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DZANGHA-SANGHA NATIONAL PARK, CENTRAL AFRICA REPUBLIC 1991 PART 5 July 10 Wednesday Overcast day and the forest is enveloped in dark shadows. The morning was again full of birdsong. Across the river heard the short bursts of roaring from white colobus monkeys. Another group on our side of the river near us answered. Black and white colobus have been seen feeding with forest buffalo in some of the bai’s. Chimpanzee come to the bais at Nkoki camp. Heard their hooting in the early morning, then a series of hollow thumps. Apparently the chimps pound their fists or beat a stick on the tree buttress to communicate to another group. Chimps are wary and hunted here. Red colobus here feed on younger leaves, versus the B&W colobus feeding on older leaves. B&W colobus social groups consist of a dominant male, and several females and practice mutual grooming. Red-tailed monkeys or guenons eat fruits, insects, flower buds and leaves. Red-tailed guenons share territories with red colobus and blue monkeys.

Top: Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes, Red Colobus Piliocolobus spp. Bottom: Red-tailed monkey Cercopithecus ascanius, blue monkey C. mitis

Took a brief walk up a trail that led through a section of entangled forest. More mangabeys and guenons in the canopy. The forest was still and misty. Today we regretfully have to head back upriver. The canoe would not be so overloaded this time as we are going to pull a second dugout with several people in it and gear. We left camp and began the 6 hour journey back upriver, this time having to fight

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the current of the Sangha. Lots of yellow and black weaverbirds along the edge of the river. Saw a Sangha father with his son fishing from a canoe with a drift net. They poled near the bank where the current was slow from back eddies along the bank. After several hours the outboard began to choke up and foul, then quit. We drifted

for some time and refueled the outboard with both the mixture of kerosene and gasoline. Restarted then spent hours creeping up along the Right Bank of the river against a strong current. We ran out of kerosene, and then ran on pure gas, but outboard was stalling about every 20 minute. Biesset had to pull on the hand starter several times to restart it every kilometer or so until we had progressed within 10 kilometers downriver of Bayanga. We continued lazily making our way upriver, with Biesset motoring close to the Right Bank of the river. No one noticed an unusual assemblage of rocks upriver near the shore. Tom saw what he thought was a huge log floating toward us, but didn’t say anything to Biesset or us. Then he discovered the log moving rapidly. The transition from log and rocks to hippopotamuses was swift and startling. There were four of them-two big ones, two smaller ones. Those of us in the motored canoe were in a state of reverie and hadn’t discovered the moving log

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had a pair of ears and a large snout.. Richard and Tom yelled at Biesset “hippo coming at us.” Richard was in a state of panic, but none could hear them because of the sound of the outboard. Biesset continued to look the opposite direction, deep in thought. Richard waved enthusiastically at us this time and pointed to the Right Bank, and again yelled “hippo coming at us. Get this canoe moving!”

We all heard the final shout of exasperation and Biesset turned around, saw the fear on Richards face, then looked over to his right and saw the hippo just before it submerged, leaving a trail of bubbles floating to the surface towards us. It would be close for the canoe we were pulling. Biesset opened up the throttle and thankfully the outboard didn’t stall, sending a surge of brown water out our stern. The hippo surface no less than 25 feet downriver of the canoe we were pulling, mouth wide open in a threatening posture. That was too close. Thankfully no one got hurt, and the hippo gave up. They are extremely territorial and pugnacious. Before my first trip to Africa in 1981, I had a misconception regarding hippos. When I think of hippopotamuses, I think of George and Martha, the hippo characters in a series of children's books that I might have read to my children. Martha wore a purple tutu, if I remember correctly, and both hippos walked around on their hind legs. In truth, hippos are irritable, and fight in spite of their vegetarian diet. A male hippo can weigh four tons, and his bite can sever a 15-foot crocodile. Actually, if you want to use the correct terminology, you don't get bitten by a hippo-you get "stapled." Among African game, hippos are the number one killer of humans, responsible for as many as 200 fatalities per year. Bayanga was a welcome site. Met Andy Wilkenson, a game guide who

specializes in clients that want to shoot bongo. Found out he was from Zimbabwe, Rhodesia. Was truly a conservationist, even though he guided hunters. He was so knowledgeable on African history and French colonialism in CAR, Cameroon, and Gabon. Tomorrow he will take me to several logging roads that have grown over in search of bongo.

