Deep inside Gabon’s forests, under the harsh equatorial sun, the joy of seeing a mandrill in its habitat is a prize that cannot be missed. And one man is helping in the preservation of these vanishing primates.



IN SEARCH OF AFRICA’S LAST EDEN, my recent wildlife expedition to Gabon was organized under the auspices of Antonio Anoro of Gabon Untouched, an NGO dedicated to sustainable development through conservation and community tourism. While planning my foray into several national parks to observe wildlife prevalent in Gabon, the sighting of mandrills (the largest species of monkeys) was indeed a priority. Since the shy and reclusive mandrills are found only in tropical rain forest habitats, thick bush, and secondary forests, it is almost impossible to spot them with an untrained eye.



I therefore got in touch with Dr David Lehmann, a French-born ‘extreme’ field biologist and mandrill expert, who has been working in Gabon for over two years now. An expert in wildlife capture, he is also developing sustainable ecotourism projects, including providing specialized training for international and national trackers, guides, and researchers. He lives in a camp deep inside Lopé National Park, home to the largest ever recorded mandrill horde of over 1,000 in one location at a time.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="599" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-20.13.27-1024x599.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47643" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-20.13.27-1024x599.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-20.13.27-300x175.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-20.13.27-600x351.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-20.13.27-768x449.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-20.13.27-1536x898.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-20.13.27-2048x1197.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



&nbsp;When he indicated that he was available, I traveled by boat, road, and rail, in order to reach Lopé National Park from Ivindo National Park, home to the world-famous Langoue Baie, where elephants, gorillas, sitatunga and buffalo gather by the dozens at this salt lick. Since Lehmann had just returned from France after four weeks in Europe, he mentioned that his bearings on the mandrill troupe that he had GPS radio-collared were a bit tricky. In light of my arrival, despite jet lag and hard travel, he set out with his GPS-radio tracking antenna to get their relative position for easy access the following day.



Early the next morning, we drove in his battered Land Cruiser several miles into the park and up a small hillock with his assistant, Gabriel, to assess the location of a radio-collared group. As we were gearing up for the trek, the conversation suddenly turned serious when Lehmann turned to me and said, 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“You stay close between Gabe and me at all times. If a male gorilla attacks, look down and stay in a submissive posture close to the ground. If an elephant charges, run in a zigzag pattern and find a large bush or rock to avoid it. It will stop the chase after 30 meters. And lastly, if a buffalo charges, I will let you know what to do at that time.” </blockquote>



I realized that this was not playtime, but a serious foray into Gabon’s largest park at 4,900sqkm in size.



&nbsp;After a good hour’s walk up and down the undulating savannah, we almost reached the forest edge when we heard horrible, shrill sounds. Lehmann immediately checked the GPS tracker and realized that the mandrills we were following had scattered during a chimpanzee attack, one of their main predators during the day (and it is leopards at night). We walked back for nearly an hour to the vehicle after wasting a good four hours trying to find them.



&nbsp;The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is one of the most colorful animals in the world. This monkey species inhabits a very small portion of central Africa and ranges from south Cameroon to the north of Congo. The country of Gabon, therefore, represents 80% of its distribution range.



Wild mandrill males have a technicolor butt and face that glow in the shadows as if they carry their own light sources, while females are typically colorless. But the variation in color is not the only difference between male and female mandrills. Males are typically three times bigger than females (by around 10 kg).



&nbsp;While discussing his research, Lehmann added: “If they have such a difference in morphology, we can expect that they have different lifestyles. Indeed, you might need to feed on more nutritive food sources if you are all beefed up and need to constantly fight for females. Females are part of the troupe of more than several hundred monkeys that always move around the forest to find food, while males are more solitary and are only present in the group during the breeding season. Since the equatorial forest of Gabon is influenced by global warming, we are also investigating if the changes in the health of the forest will impact one sex more than another, and thus, the survival of the whole species.”



