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 ...
.
It is a tributary of the
Sangha River
The Sangha River, a tributary of the Congo River, is located in Central Africa.
Geography
The Sangha River is formed at the confluence of the Mambéré River and the Kadéï River at Nola, Central African Republic, Nola in the western Central Af ...
, which in turn is a tributary of the
Congo River
The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...
.
It gives its name to the
Likouala Department
Likouala is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the northern part of the country. It borders the departments of Cuvette and Sangha, and internationally, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. The region h ...
.
Location
The Likouala-aux-Herbes is almost long and is the main tributary of the Sangha River.
The lower Sangha, the Likouala-aux-Herbes and
Likouala-Mossaka
The Likouala-Mossaka (or Likouala River) is a river in the Republic of the Congo.
It is a tributary of the Congo River, which it enters to the east of the town of Mossaka.
Location
The Likouala-Mossaka is a right tributary of the Congo into wh ...
rivers flow through the Congolese Cuvette, a huge depression.
The soil of this region is sand or clay
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...
fluvial
In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...
alluvia
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
.
The Likouala aux Herbes basin is located on the predominantly sandy Quaternary formations of the Congolese basin.
The course of the Likouala meanders and shifts over time.
The coefficient of sinuosity is more than 1.5 in the upper section, around 2.0 in the middle section and in the lower section as high as 2.8.
The lower sections of the Sangha and Likouala-aux-Herbes flow through flat land with little difference in elevation between the two rivers.
Part of the lower section of the Sangha River divides into two meandering channels, which then recombine.
Further down, a "canal" connects the Sangha and Likouala-aux-Herbes some distance above the main confluence of the two rivers.
Not long ago the Likouala-aux-Herbes joined the Sangha upstream from the present confluence.
Hydrology
Between 1951 and 1993 annual rainfall in the Likouala-aux-Herbes basin was and average discharge at the Botouali gauging station was .
The basin above this point covered .
Ecology
The Congolese Cuvette has an equatorial climate.
The waters of the Likouala-aux-Herbes are reddish brown and contain high quantities of
humic Humic substances (HS) are organic compounds that are important components of humus, the major organic fraction of soil, peat, and coal (and also a constituent of many upland streams, dystrophic lakes, and ocean water). For a long era in the 19th an ...
and fulvic acids.
Vegetation in the river basin is dense, humid, shady forest that partly floods during the high water season.
The forest around the upper portion opens into a broad grassy plain near
Epena
Epena is a village of 2000 people, and seat of Epena District in the Likouala Department of northeastern Republic of the Congo.
It is on the Likouala-aux-Herbes river, just east of the Lake Télé Community Reserve.
Notable residents
*Aminata ...
, which increases in width further downstream, although in some parts the forest closes in on the river.
In the rainy season the river flows over its banks, and it is often practical for a canoe to take a shortcut between two meanders.
The river's name, which means "grassy river", derives from the fact that most of its alluvial plain is flooded grassland, dominated by '' Jardinea congoensis'' on the flooded banks, and ''
Hyparrhenia diplandra
''Hyparrhenia'' is a genus of grasses. Many species are known commonly as thatching grass.
They are mostly native to tropical Africa; some can be found in warmer areas in temperate Eurasia, Australia, and Latin America. These are annual and per ...
'' on the drier banks.
People
Epena, on the river bank just east of the
Lake Télé Community Reserve
The Lake Télé Community Reserve is found in the Republic of the Congo. It was established on the 10 May 2001. This site covers around Lake Télé.
In August 2010, the Cooperation Agreement between the governments of the Republic of the Congo ...
, is the headquarters of
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 ...
.
Epena is about downstream from the river's source.
It was extremely isolated until 1989, when a paved road from the regional capital
Impfondo
Impfondo is a town in the northeastern Republic of the Congo with a population of around 41,000 people, lying on the Oubangui River. It is home to an airport and is linked by river barge to Brazzaville and to Bangui. It is the administrative cen ...
was opened.
Below Epena the villages along the river include Itanga, Dzeke, Edzama, Bouanela and Ebambe, almost downstream.
From Ebambe down to the Sangha the river meanders for about .
In and above Itanga the people speak dialects of the
Bomitaba language
Bomitaba (Mbomitaba) is a Bantu language of the Republic of Congo, with a couple hundred speakers in the Central African Republic.
Maho (2009) lists the C141 Enyele (Inyele), C142 Bondongo languages, which do not have ISO codes, as being closest ...
.
Below Epena the Babole people speak dialects of the Dibole language.
The local people engage in fishing and in subsistence agriculture on areas of drier ground.
Lake Télé Community Reserve
The Lake Télé Community Reserve covers a large area adjoining the right (west) bank of the upper Likouala-aux-Herbes to the east of Epena.
It is a wetland ecosystem, part of the ''Complexe Transfrontalier Lac Télé - Grands Affluents - Lac Tumba'', a transboundary
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)
**
swamp forest
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 ...
, flooded and wooded
savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
and floating
prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
.
Lac Télé has turbid water with much organic matter, but the rivers are rich in fish.
Resident birds include
African darter
The African darter (''Anhinga rufa''), sometimes called the snakebird, is a water bird of sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq.
Taxonomy
The African darter is a member of the darter family, Anhingidae, and is closely related to American (''Anhinga anhin ...
s (''Anhinga rufa'').
Mammals include
western lowland gorilla
The western lowland gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla gorilla'') is one of two Critically Endangered subspecies of the western gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla'') that lives in Montane ecosystems#Montane forests, montane, Old-growth forest, primary and sec ...
s,
chimpanzee
The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...
s,
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...
duiker
A duiker is a small to medium-sized brown antelope native to sub-Saharan Africa, found in heavily wooded areas. The 22 extant species, including three sometimes considered to be subspecies of the other species, form the subfamily Cephalophina ...
s and
hippopotamus
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
es.
In 2008 researchers from the
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 ...
counted gorilla nests and estimated about 125,000 gorillas were living there, far more than the worldwide total thought to be alive at that time.