Odzala National Park
The Odzala National Park (French Parc National de Odzala ) is located in the northwest of the Republic of the Congo near the border with Gabon at an altitude of 400 to 600 m above sea level . It is 1260 km² and was established in 1935, making it one of the oldest national parks in Africa. Very few roads go through it. Since 1977 the area as is UNESCO - Biosphere Reserve reported.
climate
There are two rainy seasons, the first between March and May and the second between September and December. The safari camps in the national park are closed during the wettest months of May and November. With annual precipitation of 1400 to 1600 mm, the average temperature is 30 ° C.
Flora and fauna
The vegetation consists of tropical rainforest with many clearings. Bongos , sitatungas , crown duikers , spotted hyenas , lions , leopards , buffaloes , giant forest pigs , brush-eared pigs and monkeys including gorillas and chimpanzees live in Odzala National Park . In 1982, 150 elephants were counted.
Gorillas
As part of the European program ECOFAC ( Conservation et utilization rationelle des Ecosystèmes Forestiers en Afrique Centrale ), a 10-month study of the large mammals that frequent the swampy clearings of the Odzala National Park was carried out. Special attention was paid to the gorillas that visit the Mayan North Glade, which is 10 km north of the park boundaries. The good visibility made it possible to precisely determine the group composition and the structure of the population. In Maya North, gorillas were present on 88% of the 132 observation days, a total of 398 hours. 224 individual and 217 group visits were counted, a total of 2637 gorilla visits. 442 gorillas were identified, including 37 groups and 21 individuals. The gorilla density was estimated at 10 individuals per km². The groups contained only one silverback male and ranged in size from 2 to 29 animals, an average of 11.7. This made them larger than the previously described groups of western gorillas . The birth rate is high, with an average of 0.63 infants per female. Not fully grown animals make up 56% of the population. Swampy clearings are particularly interesting for the gorillas, who dedicate 66% of their time to eating four herbaceous plant species. Pattern analyzes have shown that plants in clearings are richer in mineral salts than those growing in forests. 55% of the visits led to encounters between the groups. In general, groups and / or individual animals ignore each other and only in 29% of such encounters there were fights. Peaceful approaches in 23% of different group encounters and mixing of groups in 6% were observed. The abundance of resources seems to allow peaceful coexistence. Due to the abundance of arrowroots in the forest and mineral-rich spots in swampy clearings, the Mayan northern region is home to a large population of gorillas. Minerals could play an important role in the high birth rate and the good chances of survival of the offspring. Under the current conditions - no logging, hardly any people and almost no poaching - the survival of the population seems assured for a long time. But the exposure to people in the vicinity of the park is increasing. This adds to the value of the ECOFAC conservation program, which focuses on the western lowland gorilla and other key species such as forest elephants , which also inhabit the northern Maya region. It promotes support for the park enlargement to include the area that contains numerous "salt clearings" and is still spared from logging. This expansion would provide sufficient area to ensure the survival of populations of large mammals such as elephants. It would also allow a connection with other protected areas. The ECOFAC management is trying to convince the authorities that the development of the park would generate income for the local population. The financial autonomy of the park is one of the main goals of the ECOFAC program and the development of ecotourism , encouraged by the exceptional conservation conditions, is seen as a promising way to achieve this. However, the political situation made strengthening the protected areas difficult and the park extension project was postponed.
literature
- Wally and Horst Hagen: The African national parks as habitats for elephants . In: Vitus B. Dröscher (1990): Save the Elephants of Africa (p. 222)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves , UNESCO.de, as of June 30, 2011, accessed on February 29, 2012
Coordinates: 0 ° 48 ' N , 14 ° 56' E