Congo Tropical Rainforest

This outdoor exhibit is based on the Lomako Forest, a national park in the central area of the Congo Basin rainforests. This exhibit will provide a rich illustration of the animals that inhabit that particular ecosystem, including human’s closest relative, the bonobo which shares 98.4% of the same genetic make up as us. The overriding conservation theme that will be highlighted throughout this particular exhibit is 'survival'. This theme relates to the fact that the Congo River basin is one of the last surviving wilderness areas, making up over a quarter of the world’s remaining rainforest. Life not only survives but flourishes in many different forms in this difficult environment. Plants and animals compete for scarce resources like light and food and they have adapted in different ways to survive. In addition rainforest trees and animals compete for survival against the needs of humans. Local people face the challenges of war, disease and hunger for their very own survival.

The visitor will enter the exhibit through a very densely planted path, leading into a dark corridor of jungle type planting with vines hanging down from above. A map hidden in a mysterious timber wall zooms in as you watch over it, showing you exactly where on earth this particular secretive part of the world is hidden. Gradually you leave the dense jungle behind and enter a clearing alongside the river, which is a central feature of all life here.

A large abandoned nest invites you to climb up into it to catch secret glimpses of bonobos in their own nests across the water. Crossing onto an island, you can see the bonobos more clearly before accessing, via a wobbly bridge, an enticing façade of bamboo and palm thatch. Inside you can see more bonobos eating, resting or playing.

Crossing back over the river into the heart of the Congo village you find several small huts where you can relax and taste a flavour of Congalese life. The grass-roofed ranger station houses a classroom from where the excited voices of children can be heard; the smaller animals making up the circle of life within that ecosystem also reside along side the rangers, who are always happy to chat to you about any aspect of the exhibit.

Here you have an opportunity to catch up on all the latest activities at the conservation project that is being run actually in Lomako Forest. Field workers will provide regular updated links on the progress of their all-important work in engaging with local people to make the ecosystem a better place for them, the animals that live in it and for all of us. You may be lucky enough to catch a live link and have an opportunity to ask your own questions or perhaps chat to locals about their work and lifestyle.

Leaving the ranger station behind, you stop to listen to a village elder telling folklore stories and giving demonstrations and then move on to watch a family of red river hog basking in their pool and beach area. An aviary provides spectacular, intimate views of wattled cranes and tall ibis. Continuing on your journey you discover an abandoned maize truck. As you climb into the cabin a gang of colobus monkeys race onto the bonnet to see what you are doing in ‘their’ truck.

As you meander your way back through the forest you catch glimpses of that shyest of animals, the beautiful okapi grazing in the dappled glades.