Niokolo-Koba National Park, the oldest and biggest of Senegal, named as a World Heritage Site and as a Biosphere Reserve in 1981, covers 913,000 hectares in the extreme south-east of the country. Situated in the Guinean savanna zone, it is characterised by gallery forests, floodable herbaceous savanna, ponds, dry forests, slopes and rocky hills, and major watercourses (the Gambia, the Sereko, the Niokolo-Koba, the Koulountou).

The remarkable diversity of vegetation in the Park with more than 1,500 species justifies the presence of a great wealth of animal life: more than 80 species of mammals, more than 340 species of birds, 36 reptiles, 20 amphibians, 60 fish and very many species of invertebrate. The star mammals are the giant eland (the largest antelope in the world), the chimpanzee, the lion and an undetermined number of elephants which stay in difficultly accessible zones. Among the others there is a high density of antelopes (roan, cob, hartebeest, oribi, bushbuck, defassa waterbuck, grey and red-flanked duikers), buffalo, hippopotami, warthogs, monkeys (green, patas, baboon), and numerous but rarely seen carnivores (leopards, spotted hyenas, wild dogs, jackals, caracals, civets, mongooses). The reptiles include the three species of African crocodile and four species of turtles. In winter there are numerous migrant birds in addition to the often brightly coloured African residents like hornbills, rollers, sunbirds, bee-eaters, barbets and weavers; eagles, vultures and other raptors, and many species of storks and water birds.

The large mammals of the Park are described (in French) here*.

A list of the birds observed in or in the close vicinity of the Park is in this document:

The 11 birds listed in normal type are either very rare or not yet observed in the park itself. The file is write-protected; to manipulate it copy the tables to a new spreadsheet file.