Over the last decade central Africa has lost 60% of its elephants; a staggering loss owed mainly to the unrelenting ivory trade. World Elephant Day offers a critical opportunity to take stock of their plight whilst also recognizing the hard work teams of men and woman are putting in in the field to protect these giants across their range. ...
Our latest video, 'The Ndoki Experience' showcases the incredible diversity of the pristine forest of Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. The park, created in 1993, spans 4,238.7 km2 in the northwestern corner of the Republic of Congo and is a rare example of an intact forest wilderness, completely uninhabited by human settlers and with low human population densities in the surrounding area. The forest is part...
The first quarter of 2016 saw the official start of the forest elephant-monitoring programme at Bonye bai, a remote forest clearing in Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. A team of WCS researchers and trackers headed out to the bai to construct a basic observation platform in February. The mission and construction of this tower, built to aid bai observation efforts, was covered in a mini-documentary ‘The...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Our excitement rises as we sneak up the ladder onto the deck of the Mbeli bai mirador. Stepping up onto the platform we remove our shoes to avoid disturbing the wildlife. Early morning mist rises off of the main pool, draping the group of forest elephants enjoying its mineral deposits and lush vegetation in a shroud of mystery. There are two young calves in the...