Canopy, Campo Reserve, Cameroon Photograph by David Olson   West Africa: Primarily in Gabon Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   73,200 square miles (189,700 square kilometers) -- about the size of Louisiana and South Carolina combined Vulnerable

· Critical to Conservation
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
More Photos

Critical to Conservation

Thousands of plants that are unique to West Tropical Africa blanket the hills, plains, and mountains of the Atlantic Equatorial Coastal Forest ecoregion. Known for its tremendous richness of forest mammals, from lowland gorillas and chimpanzees to forest elephants and African buffalo, this region is very important in the conservation of large mammals in Africa. But the region is also critically important habitat for small mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates.

Special Features

The low, undulating hills and plains of the northern part of the Atlantic Equatorial Coastal Forest ecoregion give way to mountains in the south and east. The Cristal Mountains in the south contain more than 3,000 species of plants, more than 100 of which occur only in this area. The rain forests throughout this ecoregion and the Cross-Sanaga-Bioko Coastal Forest to its north together hold about half of all the plants endemic to west tropical Africa. These rain forests are also home to an exceptional number of endemic amphibians such as the Apouh night frog and western dwarf clawed frog, as well as birds, butterflies, and reptiles. This ecoregion is within the wet tropics and therefore has high rainfall and humidity. Because of these conditions, epiphytes thrive here.

	The male mandrills of this ecoregion have bright red, blue, and white coloring on their faces and posteriors. Their snouts have two patches of electric blue that accentuate their facial features. It is thought that this color may have evolved to allow male competitors to better see each other’s warning snarls in the low-light conditions of the rain forest.

Wild Side

What could be more fun than a forest full of apes and monkeys? Chimpanzees, gorillas, black colobus monkeys, mandrills, and other primates find critical habitat in the Atlantic Equatorial Coastal Forest ecoregion. It is also a place where you can find forest elephants, small antelopes called bongos, and African buffalo. The forests are filled with a chorus of sounds from endemic birds such as Rachel’s malimbe, Bate’s weaver, and the gray-necked rockfowl. The goliath frog is also a resident. It is the largest frog in the world, weighing as much as a human infant! The woolly bat, which lives here, has frizzy hair and wings that look like dried leaves. This ecoregion is also home to many beautiful butterflies including the blue Charaxes acraeoides, a powerful flyer that can reach speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour (64 kph)! The green and black Papilio phorcus and Papilio lormieri are among the most graceful flyers, and they can be found drinking from puddles of water with many other beautiful butterflies. Many people say the papilios’ mosaic wing patterns and colors remind them of church windows. Some endangered animals in this ecoregion include the Congo clawless otter, bay duiker (a small deer), Gabon black colobus monkey, goliath frog, African sharp-nosed crocodile, and the northern needle-clawed bushbaby.

Cause for Concern

Many of the large mammals of this ecoregion are threatened by humans from bushmeat hunting and because certain parts of some animals are believed to bring good luck or good health. Mandrills, forest elephants, and lowland gorillas are relatively easy to hunt, and their populations are slow to recover when many individuals are killed. Another threat to the region comes from extensive logging in areas of pristine rain forest. And as is the case in many areas throughout the world, once an area of forest has been logged, people quickly immigrate to the area and then convert the land to agriculture. Unfortunately, there are very few well-managed protected areas in this ecoregion.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.