Imagine a beach where, instead of sunbathers, you find families of forest elephants wading into the waves. That is Loango. The park stretches for 170 kilometres along the coast and contains lagoons, mangroves, beaches and thick rainforest all in one place. Because so few people live nearby, animals roam freely between the trees and the sea.
The hippos of Loango have learned something unusual: they sometimes play in the breaking waves along the beach, just like surfers waiting for a good ride. Scientists think they do this to travel between lagoons. Watching a hippo bob in the Atlantic Ocean is a sight you would not easily forget!
The park is also home to gorillas, chimpanzees, buffalos, leopards and hundreds of bird species. In the green lagoons, manatees glide silently beneath the surface. Between July and September, humpback whales swim past just offshore, and you can sometimes hear them singing from the beach.
Loango is protected so that all these animals can live safely. There are no roads through most of the park, so visitors arrive by boat and travel on foot with guides. Keeping the park wild means future children will still be able to see elephants dancing in the surf.