Sunday, April 6, 2014

Dzanga Sangha - Central African Republic

A new Unesco WHS from a new african country. This gorilla was photographed in the Dzanga Sangha Reserve. It is one of several areas within the Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected Areas (DSCPA), each within its own protective status and along with Lobéké National Park in Cameroon and Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in Republic of Congo, it is part of the Sangha Tri National Landscape, classified as WHS in 2012. 

Photo by Khalil Baalbaki
The Dzanga Sangha Reserve is located in the rainforest in the south-western part of the Central African Republic. It comprises a total area of more than 4 000 km2 (more than 400 000 hectares).
Large mammals such as forest elephants, forest buffalos, giant forest hogs (large boars), gorillas and bongos (forest antelopes), can be encountered in densities described as unique. At the Dzanga saline (a forest clearing), more than 4000 elephants have been counted and identified over the last years. From a platform at the edge of this saline, visitors frequently get the chance to observe between 30 and 100 elephants feeding on the mineral-rich soil, allowing at the same time observations of their social behaviour.
Large mammals require extensive protected areas in order to be conserved. This is one of the reasons why the Sangha Tri-national Protected Area was created, extending from the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) to Cameroon, in the middle of which lies the Dzanga Sangha Reserve in Central African Republic. - in: http://www.dzanga-sangha.org/node/311

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