South Sudan

South Sudan is dominated by the Sudd, one of the largest wetlands in the world, a floodplain where the White Nile spreads out into a maze of channels, papyrus and floating islands of vegetation that shift position with the floods. That wetland is the refuge of the shoebill, an enormous, prehistoric-looking bird, and of large populations of sitatunga, crocodiles and hippopotamuses. To the east and south open immense, thinly peopled savannahs, at Boma and Badingilo, with seasonal grasslands that sustain antelope herds on a continental scale. In the far south, the forest of Western Equatoria links with the Congo basin and holds forest elephants, bongos and chimpanzees. The country is one of the least explored in Africa from a biological point of view.