The Kahuzi Biega National Park was created to protect the Eastern Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) which are endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kahuzi Biega national park harbors a wide diversity of unique wildlife animals that survive in the natural tropical rainforest of the park. It is one of the great national parse in the DR-Congo where silver coexists together with gold due to the fact that the park is home to the lowland silverback gorillas as well as the golden monkeys. These are all primates’ animals that are surviving together with other primates in the forest such as the white and black colobus, monkeys, the red tailed mangabey, the baboons the L’Hoest’s monkey, the, blue monkeys as well as other wildlife animals such as the forest elephants, the buffaloes, the antelopes among other wildlife animals.
It is one of the three important protected areas for the conservation of the biodiversity of the “Albertine Rift” with 136 species of large mammals (including 15 endemic to the Albertine Rift), 335 species of birds including 29 endemics, 69 species of reptiles including 7 endemics , 44 amphibians including 13 endemic, 1171 plant species including 218 endemic.
Listing of Wildlife in Kahuzi Biega National Park
The PNKB has three charismatic species among the large mammals: the Gorilla, the Chimpanzee and the Elephant. But the Park is also home to the forest buffalo, the leopard or even the bongo, the sitatunga and the forest buffalo. In the 1990s, 86% of Eastern Lowland Gorilla populations occupied PNKB (Plumptre et al. 2010).
Lowland Gorillas,
The eastern lowland gorilla is one of the key attractions that attract tourists to Kahuzi Biega national park. The park attracts a number of travelers all over world that come to experience Congo safaris that target watching the eastern lowland gorillas. As earlier mentioned the lowland gorillas are different from the mountain gorillas and they offer an extremely exciting experience just at the first sight you will meet with them. The gorilla population has fluctuated over the last decades, especially in the high altitude part where regular inventories are conducted. In the eastern part of the Park, 223 gorillas were counted in 1979 (14 families and 5 solitary males), 258 individuals (25 groups with 9 solitary males) counted in 1990 and this figure remained stationary until 1996.
However, the A biological inventory carried out in the high altitude part of the Park in February 2001 revealed the presence of 130 individuals. The 2010 inventories counted 181 individuals divided into 17 groups compared to 168 in 2004 with 15 groups. On the Park’s biodiversity list are also 14 other species of primates including Cercopithecus sp, Colobus spp, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii.
The lowland gorilla trekking permit costs US$400 per person and travelers will be allowed to spend only on hour with a lowland gorilla family, as you enjoy watching a gorilla family feeding, the juvenile gorillas playing among other behavior patterns.
The African forest elephants, this is one of the endangered elephant species that are hard to be spotted elsewhere in the DR-Congo basin. Elephants are known for their unique feature of camouflage with environment though this sub species endangered and rare in other national parks. The forest elephants differ from the savannah elephants in such a way that they are smaller than the African savannah elephants, they have smaller ears, they mainly feed on fruits, leaves, roots of branches and they are herbivores in nature. The uniqueness about the forest elephants that are in the Kahuzi Biega national park is that they occupied both the high altitude and low attitude areas of the park. Though they are among the nocturnal animals in the forest, they live in groups of 10 individuals and when sighted they offer a magical experience due to their gentle character.
Kahuzi Biega has a few of the wild cats such as the leopards, golden cat which are carnivores in nature and they are nocturnal thus they can easily be seen at night in Kahuzi Biega national park. On the same note these are predators to other animals like the antelopes, forest elephants among others.
The African forest buffaloes, they as well differ from the savannah buffaloes in terms of color as they are characterized with the red color texture thus easy to make comparison with the savannah buffaloes. They forest African buffaloes are also known as Aka the Dwarf buffalo.
The antelopes, some of the antelope families in Kahuzi Biega national park include the duikers, bongo among others and they are found all over the park though rare to find due to the fact that have been depleted by the hunters who hunt for as bush meat as well as being eaten by the predators as food.
The monkeys, these are other primate animals that are common in Kahuzi Biega national park such as the white and black colobus monkeys, the red tailed mangabey, the L’Hoest’s monkeys, the golden monkeys, the blue monkeys among others. These have dominated the lowland areas and they keep jumping from one tree to another to look for food as they play.
The lowland gorilla trekking adventure will expose you to all the above mentioned wildlife in Kahuzi Biega national park as well as nature in the forest.