Why We Can't Truly Explore the Deep Congo

Why can't we truly explore the deep Congo? The Congo River is the deepest river on Earth and the Congo rainforest behind it is the second largest on the planet, yet a peat swamp the size of England and 125,000 gorillas stayed hidden there until this century. This documentary walks through the five walls that still keep the Congo Basin off the map: the rapids, the canopy, the fevers, the animals and the missing roads. 0:00 The Deepest River 1:56 Wall One: The Rapids 4:46 Wall Two: The Canopy 7:30 Wall Three: The Fevers 9:33 Wall Four: The Animals 12:31 Wall Five: The Roads 14:03 What the Forest Hid 16:03 Crossing It on Foot 17:08 The Five Walls Today Sources: Dargie et al., Age, extent and carbon storage of the central Congo Basin peatland complex, Nature, 2017 Wildlife Conservation Society, western lowland gorilla census in the northern Republic of Congo, 2008 Maisels et al., Devastating Decline of Forest Elephants in Central Africa, PLoS ONE, 2013 Henry M. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, 1878 J. Michael Fay, Megatransect, National Geographic, 1999-2000 #congo #rainforest #wildlife