&nbsp;After a quick break, we drove through rutted tracks to an area where Lehmann believed these monkeys could have regrouped. Our GPS tracker indicated their presence was reachable by a solid walk through several hillocks and gallery forests about an hour or so away, in the blazing sun. We set about this task, finally reaching an amazing gallery forest with flowing water. Not only were we refreshed by the cool waters, the shade was a good few degrees below the equatorial sun. However, walking along streams in gallery forests can be fairly slow, and keeping up with the ever-moving and feeding mandrills became a foot race. Finally, the joy of seeing an unusual species in their habitat was a prize that could not be missed.



&nbsp;There has been a drastic decline in the mandrill population outside national parks in recent years due to habitat destruction. They are especially vulnerable to hunters because of their loud calls. Mandrills are hunted as a local food source in several areas. Currently, mandrills occupy forests at a very low density and are poorly protected, if at all. As a result, they may be threatened with complete extinction in the wild.



&nbsp;This brought me to the subject of Lehmann’s research.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="522" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.51.45-1024x522.png" alt="" class="wp-image-47654" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.51.45-1024x522.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.51.45-300x153.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.51.45-600x306.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.51.45-768x392.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.51.45-1536x783.png 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.51.45-2048x1044.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Photo by Ramdas Iyer</figcaption></figure>



“We catch and release these animals after placing a GPS collar around their necks so that we can track the utilization of their natural habitat. Capturing wild primates is extremely challenging; we have thus pioneered new ways to immobilize them while guaranteeing their safety. We also collect biological samples to analyze their diet, correlate it with their movements and with the temporal changes in forest health,” he explained.



&nbsp;After nine hours of mandrill tracking, we arrived at the lodge to find a cold beer and talk about his conservation work and the impact it was having. Lehmann mentioned that the publicity arising from the ecotourism project also increases the frequentation of foreigners to Lopé National Park, providing socio-economic benefits to the local community.&nbsp;



“Our results have shown that our focal group of mandrills spends ninety-five percent of its time roaming within the buffer zone of the park. We provide the Gabonese national parks agency with recommendations in adjusting park boundaries. We will provide habitat management recommendations to the mandrill range state governments for inclusion in their forest national management guidelines. Our detailed analysis of how environmental parameters are influencing mandrill movements will enable us to make first predictions about the vulnerability of the species to oncoming climate-driven environmental change.”



Dr Joseph Okoye, Director of Parcs Gabon (ANPN) whom I met en route from Ivindo where he was on a forest patrol inspection, when asked about mandrill conservation, mentioned: “For a species with such a restricted global distribution, this is of importance for international assessments of the species which is in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List as a conservation priority.”



&nbsp;In choosing to write this article, I wanted to expose the amount of basic research conducted to protect our biodiversity on earth. Lehmann works in a remote outpost with minimal comforts, constantly searching for funding and often interacting with officials like Okoye who provide Parcs Gabon support for his work. Thanks to European Union funding, he is helping in the preservation of one of the planet’s vanishing species.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="555" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.53.03-1024x555.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47648" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.53.03-1024x555.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.53.03-scaled-300x163.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.53.03-scaled-600x325.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.53.03-768x416.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.53.03-1536x832.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Screen-Shot-2020-01-18-at-19.53.03-2048x1109.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Photo by Ramdas Iyer</figcaption></figure>



By Ramdas Iyer

Screen Shot 2020-01-18 at 20.14.22

Thrills, Perils, And Mandrills

Ramdas Iyer travels deep into the untouched Gabon rainforests to a cornucopia of natural wonders few have seen.



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 “My father and mother were pygmies, we are all pygmies here and among us is a visitor, who has crossed many seas and rivers to see you. He was, perhaps, a pygmy several generations ago and now wishes to experience our lives as the Babango of Waka.” 



This was my – rather unusual – introduction to the villagers
in their mbandja (temple) by the Secretary General of the indigenous forest
people of the Congo, Gabon and Cameroon. 



Visiting the pygmies traversing treacherous roads was
certainly a highlight of my trip and was organized by my Spaniard friend
Antonio Anero who heads Gabon Untouched, an NGO dedicated to sustainable
development through conservation and community tourism.



