Congo, The Conkouati-Douli National Park
The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the west of the Congo river. It is bordered to the west by Gabon, to its northwest by Cameroon and its northeast by the Central African Republic, to the southeast by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to its south by the Angolan exclave of Cabinda and to its southwest by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 5.2 million, 88.5% of the country practices Christianity.
The Conkouati-Douli National Park
was created in 1999. It covers an area of 504,950 ha (5,049.5 km2). It is located in the Kouilou Department, straddling the districts of Nzambi and Madingo-Kayes, at the north-western end of the department. it includes a continental part and a marine part. The site is part of the Gamba-Conkouati-Mayumba landscape.The forest of the Park is characterized on the coastline by a fringe of halophilic vegetation with a beach front of more or less creeping herbaceous groups (Aternanthera maritima; Canavilia rosea, Diodia spp, Ipomea spp, etc.) followed by low literal thickets. The dense forests are in the form of galleries, forest islands and vast expanses towards the north. The park also includes swampy and floodplain forests. The mangrove is developed around the Conkouati lagoons and other small lagoons and on the lower reaches of the Noumbi River. This mangrove is dominated by Rhisophora racemosa, sometimes with Avicennia nititta. In this veritable curtain of mangroves, animals thrive that reproduce without being disturbed. The aquatic vegetation of the lakes and lagoons is composed of Vossia cuspidata, Nymphea sp, Cteniumnewtnii, etc.
The savannas of the southwestern part are dominated by Ctenium newtonili, Elytonrus brazzae and Pobeguinea arrecta while those of Cotovindou in the northeast consist of Hypparrhenia diplandra, Panicum phragmitoides, Pobeguinea arrecta, etc. The coastal plain is located between the isohaetes 1200 and 1400mm with annual temperatures around 25 °C.
The Conkouati Douli National Park shelters the fauna representative of the forest ecosystems of the Congo, the great fauna includes among others: elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), buffaloes (Syncerus cafferinus), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), panthers (Panthera pardus), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), porcupines (Potamocherus porcus), sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekei), harnessed Guib ( Tragelaphus scriptus), and mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx). The presence of the manatee (Trichechus senegalensis), the humpback whale, the Dolphin and the turtles (leatherback and olive and ridley) are a particularity for this semi marine Park.
The Conkouati-Douli National Park is the second leatherback turtle nesting site in the world after Guyana, and the first site in Africa.
The park can be represented by this turtle
Added in the tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage
Log In
mapuo
I requested loggerhead turtle for Cape Verde but it failed https://feedback.slowly.app/stamp-requests/p/cape-verde-loggerhead-turtle-location-stamp
The most famous place in Congo is
Lake Tele
LOCATED AMIDST ONE OF THE least explored areas in the world, Lake Tele is rumored to be home to the Mokèlé-mbèmbé, a Brontosaurus-like creature that is the Congo’s answer to the Loch Ness Monster.
Due to the dense tropical swampland surrounding the lake, the area is extremely hard to survey. Dangerous animals/insects and impassible terrain are just some of the obstacles explorers of the area face. However, there is rumored to be a secretive beast lurking in the dense swamp. For hundreds of years, reports of a mysterious cryptid resembling a long-necked dinosaur have trickled out of the area, being briefly spotted by explorers or described by the native pygmies, and it is widely believed to live in Lake Tele.
Of course, there has been no verifiable evidence of the beast, but the reports are so widespread and exist over such a long period of time that the creature has grabbed the imagination of cryptozoologists across the globe. They believe that Mokèlé-mbèmbé is a prehistoric survivor of some sort, who hides in Lake Tele and the unnavigable swamps surrounding it. There is even tell of some local pygmies who once killed and ate a Mokèlé-mbèmbé.
While it’s unlikely that the Mokèlé-mbèmbé exists in the stagnant, landlocked waters of Lake Tele, it has certainly made its home in the minds of believers everywhere.
Even Wikipedia says about this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tele
