Last Days in CAR
We had some exciting activities for the last few days in Central African Republic’s Dzangha Ndoki National Park. These included a day at Dzangha Bai to watch forest elephants and a host of other animals, a walk through a number of other bais in the park and a gorilla trek. I also had hoped to visit the local Bantu or Ba’Aka schools and take them supplies as I have done in a number of other African countries. I was interested in doing a second gorilla trek that was not part of the program and had asked Rod to schedule it for January 24, my birthday. These are all easy and enjoyable day adventures accessible from the Ndoli Lodge facility located just outside the park and they would be the frosting on our Ba’Aka adventure cake.
Things did not go quite as envisioned because I was not feeling well the night of coming out of the forest, but it was still an exciting although limited activity week. First, we had some competition for the gorilla treks with other visitors so we had to go with just one trek. This ended up being good since January 24 was the last whole day in CAR and it allowed the guys, Heath, Torben and I, to heal up. Second, I could not muster the energy to do the school activity. Third, I had to take a whole day off so I skipped the bai walk. Also, we had guests at the lodge each night from World Conservation Society (WCS) who are the researchers in the park for gorillas and elephants and I unfortunately could not talk to them as much as I wanted because I was not feeling all that well. Luckily, I have been here before for these activities and it was best to be ill outside of the forest than within.
I was feeling OK the first morning so I went ahead with the Dzangha Bai activity. A bai is an opening in the rainforest where there is water and animals congregate for access to that water as well as food such as grasses and water plants. In the case of Dzangha Bai, the main animals are the forest elephants. This is a different species than the normal African elephant and the differences aid the animal in living in deep rainforest rather than open savannah such as a smaller stature and tusks that are straighter and turned in rather than out. Their eyes are different, too, and they probably have other differences although the variations in both species between individuals are wide so I’ll just say they are smaller with tusks that do not stick out so much that they get stuck in the forest (!). They may be smaller, but they are still elephants and very impressive in stature. This bai also has regular visits from sitatunga (a swamp antelope), forest buffalo (like the elephants, these are a smaller version of the cape buffalo and they have horns that do not stick out), and a lot of water, forest and migratory birds. This bai has a mirador which is a wooden structure built on the side of the bai two stories high for the viewing of the animals mainly for researchers, but also for tourists.
We hiked out to the bai carefully with a Ba’Aka guide. We were careful because you never know when an elephant will be found on the path. The trail leads through a bai containing a running stream before re-entering dense rainforest. The walk is always interesting because we encounter birds, butterflies and a lot of different plants and fungi. As we approached the large bai, we could hear elephants screaming at each other as they like to do. The first blast from an elephant always gets your attention!
Once you get to the mirador, you have to be silent because elephants have great hearing and we are not suppose to be interrupting their normal activities. We had an amazing arrival because there were 66 elephants in the bai. This number would increase throughout the day to over 110 as elephant groups arrive and depart. The elephants come for the water as well as the minerals that are in the clay. They have carved out deep holes in the clay and they stick their trunks in deep to get to the mineral-rich clay. They also spray the mud onto their bodies for its cooling properties and the elephants are a multitude of colors because of the different minerals. They spend their time in bai greeting each other and confronting each other as well as getting the needed water and clay. The forest elephants in the bai are as entertaining of elephants as I have ever seen.
The forest buffalo are quite nice looking because they have long-tassled ears, but they are not very entertaining. They basically sit in the water to cool off or graze the grass. The sitatunga are much more interesting since they do some odd running around in between elephants and this time we were entertained by a large male who was checking out the ladies. They are beautiful antelope and quite different than any other kind I have seen outside of the rainforest. We did not see any gorillas in this bai, but we did get a visit from black and white colobus monkeys that came to get clay from the opposite side of the bai under an exposed root system. They had to make multiple visits since the elephants kept scaring them off and they are not real safe out of the trees. I’m not sure why the elephants kept going after them other than it is fun to see the monkeys scurry away.
The best sighting of the day was giant forest hog. Two adults and a baby came out of the forest to graze on the grass. These are basically over-sized warthogs with more hair. The baby was cute considering how these beasts are ugly. We also had a lot of birds this day and Rod (birder guide by profession) commented how there were so many migratory birds this time of year (European winter) compared to the normal visit time in August and September. My favorite bird in the area is the Congo African Grey Parrot whose population is under threat due to the fact that it is a popular pet. It is popular because it is very intelligent and can mimic speech very well. During my last trip we were treated to hundreds of African Greys flying into the bai in one flock. The sound was amazing and I have some nice video and still footage from that day. Also, during that same trip when we got back to Brazzaville I heard some African Greys while walking through the city. I looked up into a tree to see them, but I could not. Then I realized the squawks were coming from an apartment complex. I saw that there were cages on one of the porches. That was a very sad moment. At the Limbe Zoo in Cameroon which I will discuss more about in the future, they have hundreds of these birds that have been confiscated since the bird is protected by CITES. Another case of humans loving something to death or at least to the point where CITES has to come to the possible rescue.
