Beneath THE canopys

The Congo's Odzala-Kokoua National Park

- BRENDON DREDGE

Although I had been a guide in southern Africa for more than La decade, it was the rainforest of the Congo Basin that had always captured my imagination. To me it seemed a place of unexplored wonders, home to the mythical dinosaur-like and water-dwelling Mokele-mbembe and to families of birds I knew nothing about. At about 20 000 years old, this rainforest is one of the youngest in the world, but it is also the second largest, at more than 202 million hectares. And here I found myself, based in the centre of it all at Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo. The park is the second oldest in Africa, predated only by the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Most people who travel to the Congo Basin go there to see chimpanzees, gorillas and forest elephants. It is these large mammals, along with forest buffaloes, that create the openings in the forest - known as baïs - where salts accumulate. There are many renowned baïs throughout the basin, such as the Mbeli Baï in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (Republic of Congo), where gorillas were first observed using tools, and Capitale Baï and Lango Baï in Odzala-Kokoua. There is also Sangha Baï in DzangaSangha (Central African Republic), where hundreds of forest elephants congregate, their small family units emerging from the forest to socialise with one another in this colossal arena.

These beautiful openings are valuable sources of nutrients for all the animals that gather at them. Baïs, savanna, swamps and various forest types create a mosaic of habitats, each coming to the fore in the wet and dry seasons. Seedeaters and insectivorous birds, such as the gregarious White-throated Bee-eater, abound in the savanna, and after the rains they are joined by species such as the diminutive Orange-cheeked Waxbill and the skulking African Crake.