The wildlife of the Republic of the Congo is a mix of species of different kinds of organisms. There are 400 mammal species, 1,000 bird species and 10,000 plant species (3,000 of which are unique to the Republic of Congo) in the country. Many parts of the country are covered in tropical rainforest, although some of the southern areas have been cleared by logging. The wider

Congo River Basin 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 ...

has earned a global reputation for the variety of wildlife found inside its forests.

Rainforests

A large portion of the Republic of Congo is tropical rainforest. The forest is split into several sections, the first being low lying branches of large evergreen trees. The next level contains smaller trees and plants. Under that level lies bushes and ferns. The floor of this region consists of mainly ferns, vines, and roots that twist and turn throughout different vegetation. Roughly 69% of the country consists of forest areas.Congo Plants - Congo Fauna & Vegetation
/ref> The Congo Basin was designated as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

heritage site on July 1, 2012.

Wildlife

Flora

The Republic of the Congo is home to approximately 10,000 species of tropical plants. Among which thirty percent (3,000) of these species are specific to Congo. Congo plants include some of the most diverse and rich environments and the largest forest areas, with only the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

being more diverse. There are about 6,000 plant species in the country.

Fauna

Around 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 ...

studied

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

s in heavily forested regions centered on the Ouesso district of the

Sangha Region Sangha is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the northern part of the country. It borders the departments of Cuvette, Cuvette-Ouest, and Likouala, and internationally, Cameroon, Gabon and the Central African Republic. The regional ca ...

. They suggested a population on the order of 125,000

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, primary and secondary forest and lowland swampland in central Afri ...

s (''

Gorilla gorilla 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, primary and secondary forest and lowland swampland in central Africa ...

''), whose isolation from humans has been largely preserved by inhospitable swamps.

Fish

There are around 700 species of fish in the Republic of the Congo.

References

External links

'Stopping wildlife trafficking in Congo' -Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com. February 01, 2010

Panda.org - 'Wildlife of the Congo'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wildlife of the Republic of Congo Congo Biota of the Republic of the Congo Congo