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A marginalized people in most of equatorial Africa, the
pygmies have managed to survive for several millennia by hunting in the forest
and through sustenance farming. 



They live deep in the forests and have only recently started
setting up villages near old logging roads.



In 1996, National Geographic explorer, American Michael Fay
received grants from National Geographic and Wildlife Conservation Society
(WCS) to map unexplored areas of the equatorial rainforests of Gabon.



Accompanied by 16 pygmy trackers, he walked 3,200km for 455
days, mostly along elephant trails in order to demarcate areas for
conservation. Fay, along with other agencies, convinced the then President of
Gabon, Omar Bongo, to convert 11% of the country into 13 national parks. 



In doing so, Fay became one of the greatest explorers and
conservationists of the 21st century. After watching his lectures at the
National Geographic headquarters, I was inspired to make Gabon my next
destination. National Geographic highlighted Fay’s work, along with staff
photographer Michael Nichols’&nbsp; storied
images in three feature issues and dubbed Gabon “Africa’s last Eden”.&nbsp; 



While Gabon offers everything an African traveler desires,
it is certainly not a stroll in the park. The infrastructure, being poor,
restricts road travel to only a few months each year, during the dry season. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="919" height="614" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39804" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon1.png 919w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon1-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon1-600x401.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon1-768x513.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 919px) 100vw, 919px" /><figcaption> Gwiti-disumba ceremony of drumming and dancing in Gabon. Picture: Ramdas Iyer </figcaption></figure>



I felt safer traveling by river, since getting stuck on
roads and washed away bridges was minimal. Telephone services and electricity
did not exist in the rural areas where I was traveling.



On two occasions, once in the Waka Forest and another time
in the remote forest village of Doussala, where we are setting up the Gabon
Untouched NGO, I was feted with an amazing all night bwiti-disumba ceremony of
drumming and dancing.&nbsp; 



Bwiti is a spiritual discipline and plant-based belief of
the forest-dwelling Babongo and Fang people of Gabon and Cameroon. 



They are the originators of the use of iboga, a
mind-altering hallucinogenic root, which is central to the practice of bwiti
for thousands of years.&nbsp; 



Bwiti followers believe that the supreme being can be found
in the presence of the ancestral dead. Chief dancers in night-long rituals lead
men to the afterlife with the help of iboga. 



It turned out that Tataou, my bush tracker, was the nganga
(traditional healer) of the village.&nbsp;
Despite being under the controlled influence of iboga, he honored my
presence as patron for the evening and danced with me for some time. 



This was a surprise since only initiated members of the
tribe dance around the fire. To me, this experience represented old Africa at
its zenith and made my Gabon trip complete.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="822" height="615" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/gabon4.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39805" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/gabon4.png 822w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/gabon4-300x224.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/gabon4-600x449.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/gabon4-768x575.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 822px) 100vw, 822px" /><figcaption>Traditional societies of Gabon including the Punu, Fang, Kwele and the Kota have managed to maintain their cultures despite the slow creep of modernization. Picture: Ramdas Iyer</figcaption></figure>



Equatorial rainforest envelopes 85% of Gabon’s territory,
while grasslands, large rivers, savannah and coastal lagoons make up the
rest.&nbsp; 



Gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants can be seen anywhere,
even on the beaches. While on my way to Kongou Falls, a 3.5km wide cataract of
the Ivindo River, I bumped into Dr Joseph Okoye, Executive Director of Parcs
Gabon, which manages conservation in the 13 national parks. 



He remarked that there are over 50,000 forest elephants,
25,000 gorillas and over 60,000 chimpanzees in Gabon based on a census
conducted by WCS in 2015.&nbsp; 



It certainly felt that way to me, since I was nearly
trampled by a charging elephant that emerged onto the forest trail leading to
the falls. It took me four hours by pirogue to reach my camp through pristine
rainforest, occasionally dodging whitewater coursing over dangerous rocks.&nbsp; 



Okoye informed me that less than 50 people visit the falls
each year. In this ultimate wilderness, there’s no sign of human impact for
over 150km downstream from the falls.



