Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mammals
First, some good news. Two of West Africa's most emblematic and endangered herds -
the giraffes at Kouré in Niger and Mali's desert elephants - are holding their own in the
most difficult of circumstances.
In most cases, West Africa's elephants exist in small, isolated herds and are considered
endangered. In Côte d'Ivoire, for example, the vast herds that gave the country its name
have been reduced to around 300. Apart from Mali, the best places to see elephants in-
clude Ghana's Mole National Park, Burkina Faso's Ranch de Nazinga and Cameroon's
Parc National de Waza.
Possibly the best-known and most easily observed mammals of West Africa are mon-
keys. These include several types of colobus and green or vervet monkeys. Other primates
include mangabeys, baboons and galagos (bushbabies), as well as chimpanzees and the
rare and endangered drill. Cameroon also hosts an endangered population of western low-
land gorillas.
From 1976 to 1996, there were almost 5000 oil spills (equivalent to three million barrels of oil) in Nigeria's
Niger Delta, where there are 66 gas fields and 500 oil wells.
Mammals more readily seen include several beautiful antelope species, such as bush-
bucks, reedbucks, waterbucks, kobs, roans, elands, oribis and various gazelles and
duikers; the sitatunga is more shy. The Sahel-dwelling dama gazelle is the largest gazelle
species in Africa, but it is now close to extinction as its grazing lands have been taken
over by cattle and reduced by desertification. The red-fronted gazelle may still survive in
Mali's remote far east. Wild pig species include giant hogs and bush pigs (the West Afric-
an species is often called the red river hog), which inhabit forest areas, and warthogs, fre-
quently seen in drier savannah areas. Buffaloes in West Africa inhabit forest regions; they
are smaller and redder than the East African version.
In the rivers, including the upper reaches of the Niger and Gambia Rivers, hippos can
sometimes be seen, but numbers are low. Some hippos have adapted to live in salt water
and exist in coastal areas such as the Orango Islands National Park in the Arquipélago dos
Bijagós in Guinea-Bissau. A few forest areas, including Liberia's Sapo National Park and
Sierra Leone's Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, are home to very small populations of elu-
sive pygmy hippos, which are less aquatic than their larger cousins. Other marine mam-
mals found in the region include dolphins, especially where the region's rivers meet the
ocean, and humpback whales, which can be seen off Freetown Peninsula in Sierra Leone,
especially in September and January.
