Salongo National Park Congo- Wildlife Safaris Congo.
Welcome to Salonga National Park Congo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo located in the Congo River basin. It is Africa’s largest tropical rain forest reserve covering about 36,000 km2 or 3,600,000 hectares (8,900,000 acres).
Salonga National Park, created in 1970, with an area of 3,334,600 ha, is divided into two sectors (North and South) by a corridor outside the Park of about forty km wide. The Park is one of the most extensive in the world and its area is sufficiently important to offer viable habitats to its fauna and flora. The fact that the Park is divided into two distinct sectors suggests that biological corridors must be foreseen in the unlisted portion between the two sectors, to create an ecological liaison between these two zones.
Roughly one third of the southern sector of the Park is occupied by groups of pygmies and a part of this occupied land is claimed by the local population. The boundaries of the property are intact due to the existence of major rivers that form recognized, precise and natural boundaries and this despite the presence of some villages inside the Park.
It extends into the provinces of Mai Ndombe, Equateur, Kasaï and Sankuru.
Salonga National Park is Africa’s largest tropical rainforest reserve. Situated at the heart of the central basin of the Congo river, the park is very isolated and accessible only by water. It is the habitat of many endemic endangered species, such as the dwarf chimpanzee, the Congo peacock, the forest elephant and the African slender-snouted or ‘false’ crocodile.
Salonga National Park represents one of the very rare existing biotopes absolutely intact in central Africa. Moreover, it comprises vast marshland areas and practically inaccessible gallery forests, which have never been explored and may still be considered as practically virgin.
The plant and animal life in Salonga National Park constitute an example of biological evolution and the adaptation of life forms in a complex equatorial rainforest environment. The large size of the Park ensures the continued possibility for evolution of both species and biotic communities within the relatively undisturbed forest.
Total area
· 36000 km2
Habitat Types
· Mature mixed forest
· Seasonally inundated forest
· Forest savanna mosaic
Wildlife Present
Primates:
· Bonobo
· Salonga monkey
· Tshuapa red colobus
· Allen’s monkey
· Golden-bellied monkey
Larger mammals:
· Forest elephant
· Leopard
· African forest buffalo
· Bongo
· Sitatunga
Key bird species:
· Congo peacock
· Crowned eagle
· Grey parrot
· African dwarf
kingfisher