Hunting for bush meat is very common in Gabon. This makes
apes and monkeys very shy and one needs to penetrate deep into the jungle to
get a glimpse of them. 



It’s very common to see hanging carcasses of gazelles,
exotic monkeys, pythons, antelopes, porcupines and mongoose as you drove along
the roads. Every restaurant serves these animals, which can be both dismaying
for a conservationist and discomforting for a western traveler.



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Fortunately, many primatologists from the world over are
working with Parcs Gabon to habituate&nbsp;
gorillas, chimpanzees and mandrills for conservation and ecotourism. 



At the Moukalaba-Doudau National Park, I stayed in a
research encampment built by the Japanese to allow trackers find gorillas. I
spent two days in the station deep inside the park with two Japanese students,
Masaki and Miyoki. 



This is a place with no phones, electricity or food sources.
My team happily shared our non-dehydrated food with them, so science could
prosper in the park.



Fay also created Loango National Park, the crown jewel of
the park system, which is home to a stunning diversity of habitats within its
1,800sqkm range. 



The rainforest meets the ocean at Loango and it was indeed a
thrill to see elephants, buffaloes and occasionally hippos strolling on the
beach. For animal lovers, Loango is a true paradise on earth: home to forest
elephants, hippos, red forest buffalo, leopards, crocodiles, western lowland
gorillas, chimpanzees, sitatunga, duikers, a vast array of birds, a variety of
monkey species, and one of the world’s largest offshore concentrations of
humpback whales and dolphins. 



Traditional societies of Gabon including the Punu, Fang,
Kwele and the Kota have managed to maintain their cultures despite the slow
creep of modernization. The wood carving traditions here include Fang and Punu
masks, beaten copper Bakota funeral reliquaries and the ultra-modern looking
Kwele sculptures.&nbsp; 



It is well-known that West African masks had a significant
impact on 19th century artists working in the abstract style of modern European
art. Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse both shared this admiration, with Picasso
amassing a large collection of Gabonese masks. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="927" height="612" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39807" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon2.png 927w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon2-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon2-600x396.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gabon2-768x507.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" /><figcaption> Gwiti-disumba ceremony of drumming and dancing in Gabon. Picture: Ramdas Iyer </figcaption></figure>



One of the most touching moments during my trip was my visit
to Dr Albert Schweitzer’s hospital and gravesite. The jungle hospital he set up
in 1915 is one of the greatest feats of self-sacrifice and service to humanity
and, as such, was duly recognized by the Nobel committee by awarding him the
1952 Peace&nbsp; Prize. 



The hospital at Lambaréné&nbsp;
is visited by many physicians as homage to a great medical practitioner.
I had the privilege of staying in one of the renovated rooms where many young
interns&nbsp; from around the world arrive to
perform health service and learn about tropical disease treatment.



Gabon is also gifted with oil wealth. However, the profits
from oil wealth and mining have only built the fortunes for a handful of
elites. 



The government of Ali Bongo maintains a heavy hand in the local politics while most of the citizenry does not see a trickle down effect of this wealth. 



Boko Haram, the terrorist group, has nearly 2,000 jihadists in the Cameroon, Congo, and Gabon border trading in diamonds and tusks while promoting human trafficking. 



Like elsewhere in Africa, the future of the continent’s
natural wealth is in jeopardy. The serpent has entered Eden.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1018" height="619" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/eli.png" alt="" class="wp-image-39809" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/eli.png 1018w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/eli-300x182.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/eli-600x365.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/eli-768x467.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1018px) 100vw, 1018px" /><figcaption> Dr Joseph Okoye, Executive Director of Parcs Gabon, which manages conservation in the 13 national parks, says there are over 50,000 forest elephants. Picture: Ramdas Iyer </figcaption></figure>

Tag: Gabon Untouched

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Thrills, Perils, And Mandrills

In Search Of Africa’s Last Eden