Gabon Beach Elephants!
I love Gabon’s beach elephants! Every time I visit Gabon I am amazed about its wildlife. The Loango National Park in Gabon is unique in many ways. Its one of the only spots in the world where elephants come to the beach and hippos surf the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. When I visited Loango the first time over 17 years ago, I found my “Last Eden!” And ever since it has a special spot in my heart!
I was lucky enough to visit this special spot now more than six times and every time I can’t wait to come back. The Loango National Park is home to many of the 95.000 Gabonese forest elephants. The southern part of the park is special as it has a long land bridge dividing the rainforest mainland and the Atlantic Ocean. This land bridge is separated from the main land through the Ndogo Lagoon System.
How do the elephants get to the beach?
The elephants learned to swim though the lagoon and graze on the salt rich grasses and bushes on the land bridge. Most of the time I find them active in the evening and early morning. Normally you will find Gabon’s big elephant bulls on the beach. But also smaller families led by an experienced matriarch will take the swim to reach the important feeding grounds.
The elephants in Gabon are not so friendly like in East Africa for example. The years of poaching and the nature of Forest Elephants made them more hostile against humans. I had some bad experiences some years back when I was attacked by a forest elephant while filming at the beach. So I am always extra careful when it comes to these gentle giants of Gabon.
During the weeks I have spend in Gabon I have found more interesting stories to tell about Gabon’s amazing wildlife. Some of them never filmed before… So I can’t wait to get back to Africa’s last Eden and film ones again Gabon’s elephants on the beach!