July 10, Thursday Got up early this morning at 4:30 AM and Modegbe and I joined Andy in his Toyota diesel four-wheel drive. We drove north about 20 kilometers to the Libwae (Libway) River area. Fog and mist again hung over the forest and canopy, and we followed a track that led through a beautiful grove of giant trees. The Czechs

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would log in strips, leaving alternate linear areas of primary forest to re-seed the cut over areas. Only the roads opened up everything to poachers. Parked at the end of the road, and left the truck to hike towards another bai, a clearing about 4 kilometers away. Beautiful forest. Forest floor in one section had leaves of the giant kapok, Ceiba sp in the family Sterculiaceae. The forest was covered with leaves, reminding of the Pacific Northwest River bottoms in the fall. Just before the bog, Andy heard a noise, then leaped around me and ran past me. This time I didn’t need a hint as to what was up so I joined him. I saw the back of an elephant in the dim light with its ears flared and branches snapping as it moved. He got our scent and had bolted. We walked cautiously another 200 feet and found a second elephant standing in the middle of the trail. It was a younger animal so Andy yelled and hollered at the great beast until it finally moved off the trail. Beautiful forest, clearing below had several elephants feeding in the bai. Lots of bongo tracks but no bongo. Walked hard and fast for 35 minutes to the next clearing, but no game. Lots of tracks of elephant, bongo, and forest buffalo. Found a hammerkops nest. Our final third bai or clearing that was in a series of glades of a stream was also without animals. But we did see fresh gorilla spoor. Saw more of the parasitic flower with a pink rosette called Thaminga sanguiniana. Duiker like to eat them. Gorilla had been browsing on wild ginger Zingerabaceae and Merantaceae. Beautiful forest with huge buttressed trees. Learned that chimpanzees communicate with sound by banging a buttress of a tree. Heard the handclap of a female gorilla that was alarmed. The male answered with a short bark and both hurried off through the forest. Too much hunting here makes the primates pretty skittish.

Black and white Casqued hornbill, Agile mangabey Cercocebus agilis

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Heard the call of a black and white casked hornbill fly overhead. No identification of any birds. Modegbe used his whistle and showed me how to imitate the call of an eagle. The Pygmy hunter will also gather up a bunch of leaves and swishing them through the air, imitate the sound of eagle wings, which bring the monkeys down to within bow range. They also get on the ground and make monkey calls that imitate mangabeys to take a look, then shoot them with crossbows. Was such a beautiful day, mist and birdsong. We again were deep in the forest. Returned to the truck and drove by track to a clearing on the Liwae River, where we saw a gray duiker cross the road. I swam in the clear, cool stream with schools of fish. Butterflies all over, bright orange pierid and yellow sulfurs,

Forest giant Gilbiodendron spp, Rt Sapotaceae Omphalocarpum elatum fruits preferred by elephants

swallowtails that were either metallic blue and black or yellow and black. Enchanting place. Thankyou Lord for your guidance July 12 Good day, tired and exhausted after getting up at 4:30 every morning. One cup of coffee to start the day with no breakfast, and walking through the forest until dark at 6:00PM with no food and only a sip of water. I am loosing weight, and get so dehydrated here. Disciplined. Dzangha bai this morning had about 35 elephant. We loaded up the Toyota and drove for another stay at Baihoku camp. I spent the early morning exploring Ngoumbunya glades on my own. There were

