Dindéfélo — savanna chimpanzees pant-hooting under the Fouta Djallon escarpment
Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus, about 70 in the reserve, 53 identified in two communities); Guinea baboon, green and patas monkeys, hornbills; the Dindéfélo waterfall. Réserve Naturelle Communautaire de Dindéfélo, Kédougou region (Guinea border), Senegal.
Best time: 1 Dec – 31 Mar (December to March). Where: Dindéfélo village and reserve office, Dindéfélo waterfall and gallery forest, Ségou (Senegal). Time of day: Pant-hoot choruses from the nest sites in the half hour before sunrise, again as groups move at mid-morning and at nesting time in the last hour of light.
- Partly on your own
- 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 Dec – 31 Mar. December to March — dry season, leaves off the trees, chimps concentrated near the gallery-forest water and audible over kilometres at dawn; April–May is 40 °C+
Active from 1 Nov to 31 May (November to May) in a typical year.
Time of day
Pant-hoot choruses from the nest sites in the half hour before sunrise, again as groups move at mid-morning and at nesting time in the last hour of light; drumming on buttresses carries 2–3 km in the dry season
- Dawn pant-hoots: 45 min before sunrise → 90 min after sunrise
- Nesting calls: 75 min before sunset → sunset
What will you hear?
The 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.
Binoculars?
Binoculars helpful. Since 2021 the reserve no longer tracks chimps for tourists — you listen from paths and the plateau edge; binoculars for baboons, monkeys and hornbills on the cliffs.
Where to go
- Dindéfélo village and reserve office — Campements, the reserve office (fees, guides) and the JGI Spain biological station; the cliff and gallery forest start behind the village. Map
- Dindéfélo waterfall and gallery forest — Senegal's highest fall, 20 minutes' walk from the village; the stream is the chimps' dry-season water and the forest below the fall the best listening post at dawn. Coordinates approximate. Map
- Ségou — Second village of the commune on the plateau road towards Guinea; the Ségou community and gallery forests, fewer visitors. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Sept-place or bus to Kédougou (Dakar–Tambacounda–Kédougou, a long day), then a taxi or moto 35 km to Dindéfélo. Pay the reserve fee at the village office and take one of the village guides for the forest paths; the waterfall path is walkable alone but the fee applies. Campements in the village (basic, a few thousand CFA).
Cost: Reserve entry and guide fee paid to the commune at the office — a few thousand CFA per person per day in recent trip reports; campement beds about 5,000–10,000 CFA. Check current prices.
Free or no-guide alternative: The dawn pant-hoots carry to the village itself and to the public Kédougou–Dindéfélo road along the foot of the escarpment: stand at the edge of the fields before sunrise and listen for free, without entering the reserve.
Who runs access
- Réserve de Dindéfélo — village guides and lodging (community project) — The reserve's own site: lodging, guides, treks; contact reserve.dindefelo@gmail.com.
Field-recording notes
A community reserve with a fee and a local guide required for the forest paths; ask the office for a dawn departure (they are used to tourists only coming for the waterfall at midday). No approaching the chimpanzees — the tracking programme was stopped in 2021 to protect them and non-tracking ecotourism replaced it; the recording is of a chorus at distance, so a parabola or long shotgun from the plateau edge. Dry-season noise is low (no insects in the cold mornings); bushfires in Jan–Mar can fill the air with smoke and crackle. Heat is brutal from March; water is scarce. A new road, a power line and gold mining are eroding the quiet. Guinea border 5 km: carry your passport.
Sources
- IUCN SSC Apes Atlas – Dindefelo (140 km², 53 identified chimps, tracking tourism 2013–2021, threats)
- Jane Goodall Institute NZ – Reports from Dindéfélo (about 70 chimps, village, waterfall, fees)
- Jane Goodall Institute Belgium – The Dindéfélo nature reserve
- Réserve de Dindéfélo – official site
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More: all spectacles in Senegal · chimpanzees · dawn choruses · Senegal in January · Senegal in February · Senegal in March · Senegal in December