Hippos and the chimpanzee islands of the River Gambia National Park
Hippopotamus, western chimpanzee (Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Project, released on the Baboon Islands), Guinea baboon, red colobus, Nile crocodile; African fish eagle, palm-nut vulture. Baboon Islands, Central River (Janjanbureh / Kuntaur), The Gambia.
Best time: 15 Jan – 30 Apr (January to April). Where: Janjanbureh (Georgetown) – river camps and boat hire, Kuntaur landing, River Gambia NP – Baboon Islands (no landing) (The Gambia). Time of day: Late afternoon river trip (about 16:00 to sunset) for hippos surfacing and chimp calls from the islands.
- Partly on your own
- Low cost
- Binoculars essential
- Sound 4/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 15 Jan – 30 Apr. Mid January to April, when the river is low and hippos concentrate; chimps call year-round, loudest at dawn and in the late afternoon
Active from 1 Nov to 15 Jun (November to June) in a typical year.
Time of day
Late afternoon river trip (about 16:00 to sunset) for hippos surfacing and chimp calls from the islands; hippos grunt through the night from the riverbank camps
- Evening river: 16:00 → sunset
- Hippo night: sunset → sunrise
What will you hear?
Hippo pods grunting and blowing on the river bends below Janjanbureh, chimpanzee pant-hoots carrying across the water from the Baboon Islands, baboon troops on the banks and fish eagles at every bend.
Binoculars?
Binoculars essential. Boats stay mid-channel: hippos are close but the chimp islands are 200 m+ off; binoculars needed for the apes.
Where to go
- Janjanbureh (Georgetown) – river camps and boat hire — Island town in the river; boats up to the park boundary from the camps and the ferry landing. Map
- Kuntaur landing — North-bank village nearest the Baboon Islands; boatmen here run the standard afternoon hippo-and-chimp trip. Map
- River Gambia NP – Baboon Islands (no landing) — The park is closed to the public and boats must stay mid-channel: released chimps are dangerous and the islands are their sanctuary. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Bus or sept-place to Janjanbureh (about 5 h from Banjul) or Kuntaur on the north bank; hire a boatman at the landing or through any river camp for the afternoon trip — no tour company needed. The park itself is closed; you stay on the water.
Cost: Boat about 1,500–2,500 dalasi per boat for 2–3 hours shared (recent camp prices) — check current prices; hippo listening from the riverbank free.
Free or no-guide alternative: Hippos surface and grunt in front of Janjanbureh town and at the Kuntaur landing — free from the riverbank at dusk and through the night, no boat.
Field-recording notes
Landing is prohibited and boats keep to the far channel — the chimp calls are a distance take, the hippos are close. Outboards: negotiate a drift with the engine off at the hippo pool. Riverbank camps at Janjanbureh give hippo grunts all night from a static rig on the bank (crocodiles — don't sit at the waterline). Harmattan haze and dust in January; hot by March.
Sources
Similar spectacles
Outamba-Kilimi — hippos, chimps and the northern savanna at nightHippo 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.
Pendjari: lions, elephants and hippos at the dry-season poolsLions roaring across the Pendjari plain in the small hours — one of the few places in West Africa where this is still likely — hippos bellowing at Mare Bali, elephants at the pools, hyena whoops and a savanna dawn of francolins, ground hornbills and doves.
Niokolo-Koba — hippos, lions and the Gambia river in the dry seasonHippo pods bellowing on the Gambia river below the Simenti terrace, lions roaring across the dry savanna, hyenas, and at dawn the booming of ground hornbills and the calls of spur-winged geese and Egyptian plovers on the sandbars.
Hippos on the Mono riverHippo laughing-grunts and blows from the river pools at dusk, carrying up the gallery forest, with nightjars and the fishing villages beyond.
Kainji Lake: hippos and savanna nights on the Oli riverHippo choruses on the Oli river pools at dusk, hyena and nightjars around the camp, baboon barks, and the wide Guinea-savanna dawn of francolins, hornbills and doves.
Saltwater hippos of OrangoHippo grunts and blows from a lagoon inside island forest, then the same animals walking past the village beach at night and surfacing in the sea in the morning — the world's only regularly marine hippos.
More: all spectacles in The Gambia · chimpanzees · hippos · wildlife at night · The Gambia in January · The Gambia in February · The Gambia in March · April