French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
Lac Télé) is a freshwater
lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...
.
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 (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 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 foun ...
which are gradually covering it.
There are no significant inlets or outlets in the lake. The water of Lake Tele is
turbid
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of both water clarity and wate ...
, 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
In several Bantu mythologies, mokele-mbembe (also written as "mokèlé-mbèmbé") is a mythical water-dwelling entity that is believed to exist in the Congo River Basin. It is variously described as a reptilian creature, a spirit, or a member ...
(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 po ...
killed and ate one of the creatures, around 1959.
The 1996 book '' Congo Journey'', by British travel writer Redmond O'Hanlon, 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 global 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, with a mission to save "wildlife and wild places across the globe". Founded in ...
in 2006 and 2007 found more than 100,000 previously unreported gorillas have been living in the swamp forests of Lake Tele Community Reserve and in neighbouring Marantaceae (dryland) forests in the Republic of the Congo.
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
* Evening ...