Wildlife to see in Sierra Leone in December

6 spectacles at their peak in Sierra Leone in December, and 2 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open Sierra Leone in December in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.

At their peak in December

• Tiwai Island — eleven primates and the Moa river dawnSierra Leone · Dawn chorus & song · peak 1 Dec–31 MarOne of the densest primate soundscapes in Africa: Diana monkeys' explosive alarm calls, red colobus chatter, the roar of king colobus, chimps' pant-hoots across the river, hornbills whooshing overhead, and the Moa river's rapids underneath.
• Gola Rainforest — picathartes, hornbills and the forest chorusSierra Leone · Dawn chorus & song · peak 15 Dec–15 MarThe Upper Guinea forest at full volume — hornbills, chimps, the bubbling of yellow-bearded greenbul, guineafowl clucking on the trail — and the near-silent arrival of picathartes to their mud nests under a boulder, with only wing-noise and soft croaks.
• Straw-coloured fruit bats over FreetownSierra Leone · Bats · peak 1 Nov–28 FebThe squabbling, squeaking chorus of a straw-coloured fruit bat roost and the wing-rush of the dusk emergence over a city — one of the great urban wildlife sounds of West Africa, if the colony can be found.
• Western Area Peninsula forest — the dawn chorus above FreetownSierra Leone · Dawn chorus & song · peak 15 Nov–15 AprA rainforest dawn chorus 30 minutes from the capital: hornbills, turacos, greenbuls, sooty mangabey whoops, and at night the astonishing screams of tree hyrax and the pant-hoot chorus of Tacugama's 100+ rescued chimpanzees.
• Sherbro and the Turtle Islands — terns, waders and turtle beachesSierra Leone · Seabird colony · peak 15 Nov–28 FebTern and wader roosts on white sandbanks between eight Sherbro-speaking fishing islands, surf, and the villages' evening singing; dolphins in the channels.
• Sierra Leone River estuary and Yawri Bay — wintering waders on Freetown's doorstepSierra Leone · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Nov–28 FebWader and tern roosts on the mudflats of one of West Africa's biggest estuaries, with mangrove crackle, pelicans and the constant boat traffic of Freetown's harbour.

Also going on in December

• Loma Mountains: chimpanzees, rockfowl and the climb to BintumaniSierra Leone · Dawn chorus & song · peak 1 Jan–31 MarThe Upper Guinea forest below Bintumani at dawn: chimpanzee choruses carrying across the valleys, colobus roars, hornbills, greenbuls and the fluting of the forest robins; the streams at Camp 1; on the high ridge, wind, francolins and the calls of swifts around the summit rocks. Rockfowl are silent and found by their mud nests on the rock faces — a visual, not a sound.
• Outamba-Kilimi — hippos, chimps and the northern savanna at nightSierra Leone · Nocturnal · peak 15 Jan–15 AprHippo pods on the Little Scarcies river, chimps and colobus in the gallery forests at dawn, ground hornbills booming, and savanna nights with nightjars and hyenas — Sierra Leone's oldest park and its emptiest.

More: Sierra Leone all year · December along the whole flyway