Instead of counting elephants by trekking through African rainforests and noting the number of dung piles left behind, KarenBeardsley, a UC Davis researcher, estimates elephant populationsfrom her campus computer. Researchers such as Beardsley have turned to computer technology because tracking elephants by foot or small plane is expensive and time-consuming. At the UC Davis Information Center for the Environment, Beardsley uses a Geographic Information System to enter road maps of the African country of Gabon onto her computer screen. The GIS generates concentric bands from the roads at 3 mile intervals that are used with a model devised by Richard Barnes of the Wildlife Conservation Society. His model suggests that because the density of dung piles increases as the distance from roads and human populations increases, African forest elephant populations can be estimated through a correlation using the GIS. Future use of the system will improve on Barnes' model and include information on vegetation and human population density. "Using GIS may go beyond elephant populations to other species," says Beardsley. She hopes this new cost-effective way to estimate elephant populations will encourage Central African countries to promote conservation efforts and establish more protected areas..