Over the years, I have seen the range of this charismatic animal contract from vast swathes of Africa to isolated pockets.

In western Africa, in particular, a mammal that once roamed relatively freely in this region from the Atlantic coast up to the mountains of Algeria and across to the equatorial forests is now stranded in the last remaining piece of wilderness in the far west of Africa - Niokolo-Koba National Park (NKNP) in Senegal.

I reached out to the guides of Niokolo-Koba via their website in 2016 and was met with a warm welcome and detailed information first from Ousmane Baté, and then Abdoulaye Kanté. Gathering information about the park was relatively straightforward with their help and, after a handful of false starts, I headed to Senegal in May 2018, eager to attempt to photograph the last remaining wild dogs in west Africa - a great adventure awaited!

Abdoulaye had worked hard to sort out all logistics ahead of my arrival - the cost of my trip was settled in advance via Western Union (a pain-free process). I was picked up from the new Dakar airport by Abdoulaye, who had arranged a vehicle and English-speaking driver for the whole trip. The journey itself to the south-east of Senegal from Dakar was very easy, even accounting for some minor car trouble, and by early evening we had made it to comfortable accommodation just outside the park.

Driving into the park the next morning, we ticked off many of the species that call NKNP home: beautiful kewel (West African bushbuck), numerous waterbuck, Buffon’s kob, as well as the many crocodiles and hippos that line the Gambia River.

Our first night within the Park was spent at the Campement du Lion run by the cooperative of NKNP guides. One accustomed to the luxuries of eastern and southern Africa should adjust their expectations if visiting Campement du Lion, as you are truly in the wild here. Running water and electricity were not available [electricity has now been installed], but the huts are comfortable and food (fish from the nearby Gambia River) very pleasant. Vitally for many visitors, the camp is in the heart of lion country - to see these few remaining cats of West Africa is a real possibility here.

The following morning, Abdoulaye arranged for us to drive to the ranger post at Lingue-Kountou, further south-east and deeper into the park. This area is known to be frequented by wild dogs, as they cross the arid area north of the Niokolo-Koba River to the river itself to drink each morning and evening.

Our mornings and evenings for the next week were spent accompanying the rangers on their patrols into the nearby areas, which was fascinating and hugely enjoyable. We visited a number of den sites previously used by wild dogs, and on our travels stumbled across spotted hyaena, serval, side-striped jackal as well as the omnipresent warthogs, baboons, and red-flanked duiker. Evidence of predators was all around - we routinely came across lion tracks and leopard spoor. Excitingly, one foray towards the river crossed an area of dried out floodplain that had preserved a clear wild dog track from the preceding wet season, a sign that the dogs were around.

Our evenings at Lingue-Kountou were fantastic, sleeping out under clear skies, chatting with the rangers in my limited French about the football we listened to on the radio, and joining them for evening meals of incredibly spicy fish and rice.

Abdoulaye arranged a day trip further south-east to Mount Assirik whilst we stayed in Lingue-Kountou.

The Mount Assirik area is renowned for holding elusive populations of ground-dwelling chimpanzees, giant eland and the last elephants in Senegal. Our trip was impacted by incredible heat (we reckoned 48 degrees Celsius) but we were still able to enjoy the beauty of the Mt Assirik plateau. Incredibly, we came across a single elephant track en route to Assirik - it is believed there are just three elephants remaining in Senegal, so to come across them would be really something.

After our trip to Assirik, we based ourselves back in the main game-viewing area around Campement du Lion.

Here, we took numerous day-trips to the Grand Mirador area, a beautiful viewpoint from which rangers has recently seen a pack of over a dozen dogs. We spent many hours here, and came across buffalo, western hartebeest and oodles of kobas (roan antelope). The area was also covered in wild dog and leopard tracks, testament to the predator population here.

When not visiting the Mirador, we tended to frequent the main game-viewing circuit visiting the various “mares” (small wetlands) that attract birdlife and mammals. It was here that our best sighting caught us by surprise - as we trundled along the track, a leopard burst from the bush ahead of us and across the road, melting away before I could even raise my camera. I am given to understand leopard sightings are a rarity in NKNP, so this was a sighting I treasured.

It became apparent in the following days that three male lions were resident in the area also - we could hear their bellows from camp during the night, and their huge tracks were easily visible on the tracks near camp. Numerous hours were spent tracking them, but they always managed to evade us - many other tourists did come across them, and finding them is very much possible!

Our evenings in Campement du Lion were spent enjoying fantastic views of honey badgers, civets and even a distant view of a leopard as they passed by camp.

I would absolutely recommend that anyone with a spiridt of adventure visit Niokolo-Koba. In particular, anyone who wishes to have a chance to come across the incredibly rare West African populations of wild dog, lion, leopard, elephant, giant eland and chimpanzee should have Niokolo-Koba very high on their wish list.

I will be sure to return soon, particularly as the dogs have been regularly seen by the NKNP guides (five times between November 2019 and January 2020)!