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myriad’s of butterflies on the exposed clay banks worked by elephants. Papilionids with metallic green-blue wings. I also walked the Gilbertiodendron forest near camp, exploring the stream, listening to a variety of melodic bird song. I also came on a Peter’s duiker on my own. Occasional burst of chirps from an unseen frog. Later in the afternoon it got overcast, and Modegbe joined me for a trek to Ngoumbunya glade, a beautiful setting where we saw a herd of 18 forest buffalo emerge from the forest edge: one large bull, 7 cows, and 10 offspring of the year. They were light brown in color, so different from the Cape buffalo to the east, but

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had large ears with hair hanging below. Fawn colored calves that look very healthy. Male tried to mount a female not in estrous yet, she trotted away from him. The grass area next to me was full of African weavers colored yellow and black. Left to continue into the forest for a ways, then returned back to the bai where the buffalo assembled together and

briefly ran towards us. This bull has charge someone before as he seem pretty bold. Found a group of gray-cheeked mangabeys in a tree socializing. Heard the call of the great blue turaco that was like the call of a kookaburra. Discovered a huge hole or excavated cave dug out of the clay, caused by elephants. The cave was set about 4 meter deep, and swamped in a gray mud. It looked as though the elephants had undermined a giant termite mound. The forest was cooler today, rain and thunder of in the distance. Saw a white bellied duiker, more hornbills and African gray parrots. Also found a hollowed cavity in a tree with a bird nest in it at chest height. After dusk, sat around the lantern and discussed diseases with Richard and others. Botflies are a problem, where villagers iron (old style iron where hot coals are placed inside) sheets, clothes to remove fly eggs. The tropical diseases in the village are really horrendous. Attitudes of the researchers I conversed with seem self-serving as it ‘keeps the population down.’ Animals are revered more by the group I am with than human lives, which I guess is why they study animals I suspect. It is such a spiritual battle here. I had had it with all the evolution diatribe and entered into a discussion about design and a God who made it. That didn’t go over very well but I tried. HIV is rampant here, almost 60% of the population has it. People however die of other ailments because their immune system is depressed, like TB, malaria. River blindness is common here and it broke my heart to see children with clouded over eyes. A small blackfly transmits the disease. The parasite breaks down the capillaries of the eye, and will eventually cause blindness if not treated. My heart goes out to these poor people, and I pray for the Holy Spirit to free them of disease, and witchcraft. July 13, Saturday Left Baihoku camp early to seek out gorillas that Melissa said were observed in a tree yesterday feeding. Overcast day, threatening rain. Mangabeys, cercopithecus (guenon), hornbills and a great blue turaco feeding in a tree in

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fruit. I couldn’t tell if it was a fig Ficus. Many fruits we found on the forest floor were eaten by elephant, duiker, and gorilla. Found one fruit in the Sapotaceae family, yellow stink fruit like a large avocado with a large nut inside, used for whistle to imitate crowned eagle call. Modegbe called in a pair of small blue duikers that exploded out of the brush and brushed my feet before they saw us, then disappeared instantly as they kept on running. What an adrenaline rush. Amazing how fast they can move. Found our first set of cabled snares. Richard and several patrol guards explored off to the east and found a poachers camp just inside the Congo border and carried back several hundred pounds of smoked duiker bushmeat, and a woman who was selling it. Poaching is a way of life here and it is frustrating the staff. Bushmeat is even sought after by officials and the police who hide their crimes. Returned to the forest again in the early afternoon and found lots of butterflies at the elephant wallows, beautiful species of swallowtails and pierids. Bird song afloat. However I miss being home and my family. Thankyou Lord for allowing me to get the exploring bug out of my system for a while. Disappointed that I have not been able to photograph gorilla yet. Very difficult conditions, they are hunted and run off when approached by men. At Melissa’s camp, studied a group of 16 animals, old silverback, young silverback, 2 blackbacks, females and young. This group had a large range of 30 square kilometers. The dominant male has threatened her, they avoid visual eye to eye contact, leave before seen. No diaretic intestinal sounds as first encountered. These gorillas spend more time in canopy than mountain gorillas. Richard and Melissa described the sounds near their camp of a leopard that attacked two gorilla males. Heard gorilla screams, and those of the leopard. They ran to the site and found blood spots on the forest leaf litter. Silverback and young male both ran, rolled over and tripped over logs down into a stream edge with the leopard right on their tail. The two males split up, communicated with each other with chest beatings, then regrouped after 4 kilometers. Melissa came on a blackbacked male in tree, and she stopped, dropped her camera gear, and backed off the tree to observe. Silverback male charged her out of nowhere, running back and forth in front of her. Then he gave her a frontal charge. She pacified gorilla in a submissive feeding posture, and he began to feed in front of her. Silverback in a Caesalpinioideae (legume) tree, small lemon-tasting fruit and they love to eat this particular fruit. Eat Megaphrium (Membranaceae) and Hominum during the dry season, which is brief (July). Also climb fruiting trees that come into seasonal fruit displays. Gorilla’s in the Mbeli bai study of Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in Northern Congo had shown that they spent more time in the sedge clearings feeding and resting, and feeding heavily on the fruit of Nauclea pobeguinii (Rubiaceae) trees. These trees come in fruit the end of July to the first of August. There are high

