Rarely seen encounter of two wild apes, forest elephants and buffalos, colobus monkeys, parasites under my skin – all this during one day? No problem – in Odzala-Kokoua national park in Congo if you are a bit lucky!

After physically exhausting three weeks in the forest with the antipoaching patrol I moved towards  the south of Odzala-Kokoua park. My goal was a small saline Dzebe. I joined a group of eco-monitors who permanently observed all wildlife on the rainforest saline, collecting data and preventing poaching. Roughly 1ha big saline among the green walls of the forest is full of life. Last outbreak of ebola disease appeared in and around Odzala in 2002 – 2003, killing several thousands of wild gorillas and chimpanzees and leaving behind also 180 dead human corpses. Since those times the situation is calm and the population of both wild apes is gradually recovering. The rainforest saline Dzebe is a perfect spot for observing apes in their natural habitat, without being disturbed by human presence. On the edge of the saline there is a small viewing tower which offers a great opportunity to overlook the whole saline, without being noticed by wildlife. The construction of this tower is quite fragile and moves by every breath. Therefore, it has been quite difficult to keep the camera still when filming far objects. Especially during those days when my accompaniment – one eco-monitor – suffered cough and cold and permanently was blowing his nose: ) Despite this I have been more than lucky and got several nice videos. I spent eight full days on the shelter, from 7 AM till 5 PM. Very limited opportunities to move and stretch my legs and clouds of annoying sweat-bees all around made my stay sometimes very painful. But I was rewarded by spectacular situation. For example, I witnessed one meeting of gorillas and chimps or I observed chimpanzees using cutlery – you will see it too on these videos.

(For more information about the park visit http://www.african-parks.org/Park_7_Odzala-Kokoua+National+Park,+Congo.html and http://www.odzala.com/ I thank a lot Leon Lamprecht from African Parks and Marcus Strobel from Tango Films GmbH)

Western lowland gorillas are incredibly wonderful creatures. Those who ever watched them in the wild want to watch them again and again. They occured on the saline almost daily, always in the groop, lead by a mighty silverback male. In the final part of this video, there is a very rare footage. I was extremely lucky to witness a rarely seen encounter of a gorilla group and one lone chimpanzee female with her infant. A robust female gorilla enters the video frame from the left, turned with back towards me, and then we can see a female chimp behind the gorilla. The chimpanzee is obviously nervous and keeps walking faster to hide in the dense forest. Under the cover of the forest, these two African apes must meet each other relatively often, where they share their habitats, but few people were lucky to see it and film it.

When on foot, one makes the wild buffalos scared from a far distance of 50 – 100 meters … and they run away in the fierce stampede.  However, buffalos do not consider humans being humans when we are on the boat. Using this „disguise“ I have been able to approach the herd of wild forest buffalos very close. Closer than I could ever believe.

Our closest relatives, chimpanzees, enter the saline also very often and also in huge numbers. They are noticeably louder than gorillas, before they appear on the open space, one can hear them for many minutes making noise in the forest and braking branches. However when they enter the saline they become quiet. Contrary to gorillas, they can even use tools when feeding! Moreover they shape their tools into the desired form. Watch the video and in the twentieth second you will see how one chimp first uses the „gorilla“ technique when licking the salty mud from the pools – he bows down and licks it with his tongue. Later, he briefly sits down and tears off a little stem. Then he adjusts both ends of the stick and here he goes with his brand new spoon. He returns back to the salty lick and uses the spoon in all comfort, without the need to bow down and enter the deeper places. Local researchers told me I was the first one who documented this behaviour by Congolese chimps on a video. Chimps use a wide variety of basic tools and the knowledge of using them is inherited by cultural evolution – one chimpanzee has to observe another one to learn the useful skills. And we, people, little bit more intelligent than these apes, we still kill them for meat…

On the saline Dzebe I also filmed for the first time during my expedition the forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis). They usually appeared later in the afternoon and roamed on the saline until the evening. I observed one young male quite often and once I have been lucky to see two females and one baby in the thick underbrush. Despite their body-mass and weight, elephants are usually quite as a ghost and emerge from the green curtain of the forest in the moment when no one is expecting it.

Buffalos and sitatungas are, along with few species of duikers and red river hogs most numerous ungulates in the African rainforest. All of these species are very often becoming prey of local hunters. Sometimes being caught into cable snares, sometimes being shot by rifles. No wonder they became shy animals which disappear by the least sigh of human presence. Saline Dzebe is not very far from the limit of the park and I am sure that also there animals remember bad experience with humans – hunters.

Sometimes it was sufficient just to aim my camera-lens at the right direction and wait. The fallen tree in the middle of the open space was a preferable landing point for many birds and also monkey used it as a rest a viewing tower. The magnificent Great Blue Turacos (Corythaeola cristata) usually appear in couple and therefore I was little bit unsatisfied to watch just one of them on the tree. Turacos are much more often to be heart then to be seen. Thy live in the dense canopy and their typical loud and repeating vocalization belong to the best voices in the jungle. Sometimes also black-and-white colobus monkeys (Corythaeola cristata) emerged from the misty forest and took a short sunbathe on the saline and licked the salty mud by the water.

During my expedition, the journey was sometimes tough, often very dirty, most of the time full of sweat… but always incredibly beautiful. Look at the short sequence of some videos how I have been travelling on the bike and by foot towards the remote saline Dzebe.

Despite the beauty all around, Dzebe is in the middle of the tropical rainforest, which sometimes can be mischievous. There is plenty of invertebrates which really like being close to you – or inside you. Literally… Some viewers will not feel comfortable watching these footages. Leeches and chigoe fleas (Tunga penetrans) are not painful and dangerous (in small amounts!), but it is definitely better to avoid them, anyway.