Chimpanzee dawn chorus in the Cantanhez forests
Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), western red colobus, king colobus, sooty mangabey, Campbell's monkey; hornbills, African grey parrot, forest elephants (rare). Cantanhez Forests National Park, Tombali (south), Guinea-Bissau.
Best time: 1 Jan – 15 Apr (January to April). Where: Iemberem – park post and ecotourism camp, Caiquene–Cadique forest patches, Cacine river mouth (Cacine) (Guinea-Bissau). Time of day: Pant-hoot choruses in the 30 minutes before sunrise and again at the nest sites in the last hour before dark.
- Guide, ranger or boat needed
- Entry fee
- Binoculars helpful
- 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: 1 Jan – 15 Apr. January to mid April, when the tracks are dry and the chimps concentrate on fruiting oil palms and orange groves near the villages
Active from 15 Nov to 31 May (November to May) in a typical year.
Time of day
Pant-hoot choruses in the 30 minutes before sunrise and again at the nest sites in the last hour before dark; a full forest dawn chorus from first light
- Dawn pant-hoots: 45 min before sunrise → 90 min after sunrise
- Nesting calls: 1 h before sunset → last light
What will you hear?
Chimpanzee 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.
Binoculars?
Binoculars helpful. Chimps are heard more than seen, and guides keep 20 m+; binoculars for colobus and hornbills in the canopy.
Where to go
- Iemberem – park post and ecotourism camp — Village at the heart of the park with a community camp; guides from the village accompany every walk (park rule). Map
- Caiquene–Cadique forest patches — Study area of the long-term chimpanzee research; the animals are not fully habituated, so encounters are by sound more than by sight. Map
- Cacine river mouth (Cacine) — Mangrove estuary on the park's southern edge for waders and terns; pirogues from Cacine. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Park rule: a village guide on every forest walk. Cheapest legal way: bush taxi Bissau–Catió–Iemberem, pay the park entry at the Iemberem post and hire a village guide there; sleep at the community camp.
Cost: IBAP park entry 5,000 CFA foreign / 2,000 CFA Guinean per person per day and guide 10,000 CFA per outing for up to 5 people (IBAP tariff, 2021; payable at the AD office or the Iemberem post); community camp, check current prices.
Free or no-guide alternative: The pant-hoot chorus carries beyond the forest edge: from the public road and the village of Iemberem itself at dawn you hear the chimps and hornbills without entering the forest. No legal way into the forest blocks without a guide.
Who runs access
- IBAP – Cantanhez park post, Iemberem (park authority) — Park-appointed village guides.
Field-recording notes
A dawn-chorus rather than a sighting site: chimps here are shy and the park's guides keep 20 m+ distance (disease transmission rules — masks are increasingly expected around great apes). The forest is patchy between villages and fields, so village roosters, mortars and motorbikes are in most takes; the guides know the deeper blocks. Humidity 90%+, dew soaks everything at dawn; harmattan haze in January. Long road from Bissau (5–7 h), no fuel south of Catió.
Sources
- Wikipedia – Cantanhez Forests National Park
- IBAP
- Wild Chimpanzee Foundation – West African chimpanzee conservation
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More: all spectacles in Guinea-Bissau · chimpanzees · dawn choruses · Guinea-Bissau in January · Guinea-Bissau in February · March · April