Forest Floor to Treetops, Cameras Reveal Congo Basin’s Hidden Wildlife

by Gisele Galoustian, Florida Atlantic University
September 1, 2026

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) tropical forests stretch across an extraordinary landscape of rivers, wetlands, savannas and towering trees. But in a forest this vast, biodiversity doesn’t exist on a single plane. It climbs into the canopy. It moves between branches and vines, disappears into the understory and travels across the forest floor.

Now, Florida Atlantic University researchers and collaborators have found a non-invasive way to see more of this hidden world.

Using infrared cameras from the forest floor to the canopy, researchers created a 3D view of biodiversity in the DRC’s Lomami National Park – revealing which mammals share the forest, how they use that 3D space, and which environmental factors shape the community.

Keep reading: https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/camera-traps-congo-basin

Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.70449