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densities of gorillas in the bais or ‘salinas’ of Odzala National Park in Northwestern Congo. Gorillas are frequent visitors to these clearings almost every day, apparently attracted by a variety of monocotolydons on which they feed. Research established in the Mondika research center, CAR in Dzangha-Ndoki National Park on sympatric lowland gorilla and chimpanzees. The new study site is 2

km from the Congo border on the Mondika, a tributary of the Ndoki River. The Reserve de Faune du Dja in Cameroun in Raphia swamps and Cyperus with Pandanus swamps. Fay (1983) found that gorillas feed extensively on Pandanus candelabrum and other plants common in the Likouala swamps in Northern Congo. Sally Lahm (1993) presumed that gorillas in north-eastern Gabon survived by taking refuge from hunters in swamp, marshes, and seasonally inundated forest. The Dja reserve gorillas also show a strong tendency for nesting in seasonally inundated and swamp forest, habitats which provide abundant food, nesting material, and probably refuge from hunters, Learned also about the amazing ability of gorilla in West Central Africa to climb trees for fruits. A study of gorilla’s in Uganda’s Bwindi-Inpenetrable forest live at lower elevations and are much more arboreal, have longer day ranges, larger home ranges, and eat much more fruit and pith, less bamboo and leaves. Bwindi gorillas have smaller bodies, relatively longer limbs, hands and feet, shorter trunks, thumbs, big toes and tooth row lengths, and narrower trunks and orbital breadths than Virunga gorillas (Sarmiento et al. 1997). Thus most of the differences of the two populations can be associated to a relatively higher intake of fruit and a higher frequency of arboreal behaviors in Bwindi gorillas relative to Virunga gorillas. There are real ecological differences between the two populations, reflected in their characteristic behavior and morphology. Bwindi and Virunga gorillas are two allopatric populations with characteristic differences. Bwindi gorillas, in contrast to Virunga gorillas share similar characteristics in foot musculature that is similar to the western lowland gorilla populations. Discussion then shifted to forest elephant. Richard Carol related the diversity of plants in cutover areas in 3 square kilometer area. He, his wife, and another researcher were travelling early morning , and followed by two Pygmies. They came upon an elephant sleeping in a vine thicket as they followed the elephant tail right next to them. The elephant was awakened, raised its trunk, flared it ears then charged down the trail. Richard yelled in Sango ‘get behind the tree.’ His wife didn’t understand Sango, so stood in the middle of the trail. He jerked her behind a tree buttress and the elephant almost stepped on his feet as it passed, chasing the two Pygmies down the trail instead of coming after him around the tree. Close call. The Pygmies climbed up a vine overhead and escaped as the elephant pass through. Large elephant population in Dzangha-Sangha that visit

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the clearings and dig up mineral salts, which are then used by bongo, duikers, and Sitatunga. The red, yellow ochre clays have elements of CO3 in them, whether its magnesium of calcium carbonate, I’m not sure.