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Click here to view Mama Tembo's current photo show. Featured shows These photos were taken June 2008 over several days of observing elephants at Dzanga Bai and gorillas at Mbeli Bai. Village of Elephants: In Central African forests there are low, marshy clearings called "bais". These are visited daily for their nutritious plants and soil’s high mineral content by wildlife such as western lowland gorillas, sitatunga and bongo antelopes, forest buffalos, African grey parrots, and forest elephants. Dzanga Bai, in Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, is best known for its elephants. As many as 100 a day can be observed there, pumping mineral salts which lie in solution at the bottom of deep holes which the elephants have dug. They collect the salts, which compensate for any diet imbalances, by inserting their trunks into these depressions and blowing noisily first to empty them of air. The word "bai" comes from the Aka language and is thought to mean "where the animals eat" or in Dzanga Bai’s case, "the village of elephants". Mbeli Bai: In Central African forests there are low, marshy clearings called "bais''. These are visited daily for their nutritious plants and soil’s high mineral content by wildlife such as western lowland gorillas, sitatunga and bongo antelopes, forest buffalos, African grey parrots, and forest elephants. Mbeli Bai in Nouabale-Ndoki National Park sees elephant visitors, but not as much as Dzanga Bai in the forest to its north and west. As a rule, gorillas avoid elephants so you might expect to see at Mbeli Bai, if your luck holds, the foraging families of western lowland gorillas which this bai’s floating aquatic vegetation attracts.
Here are a few examples of Leslie's photography: Click here to view her entire gallery. (Links will open a new browser window.)
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