Inside Africa's green heart, where wildlife rules the roost

"In a clearing in the rainforest known as Dzanga Bai, in the Dzanga-Sangha National Park, about 20 elephants mill around, plunging their trunks into the mineral-rich clay soil. Every day, up to 200 of them can congregate here in what is the largest gathering of their species on earth. Sometimes they are joined by buffalo, marshbucks, the elusive bongo antelope and red river hogs, in the midst of trees that rustle with colobus monkeys."

"The main draw for this multi-species convention is the soil, which the elephants eat and smear on themselves to kill toxins. Watching from an elevated wooden platform 20 feet above the ground, I note the various soils turn their skin different colours: one elephant looks burnt orange; a nearby juvenile has coated herself in a bright yellow primer. The sight of a lemon-coloured pachyderm is almost psychedelic in its vividness. I've never seen anything like it. Not that many visitors have."

"Dzanga-Sangha National Park lies on the northern fringe of the Congo Basin in the extreme southwest of the Central African Republic (CAR), a country that receives fewer tourists - just 700 in 2024 - than Antarctica, and gets little global attention beyond reports about its civil war and the Wagner mercenaries enlisted to protect the environment here. Bordered by troubled South Sudan, Chad and the DRC, as well as Cameroon and the Republic of Congo,"

Dzanga Bai within Dzanga-Sangha National Park regularly hosts up to 200 forest elephants and attracts other species such as buffalo, marshbucks, bongo antelope and red river hogs. Elephants consume and smear mineral-rich clay to neutralize toxins, producing vividly coloured skin coatings observable from an elevated wooden platform. The park lies on the northern edge of the Congo Basin in southwest Central African Republic. The country received just 700 tourists in 2024 and draws little global attention beyond reports of civil war and Wagner mercenaries protecting the environment. The CAR is bordered by South Sudan, Chad, the DRC, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. The Wabêafrîka are among the world's poorest.

Read at CN Traveller