01/03/2026
West Africa is a birders paradise. It is not however renowned for its wildlife and people don’t tend to come here for wildlife safaris like they do in East and Southern Africa, but we do get some pretty cool experiences in our travels. In the last weeks we had baboons moving around whilst we scooted along in Senegal. Both in the Saloum Delta region and Casamance.
We saw an aggregation of West African Manatees at Pointe Sainte George in Casamance. The Casamance river is tidal and the water here is salty. They come at low tide to drink from a fresh water spring that bubbles up at this location. They aren’t well studied but apparently they need fresh water at least every couple of days to stay hydrated.
Perhaps the highlight was our visit to Orango National Park in the Bijagós Archipelago in Guinea Bissau. The Bijagós is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, partly recognised for its outstanding wildlife. We took a speed boat and then trekked for an hour to a waterhole that has a population of Hippos. We sat in the trees next to the waterhole while they watched us watching them.
There are over 700 species of birds in this corner of West Africa. And this juvenile yellow billed stork was just one of them.
And then to finish the trip off, we got chased by dolphins as we headed for the sunset on the ferry back to Dakar from Ziguinchor.
