Api Elephant Domestication Center, Protected wildlife area in Api, Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Api Elephant Domestication Center is a protected facility in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo with enclosures and training areas for elephants. The site sits within a strictly regulated conservation zone where animals receive care and training.

The project began with a decree by King Leopold, and the first camp opened at Kira Vunga in 1899; the first elephants were trained there in 1902 under Commandant Jules Laplume, a Belgian cavalry officer. Work moved to Api in 1925, training was partly shifted to Gangala-na-Bodio in 1930, and the Api camp closed in 1932. Elephant training restarted at Api in 1987.

The project drew on reports that missionaries in the Congo had partly tamed an orphaned elephant calf, a story cited as the inspiration for using elephants for work. The camp's name passed into local usage as Api, and the site is remembered for the trained elephants kept there from 1925 until the camp closed in 1932.

The camp lies near the coordinates 3.71 N, 25.40 E in the northeastern forest zone, reachable only by rough roads from the surrounding settlements. Training was moved to Gangala-na-Bodio in 1930 and Api closed in 1932, so plan around the site's colonial-era remains rather than an active facility.

The idea of using elephants for work reportedly came from accounts of an orphaned elephant calf partly tamed by missionaries in the Congo. Planners also valued the animals as tsetse-resistant draft animals, estimated at ten to twenty times the strength of oxen.