Lake Tele ( French Lac Télé) is a freshwater

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

Epena District Epena is a district in the Likouala Region of north-eastern Republic of the Congo. The capital lies at Epena. Towns and villages *Epena See also *Lake Tele *Lake Mboukou Lake Mboukou (french: Lac Mboukou) is a freshwater lake in Epena District ...

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), 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 w ...

Description

Located at in the north-eastern area of the Republic of the Congo, Lake Tele was formed in

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Likouala-aux-Herbes The Likouala-aux-Herbes is a river in the Republic of the Congo. It is a tributary of the Sangha River, which in turn is a tributary of the Congo River. It gives its name to the Likouala Department. Location The Likouala-aux-Herbes is almost lo ...

swamp forests Freshwater swamp forests, or flooded forests, are forests which are inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. They normally occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes. Freshwater swamp forests are found ...

which are gradually covering it. There are no significant inlets or outlets in the lake. The water of Lake Tele is turbid, it has high content of organic materials and is acidic (pH < 4). The swamp forests around the lake have not yet been exhaustively explored.

Legends

Lake Tele is the best known home of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé (purportedly a large, unidentified reptilian creature), and is also supposedly the spot where

pygmies In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...

killed and ate one of the creatures, around 1959. The 1996 book ''

Congo Journey ''Congo Journey'' (1996) is an autobiographical novel by British author Redmond O'Hanlon, following his trip across Congo-Brazzaville (now Republic of the Congo), taking a friend to Lake Tele in search of Mokèlé-mbèmbé, a legendary Congo di ...

'', by British travel writer

Redmond O'Hanlon Redmond O'Hanlon, FRGS, FRSL (born 5 June 1947) is an English writer and scholar. Life O'Hanlon was born in 1947 in Dorset, England. He was educated at Marlborough College and then Oxford University. After taking his M.Phil. in nineteenth-ce ...

, describes in some detail his journey through Congo to Lake Tele in search of Mokèlé-mbèmbé, as well as giving a rich description of local fauna, flora and Congolese cultural practices and relations with the indigenous Pygmy peoples.

Ecology

The wetland area of the ''Réserve Communautaire du Lac Télé/Likouala-aux-Herbes''. It is a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...

in 2006 and 2007 found more than 100,000 previously unreported gorillas have been living in the swamp forests of

Lake Tele Community Reserve A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

and in neighbouring Marantaceae (dryland) forests in the Republic of the Congo.

References

Bibliography

* *

Tele Tele may refer to: * Television * Tele (band), a German rock/pop band * Tele Ikuru, Deputy Governor of Rivers State * Télé, Mali, a rural commune of the Cercle of Goundam in the Tombouctou Region of Mali * Telemarketing * Telegraphy * ''Eveni ...

Sangha River {{RCongo-geo-stub