On the way out of the bai we came across an elephant in the bai near the parking lot. The guides disturbed it enough that it moved away. Then they continued to intimidate it until I thought it was going to charge. It was a great moment to be walking so close to a large elephant, but it was also not a great moment of the trip to see it get agitated because the employees were causing too much of a stir. It had just been minding its own business when we came along! By time we got back to Ndoli Lodge I was not feeling well at all.
The bai walk which I missed due to not feeling well the next day and wanting to get better for the potentially grueling gorilla trek the next day is always fun because it puts you on the ground and you never know what you might find. At a minimum, you get to walk through the bai waters seeing lots of birds and butterflies. You also usually get to see buffalo. The forest buffalo may be small compared to the cape buffalo, but they are not tiny and they are dangerous. Unlike their very ugly cousins, the forest buffalo are quite beautiful. The beauty is mainly because they have long striped tassels of hair hanging from their ears. I’m not sure why that exists, but it is nice to see especially with binoculars. Sitatunga, elephants and gorillas are also possibilities on these hikes. Most of the group came to the Congo with a priority of wanting to see bongo – another forest antelope. These are beautiful and large chestnut-colored, white-striped animals with substantial horns. Unfortunately, we were shut out. Andrea, the WCS elephant expert who has worked at Dzangha Bai for maybe twenty years (!), reported that she saw thirty of them walk out into the bai not too long ago. We have a good reason to get back to this area although I am hoping to see them in Kenya around Mt Kenya someday.
My top priority for animal sightings was the de Brazza monkey. It’s a real beauty that eluded us during the previous trip to CAR. They only travel as singles or couples rather than in large troops like many of the other monkeys so that can make them difficult to spot. No such problem on this trip as I found two of them as soon as I took my first morning walk at Ndoli Lodge. I was without my camera and when Rod and I returned the pair was gone. Still this was not a problem because we had many encounters with de Brazzas around the lodge over the following days and I was able to get a lot of nice photos.
My birthday had three guys limping into the forest to see the gorillas. Heath was literally limping and Torben and I were just not feeling well with GI issues. We were prepared for a long hike after the tough 90 minute drive well into the park. Rod, Katharina and Tali were with us because the bai walk is in the same area, but by then Rod was not feeling well either so he stayed back at the researcher camp bundled up in my rain jacket to stay warm. My luck with primates continues as we found ourselves with the gorillas after only a fifteen minute easy stroll. They were in dense undergrowth for most of the visit, but we had some clear views and they were in the open on the elephant paths and in the trees a number of times. We reached an hour and the guides let us stay longer. In fact, we were very lucky that day because we stayed with the gorillas for two hours and ten minutes – well beyond the advertised limit. Makoumba is the silverback male leader of this group of habituated Western Lowland Gorillas. It is currently the only habituated group in the Dzangha Ndoki Park, but WCS is working on a second group. It once again was an exciting and great experience to be so close to these large and powerful primates. I would say they are less thrilling to be around than the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda, Uganda and DRC, but they still make for an amazing experience. I hope to someday be able to see the Eastern Lowland Gorillas in Eastern DRC and maybe the most endangered gorillas, the Cross River of Nigeria/Cameroon, but that is very doubtful. One can only hope that such an endangered primate can be saved. Actually, I am very pessimistic about the gorilla’s chances of survival in nature. Foremost, Ebola has decimated much of the population although it has not reached this part of CAR. Second, poaching for pets and bushmeat is a very serious problem. Also, their natural habitat is shrinking quickly thus compounding the first two problems and they live in very unstable places as far as human governing. Lucky for us WCS and WWF as well as other groups are doing their best to save as many as possible.
I already reported the crazy flight out of CAR so the last day needs no more telling. I guess I will leave this at saying that this part of our planet is truly wonderful and I am glad it is so difficult to reach in the hope that keeping it far from the masses will aid its survivability and uniqueness. I look very much forward to the next time I visit the Ba’Aka people, their environment and the most special animals on earth aside from humans, the gorillas. The Mfou primate sanctuary sums it up well: “Without Man what hope is there for Gorillas? Without Gorillas what hope is there for Man?”
Tags: Africa, central african republic
vagabondrick
Happy Birthday Rick! What a way to celebrate this B-day (except the GI stuff). May this year and its adventures top all you’ve had so far. Love, Kathy