The Congo Rainforest

The Congo is the world's second-largest river by volume, draining the Congo Basin, which covers 3.7 million square kilometers - about 1.4 million square miles. Tropical rainforests and wetlands cover a large portion of the basin. These habitats make up the majority of Central Africa's rainforest, which is the world's second-largest at 178 million hectares.

The Congo rainforest is famous for its enormous biodiversity, with over 600 different tree species and 10,000 different animal species. Forest elephants, gorillas, chimps, okapi, leopards, hippos, and lions are among the park's most notable residents. Some of these species have an important role in determining the character of the forest in which they live. For example, Central African woods feature taller trees but a lower number of tiny trees than Amazon or Borneo forests, according to researchers. What is the explanation for this? Predation by elephants, gorillas, and other large herbivores keeps the density of tiny trees low, minimizing competition for huge trees. Forests tend to be shorter and thicker with little trees in locations where these animals have been decimated by hunting. As a result, it's no surprise that old-growth forests in Central Africa store massive amounts of carbon in their vegetation and tree trunks (39 billion tons, according to a 2012 study), acting as a crucial climate-change buffer.