Straw-coloured fruit bat roost at 37 Military Hospital, Accra
Straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum). Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana.
Best time: 1 Dec – 28 Feb (December to February). Where: 37 Military Hospital – roost trees along Liberation Road, Kwame Nkrumah Circle / Ridge flight line (Ghana). Time of day: Emergence begins about 15 minutes after sunset and streams out for 30–45 minutes.
- You can go on your own
- Free
- No binoculars needed
- Sound 5/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 1 Dec – 28 Feb. December to February, when the dry-season colony is at its largest (well over 100,000; only a few thousand stay through the rains)
Active from 15 Oct to 30 Apr (October to April) in a typical year.
Time of day
Emergence begins about 15 minutes after sunset and streams out for 30–45 minutes; the colony is loud all day, loudest in the heat of the early afternoon and as the bats return in the last hour before sunrise
- Return to roost: 90 min before sunrise → 30 min after sunrise
- Evening emergence: sunset → 1 h after sunset
What will you hear?
A continuous shrieking, chattering wall of sound from the roost trees over the hospital and the 37 lorry station, wing-slaps and squabbling as bats jostle, then the rushing of the evening emergence over Liberation Road. Pied crows and a few raptors work the edges.
Binoculars?
No binoculars needed. The roost trees hang over the pavement and the emergence pours overhead; naked eye.
Where to go
- 37 Military Hospital – roost trees along Liberation Road — Public pavement and the lorry station; the hospital grounds themselves need permission from the gate. The trees line one of Accra's busiest roads. Map
- Kwame Nkrumah Circle / Ridge flight line — The evening stream fans out over the city centre; rooftops of guesthouses along the flight line are quieter than the road. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Take any tro-tro or taxi to '37' (the 37 Military Hospital lorry station) on Liberation Road and stand on the public pavement under the roost trees, or watch the emergence from the pavement on the Ridge side. No ticket, no guide; do not enter the hospital compound and do not point rigs at the military gate.
Cost: Free (public road); a taxi from central Accra is a few cedis.
Field-recording notes
This is an urban roost on a six-lane road: the bats sit easily 20 dB above the traffic at the roost but the emergence has to be taken against a continuous traffic bed, so plan a close, directional rig at the roost trees rather than a wide ambience. The hospital is a military installation: no recording inside the fence without written permission, and rigs pointed at the buildings will be questioned. Guano and urine fall under the trees; cover the rig. The hospital's periodic tree-pruning and past culling proposals mean the colony's size can change from year to year. Migratory arrival and departure dates shift by a few weeks; check with the Ghana Wildlife Society before flying in for it.
Sources
- Ghana Wildlife Society
- Bats at 37 Military Hospital (Wikipedia)
- Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats through tri-axial acceleration (PLOS One, Accra colony)
Similar spectacles
The Plateau fruit bats of Abidjan — a city-centre roost flying out to the Banco forestA shrieking, squabbling wall of sound from the big trees of the Plateau administrative district, wing-slaps and jostling, then the rush of the evening emergence over the avenues and the lagoon bridges. The return at first light is quieter and more musical — thousands of bats settling and arguing over branches above the empty Sunday streets.
Straw-coloured fruit bats over FreetownThe 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.
East Nimba Nature Reserve — the Liberian side of Mount NimbaBat emergences from the disused iron-mine adits below the Nimba ridge (a full-spectrum recorder finds far more than the ear), chimps and hornbills in the remnant forest, and the wind on the grassland summit.
Îles Ehotilé: fruit bats, waterbirds and mangrove lagoonFruit bats chattering on the roost islands and rushing out over the water at dusk, egret colonies bickering as they settle, terns and whimbrel over the flats, and dugout paddles in a mangrove-lined lagoon.
Fruit bat colony on the cliffs of Wli FallsA high, ceaseless chattering from many thousands of bats hanging on the cliff face beside the upper cascade, then the rush of wings as the colony peels off at dusk over the pool, all against the falls.
Bat hibernacula in the Mønsted and Daugbjerg limestone minesAudible squeaks and wing-flutter of hundreds of Myotis swarming at the entrances; on a detector, dense FM sweeps and social calls; tawny owls in the beech above; otherwise rural silence.
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