said Smith.

Elephant dung protects ebony seeds

The research reveals that in forests where elephants have vanished, young ebony saplings grow in dense clusters near parent trees. This clustering means that seeds do not travel far, leading to inbreeding and a dangerous loss of genetic diversity.

Long-distance dispersal is critical because it mixes gene pools and reduces vulnerability to disease and climate change. Without elephants, that dynamic collapses.

Scientists tested whether the survival of ebony seedlings depended on distance from parent trees, as suggested by the classic Janzen-Connell hypothesis.

Surprisingly, the team found little evidence for this. Instead, the protective role of elephant dung emerged as the decisive factor. Seeds left in fruits or bare on the ground were quickly eaten by rodents, while those in dung had a far greater chance of survival and germination.

Forests collapse without elephants

Dung is not just a vehicle; it is a shield. The study showed that seeds in dung were up to eight times less likely to be eaten by rodents and more than three times more likely to sprout compared to seeds left exposed.

This means that elephants do more than scatter seeds. They create safe conditions for the next generation of trees.

In areas with high hunting pressure, elephants and other large animals have been wiped out. Here, rodents become the dominant actors, hoarding seeds deep in burrows where they never germinate.

The result is a long-term recruitment bottleneck, with far fewer young ebony trees joining the population. Over time, this could lead to widespread decline, already visible across two-thirds of ebony’s historic range.

Indigenous knowledge confirmed

The findings align with what Baka elders had long observed: ebony seedlings sprout in elephant dung. Local expertise guided the research, reinforcing the importance of Indigenous perspectives in conservation.

The project continues to provide fruit trees, training, and nurseries for communities, ensuring that both people and forests benefit.

“I’ve spent my life building guitars and growing a guitar company, but being part of The Ebony Project has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life,” Taylor said. “It reminds me that sometimes the most important work is about planting seeds for others to benefit from.”

Saving elephants saves ebony trees

The Ebony Project has planted 40,000 ebony trees and 20,000 fruit trees so far. Yet the study warns that planting alone cannot save ebony without its natural dispersers.

Protecting elephants is inseparable from protecting ebony, and by extension, the entire rainforest system.

The story of ebony and elephants reminds us that conservation is not about single species but about relationships. The fate of a tree depends on the survival of a giant.

Ultimately, without elephants, the forest changes in ways that no amount of replanting can replace.

The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

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