Florida Atlantic University Researchers Discover Hidden Biodiversity in Congo Basin Rainforest
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have uncovered a previously unobserved world of wildlife within the Congo Basin rainforest, the second-largest rainforest globally. This discovery was made in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) Lomami National Park. The FAU team developed a non-invasive method, installing infrared cameras from the forest floor to the canopy, to create a 3D view of the region's biodiversity. This approach allowed them to study mammal communities across different forest layers—ground, understory-midstory, and canopy—revealing how various species share and utilize these spaces. The findings, published in the journals Ecology and Journal of Mammalogy, documented 47 mammal taxa, including primates, carnivores, rodents, artiodactyls, and pangolins, with 32 taxa detected on the ground, 23 in the understory, and 22 in the canopy. Notably, 25% of arboreal mammals preferred the understory, a detail that would have been missed by traditional ground-focused studies. 
