This forest elephant is just one of over 500 that have so far been individually identified by researchers who have spent the past twenty years studying the wildlife of the Mbeli Bai clearing in the Nouabale-Ndkoi National Park in northern Congo. Having spent the night sleeping on the viewing platform at Mbeli last week, I woke up at sunrise to find him feeding on a...
“Mbese, ngolo, nzombo, mbenga…”: Nicolas lifts each fish up in turn, sounding out its rounded Lingala names before adding it to the growing pile in our bright plastic bowl. Finding 10 species in one catch, he says, is normal for this area. WCS-led surveys have so far identified around 170 species of fish from the Sangha River, the great, green ribbon winding through North Congo’s...
Last week, in the Bateke Plateau, as the orange glow of a Congolese sunset shone through the trees, the Lefini elephant monitoring team observed a rare spectacle. Four different family groups of elephants entered the bai, followed by a lone bull. A total of 33 elephants were observed at the social gathering, the highest number viewed at one time in the clearing in over a...
Several days hike from the nearest logging road, accessing the northern forest clearings of Nouabale-Ndoki National Park is a big challenge. But it might be worth the effort. The largest clearing, or 'bai', is known as Bonye and it offers one of the most untouched places to view wildlife in Central Africa. Remotely situated, Bonye bai provides an important refuge to the northern Congo's most...
The formal gazettement of the Ogooué-Leketi National Park (OLNP) in south-western Congo is a primary objective of WCS Congo’s Bateke Plateau project. The protection of the OLNP would create a trans boundary protected area of half a million hectares. The area is regarded as a priority site for the protection of great apes, and is of considerable ecological significance due to its location in the...
Located on the Sangha River in northern Congo, the Bomassa headquarters of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park have become a haven for wildlife such as this De Brazza monkey. The monkey is one of a group of around twenty individuals that visit the camp on most mornings and evenings to feed on the palm nuts that are scattered across the camp. The monkeys spend up to...
On the 3rd of March 2016 two men were arrested in northern Congo in the possession of 15 kilograms of ivory, an automatic weapon and nearly two hundred rounds of ammunition. Fitting that this arrest occurred on World Wildlife Day, which this year emphasized the importance of taking the future of wildlife, and specifically that of African elephants, into our hands. WCS supported the investigation...
Working as an eco-guard in the forests of central Africa is not a job for the faint hearted. The eco-guards working in Nouabale-Ndoki National Park spend 15 days out in the field at a time, covering many kilometers each day, often through thick forest undergrowth. Anyone who has walked in the forest can confirm it can be pretty unrelenting. They also have to constantly be...
Today is World Wildlife Day, an opportunity to celebrate the incredible diversity of wildlife on our planet, but sadly also a day to highlight the imminent threat to the survival of many of these species. We find ourselves at a crucial point in history for the conservation of wildlife, with several iconic species on the brink of extinction. Last year in a speech broadcast on...
The annual inventory of all government-stockpiled ivory in the Republic of Congo took place this week in the country’s capital city, Brazzaville. A team of government staff responsible for ivory management from across Congo’s parks and regional offices, together with NGO partners, assembled to learn about the inventory process with technical and financial support from WCS and Stop Ivory. Together the group counted, weighed, measured...