Wildlife of the Republic of the Congo


The wildlife of the Republic of the Congo is a mix of species of different kinds of organisms. There are 400 mammal species, 1,000 bird species and 10,000 plant species in the country. Many parts of the country is covered in tropical rainforest, although some of the southern areas have been cleared by logging.

Rainforests

The Congo Basin was designated as a UNESCO heritage site on July 1, 2012.

Wildlife

Flora

The Republic of the Congo is home to approximately 10,000 species of tropical plants. Among which thirty percent of these species are specific to Congo.

Fauna

Around 2008, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society studied gorillas in heavily forested regions centered on the Ouesso district of the Sangha Region. They suggested a population on the order of 125,000 western lowland gorillas, whose isolation from humans has been largely preserved by inhospitable swamps.

Fish

There are around 700 species of fish in the Republic of the Congo.