Haut Niger National Park — the Mafou savanna and the upper Niger
Western chimpanzee, hippopotamus, buffalo, roan, kob, warthog; Abyssinian ground hornbill, Egyptian plover on the river sandbars, wintering Palearctic waders and raptors. Parc National du Haut Niger, Faranah / Kouroussa, Guinea.
Best time: 15 Jan – 15 Apr (January to April). Where: Faranah – park office and the Niger, Mafou core zone (Sidakoro side) (Guinea). Time of day: Hippos and the river chorus from dusk through the night.
- 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: 15 Jan – 15 Apr. Mid January to mid April, when the Niger is low and animals gather on the river
Active from 1 Dec to 15 May (December to May) in a typical year.
Time of day
Hippos and the river chorus from dusk through the night; ground hornbills booming before sunrise; chimps at dawn in the Mafou gallery forests
- River night: sunset → 1 h after sunrise
What will you hear?
Hippos on the upper Niger, ground hornbills' bass at dawn, chimps in the gallery forests of the Mafou core, and the dry savanna at night with hyenas and nightjars — a Sahelian-Guinean mix with almost nobody there.
Binoculars?
Binoculars helpful. Hippos and hornbills at moderate range on the river; binoculars help by day, ears do the night.
Where to go
- Faranah – park office and the Niger — Town on the Niger and the park's administrative base; guides and permits here. Map
- Mafou core zone (Sidakoro side) — The park's strict zone between the Niger and the Mafou; 4x4 and a park guide. Coordinates approximate. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Park rule: a park guide and a permit from the Faranah office; you need a 4x4 (hire in Faranah or Kissidougou). Cheapest legal route: bush taxi to Faranah, permit and guide at the park office, camp.
Cost: Park permit and guide — check current prices at the Faranah office.
Free or no-guide alternative: The Niger riverfront in Faranah town and the public road bridge give hippos, Egyptian plovers and the river dusk free, without entering the park.
Field-recording notes
Very few visitors, no lodges: camping with the park's guide. Dry-season fires and hot, dusty days; the harmattan is strong here in January. Hunting pressure around the park is real, so expect shots outside the core. Chimps are unhabituated.
Sources
Similar spectacles
Hippos and the chimpanzee islands of the River Gambia National ParkHippo 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.
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.
Fouta Djallon — savanna chimpanzees and the Bafing highlandsChimp calls echoing off sandstone canyon walls in a savanna-woodland mosaic, baboon troops on the cliffs, hippos on the Bafing, and canyons full of waterfall noise after the rains — with the Fulani villages' cattle and calls to prayer.
Habituated chimpanzees and the Taï forest dawnPant-hoot choruses and buttress drumming rolling through primary rainforest, the crashing and screaming of a Diana colobus troop, hornbills' wingbeats over the canopy, cicadas and, at night, tree hyrax and Demidoff's galago.
Dindéfélo — savanna chimpanzees pant-hooting under the Fouta Djallon escarpmentThe northern-most chimpanzee chorus in Africa: pant-hoots climbing to screams from the gallery forest under the escarpment, buttress drumming echoing off the cliff, baboons barking in reply, then the waterfall and a hornbill dawn. The village wakes with cockerels, mortars and the mosque — walk 20 minutes out and it is gone.
Chimpanzee dawn chorus in the Cantanhez forestsChimpanzee pant-hoot choruses and drumming carrying through the northernmost primary forest in Africa, colobus roars, hornbills' wingbeats and grey parrots' screeching over the oil-palm villages of the Nalu people.
More: all spectacles in Guinea · chimpanzees · wildlife at night · Guinea in January · Guinea in February · Guinea in March · April