Baboons, bat caves and savanna dawn at Shai Hills

Olive baboon, kob, bushbuck, green monkey; insectivorous bats in the Sayu caves; stone partridge, hornbills and doves. Shai Hills Resource Reserve, 50 km from Accra, Ghana.

Best time: 1 Dec – 15 Mar (December to March). Where: Shai Hills – main gate and Hioweyo inselberg, Sayu caves (Ghana). Time of day: Reserve opens at 06:00.

• Guide, ranger or boat needed
• Entry fee
• Binoculars helpful
• Sound 3/5

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 – 15 Mar. December to mid March: dry, clear mornings with the grass burnt low and animals at the waterholes

Active from 1 Nov to 30 Apr (November to April) in a typical year.

Time of day

Reserve opens at 06:00; the baboon troop is around the gate and the inselbergs in the first two hours of light; bats leave the caves at dusk

• Dawn on the inselbergs: 06:00 → 08:30
• Bat emergence: sunset → 45 min after sunset

What will you hear?

Baboon barks echoing off the inselbergs, stone partridge and helmeted guineafowl at first light, and the squeaks and wing-flutter of bats streaming from the Sayu caves at dusk.

Binoculars?

Binoculars helpful. Baboons are around the gate and inselbergs at close range; binoculars for kob on the plain, bats stream out at dusk overhead.

Where to go

• Shai Hills – main gate and Hioweyo inselberg — Entry with a guide on foot, by bike or in your own car; the caves are a short guided climb. Map
• Sayu caves — Historic Shai settlement caves with bat colonies; guide required, torch needed. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

A reserve guide is compulsory inside (reserve rule); tro-tro from Accra towards Akosombo to the Shai Hills gate, pay entry and the guide fee at the gate. Your own car or a bicycle can be used inside with the guide.

Cost: Entry plus guide fee, non-Ghanaian rate higher; check current prices.

Free or no-guide alternative: The baboon troop often sits on the verge of the public Tema–Akosombo road at the reserve fence in the early morning, and the inselbergs are visible from outside; free, but the caves and trails need the guide.

Who runs access

• Shai Hills Resource Reserve (Wildlife Division) – guided walks and cave visits (park authority) — Park-run

Field-recording notes

The reserve closes at dusk, so a bat emergence means arranging late exit at the gate; the guide fee covers it. The Tema–Akosombo highway runs along the western edge and quarries operate nearby: record on the eastern trails. Full-spectrum recording in the caves gets the bats; the cave acoustics are dead and close. Not a major spectacle, but the easiest wild sound within an hour of Accra.

Sources

• Shai Hills Resource Reserve (Wikipedia)

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More: all spectacles in Ghana · dawn choruses · Ghana in January · Ghana in February · Ghana in March · Ghana in December