Andrea Turkalo

Andrea K. Turkalo is an American conservation biologist known for her long-term study of African forest elephants at Dzanga Bai, a forest clearing in the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve of the Central African Republic. Since 1990, she has conducted one of the longest continuous field studies of African forest elephants, documenting the behaviour, demography and social structure of individually identified animals.

At Dzanga Bai, Turkalo developed a long-term monitoring programme based on the identification of individual elephants. Her research has provided important insights into the species' biology, reproduction, social organisation and population dynamics, and has contributed to conservation efforts across Central Africa.

Her long-term observations have resulted in one of the most comprehensive datasets on African forest elephants and have contributed to research on their behaviour, life history and conservation. She has also documented the impacts of poaching and civil conflict on elephant populations in Central Africa.

Early life and career

Turkalo first travelled to the Central African Republic in 1980 as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. After returning to the United States, she worked as a high school science teacher in the South Bronx, New York City.

Scientific contributions

Turkalo's long-term research has contributed substantially to scientific understanding of the African forest elephant, a species that was previously far less studied than the African bush elephant. By following individually identified elephants over multiple decades, she and her collaborators have produced detailed information on the species' demography, life history, reproductive biology and social organisation. As armed groups advanced into the region, Turkalo fled across the Sangha River into Cameroon, taking with her hard drives containing more than two decades of research data.

After security conditions improved, Turkalo returned to Dzanga-Sangha and resumed her long-term observations at Dzanga Bai. Her work has continued to support both scientific research and conservation management in one of Central Africa's most important protected areas for forest elephants.

Selected publications