Wildlife spectacles in Mauritania
8 spectacles through the year, ordered by when they peak. Open Mauritania in the interactive calendar for the map and listening times.
Aftout es Saheli — West Africa's only lesser flamingo breeding colonyFourteen thousand flamingo chicks and their parents: a continuous honking, growling roar from the colony islets that carries over a kilometre of flat water at dawn, the wing-thunder of a few thousand adults lifting at a jackal, and the lesser flamingos' higher yapping among the greater flamingos' goose-like calls. Around it, the silence of the Sahel coast.
Seabird and spoonbill colonies on the Banc d'Arguin islandsRoyal and Caspian tern colonies screaming, pelican colonies grunting, spoonbill bill-clacking at the nest, and slender-billed gull chatter across the water from a stationary boat.
Mediterranean monk seal colony, Cap BlancThe world's largest monk seal colony (around 300 animals) in a few sea caves and cliff-foot beaches: barks, snorts and pup bleats over surf — but mostly heard from above, at a distance, on the viewing platforms.
Autumn seabird passage off Ras NouadhibouA visual seawatch over the Cap Blanc upwelling — the same seabird river that Ngor (Dakar) and the Banc d'Arguin islands see; gannets and skuas within the surf line on windy mornings. Sound value is low unless you deploy a hydrophone for the fish-and-dolphin activity of the upwelling.
Imraguen mullet fishing with dolphins, Banc d'ArguinMen slapping the surface with sticks to call the dolphins, the dolphins' blows as they drive the shoal into the shallows, and the whole village on the beach hauling nets. Rare now — most mullet are taken by lanche — so ask in the village whether a beach net is planned.
Two million waders wintering on the Banc d'ArguinA roar of wings when a roost of tens of thousands lifts, knot and godwit flocks calling on the move, flamingos and spoonbills in the shallows, and the only human sound the creak of an Imraguen lanche's sail. Night roosts murmur continuously.
Diawling floodplain — pelicans, flamingos and Palearctic ducksPelican flotillas grunting, garganey and pintail flocks whirring off the flooded basins, flamingo chorus, and the low background of the Diama dam and the Senegal river.
Baie du Lévrier — 37,000 gulls, terns and waders in Nouadhibou's bayA big gull and tern roost — royal and Caspian tern screams, slender-billed and Audouin's gulls, knot and godwit flocks — beside one of West Africa's busiest fishing ports; the iron-ore train and the harbour are the backdrop, the Baie de l'Étoile north of town is the quiet, dolphin-haunted end.