Republic of the Congo: Welcome to the Jungle
- Jomi Krobb
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
We are finally back.
On this week’s episode of the Safari Stories podcast, we discuss the differences between the DRC and the Republic of Congo. We visited the latter in March, exploring its capital Brazzaville on the banks of the mighty Congo River. The Congo River system is Africa’s largest by volume with a basin four times the size of France. It’s over 3,000 miles long and is, at its narrowest point in Brazzaville, just under two miles wide
Brazzaville is an extremely safe city to explore and we acclimatized to the equatorial climate by walking the corniche along the mighty river and doing some birding (some special sightings included: . Across the river from Brazzaville, we could easily spot Kinshasa (the capital city of the DRC)—the two closest capital cities in the world. The French (the then colonial power in the Republic of Congo) actually established Brazzaville as a rival trading port to King Leopold’s Leopoldville (the former name of Kinshasa).
While in Brazzaville, we also had the opportunity to visit the famous Sapeurs—members of La Sape (Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People), a subculture in which every day people distinguish themselves through lavish dress in designer garb and with an air of sophistication and exuberant confidence. The practice of fine dress was adopted during French colonization, but it has evolved with the country over the years to now have a distinctly independent African flavour.
From the capital we flew north to Odzala National Park, a 13,500 square kilometer (5,000 square mile) wilderness area that has been protected since 1935. Descending to the airstrip, it was quite remarkable to notice that the area was almost completely untouched by humans.
Upon landing, we met our guides and drove by road to Ngaga camp, stopping for some great sightings of white-throated bee-eaters along the way. The tropical savanna where the airstrip is made way for forest and we stopped to learn about Marantaceae, the dense broad-leafed understory of the forest that forms the main habitat of the western lowland gorilla.
You can see gorillas in a number of African countries, but there are actually two species and four different subspecies of gorillas, each occurring in a unique area and each somewhat ecologically unique. The Eastern gorilla is split into the mountain gorilla and the eastern lowland gorilla (also known as the Grauer’s gorilla). The Western gorilla is split into the critically-endangered Cross River gorilla (with just a few hundred remaining) and the far more populous but also critically-endangered Western Lowland gorilla. Though Western Lowland gorilla numbers likely range into the hundreds of thousands still, their conservation status remains as critically endangered due to the rapid rate of their population decline. The Ebola outbreaks of the 21st century have had a massive impact on their population, with an estimated population decline of 60% in the last 20 years. The gorilla groups studied in Odzala had a mortality rate of 90-95% during the Ebola outbreaks.
We reached Ngaga camp in the dark and the following morning we set off before sunrise on our first gorilla trek. One of the many great things about trekking gorillas in Odzala-Kokoua National Park is that you can do it straight from camp (no need to go to a park headquarters first). Within minutes of our departure, we were in thick forest, absorbing the somewhat deafening ambient sounds of insects and birds waking up alongside us.
The national park tracker who accompanied us showed off his significant tracking skills by finding the gorilla group we were looking for in about an hour. His fluency in the sounds of the forest and understanding of the movements of the gorillas was astounding. We worked our way through the understory of the forest to get good views of the gorilla family (known as the Pluton family), as they played on a fallen over log, swung from vines, and scaled the nearby trees. At times, we had virtually no visual of them, but the auditory experience of being near them was equally as impressive as the chest-beating sounds resonated loudly through the forest.
In the afternoons, we went for shorter walks out of camp, where we focussed on smaller creatures and learning about the plants of the forest. Sounds of great blue turacos and hornbills again made for memorable auditory experiences and on one walk we even heard gorillas in the distance.
Our last gorilla trek was to see the Jupiter group. Jupiter is an older silverback who is reaching the end of his tenure. His group’s home range has shifted over recent months and the likelihood is high that he will soon be ousted. We trekked into the area the tracker knew the group to be in and spent a good hour or so just listening for the sounds of the apes moving through the thicket. The gorillas showed themselves but were making us work hard for glimpses of them. At one point, Jupiter did treat us to a front row view of him picking his nose.
We watched as a subadult climbed into a tree and threw fruit down to the ground for his family to feed on. Eventually we managed to locate the whole family together in a root mining site, an area where looser soil makes it easier for the gorillas to access the roots of various trees and shrubs. They eat the roots to gain access to valuable minerals that are otherwise lacking in their diet. The family finally relaxed and stayed in one area together for an uninterrupted half an hour or so, allowing us to watch the specialised root mining behaviour as a very young infant put on a show, chest beating and interacting with the environment around it.
We thought this would be the last gorilla sighting but on the last morning at Ngaga, T&T guest Steve and I went out for an early morning jog down the main forest road. We were about half a mile out of camp when just ahead of us we saw several black shapes on the road: gorillas! This was stupendous luck and likely the Neptuno group that we had trekked two days earlier. They crossed the road in front of us, a brief sighting of maybe half a minute or so with the large silverback bringing up the rear before disappearing into the Marantaceae again.
Steve and I walked slowly up to the point where they had crossed and to our surprise the silverback was still there, eyeing us up as if to ensure the safety of his family. We slowly walked on, leaving the group to the Marantaceae. What an incredible way to see gorillas in the wild. By chance and while on a run. We left Ngaga later that day to carry on with our adventure at Lango, which will feature in the next podcast episode.
Sightings like this are the result of decades of dedication by national park staff on the ground, alongside the pioneering work of primatologist Magdalena Bermejo. Since arriving in the early 1990s to study western lowland gorillas, Magda has been central to their habituation, long-term monitoring, and protection, fundamentally shaped gorilla conservation efforts across the region.
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