Senegal
Niokolo-Koba National Park
Niokolo-Koba National Park on the banks of the Gambia and other rivers is known for its diversity of wildlife.
Most of the park consists of relatively flat woodland savannah and semi-arid Sudanese forest, intermingled with wetlands. Wildlife, in numbers unique for this region, includes (at the time of inscription) elephants, lions, leopards, chimpanzees, baboons, hippopotamuses and the derby eland.
Community Perspective: The park was labelled “great” by our first reviewer, who visited in 2006 and 2008. More recently, however, the park has suffered from a severe loss in wildlife numbers due to poaching (IUCN Outlook 2020). Els in 2025 found it hard to reach areas with at least some animal activity.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- Niokolo-Koba National Park (ID: 153)
- Country
- Senegal
- Status
-
Inscribed 1981
Site history
History of Niokolo-Koba National Park
- 1981: Inscribed
- Inscribed
- 2007: In Danger
- Critically low mammal populations, the ongoing management problems and the impacts of the proposed new dam on the Gambia river a few kilometres upstream of the park
- 2024: Removed from Danger list
- WHS Type
- Natural
- Criteria
- x
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Related Resources
- au-senegal.com — Practical Info by Au Sénégal tourism portal
- niokolo-safari.com — Official website of the guide organization at Niokolo
- mammalwatching.com — Mammalwatching trip report from 2018
News Article
- April 18, 2024 whc.unesco.org — Towards the removal of Niokolo-Koba National Park from the List of World Heritage in Danger: UNESCO supports Senegal’s National Parks Department
- June 11, 2021 worldatlas.com — Rare Wildlife Images From Niokolo Koba National Park Give Birth To New Hope
- Nov. 25, 2009 afriquejet.com — Niokolo Koba Park in peril
Community Information
- Community Category
- Wildlife habitat: Fauna
Travel Information
Recent Connections
View all (29) .Connections of Niokolo-Koba National Park
- Trivia
- Ecology
- Damaged
- World Heritage Process
- Human Activity
- WHS on Other Lists
- Visiting conditions
News
- whc.unesco.org 04/18/2024
- Towards the removal of Niokolo-Kob…
- worldatlas.com 06/11/2021
- Rare Wildlife Images From Niokolo …
- afriquejet.com 11/25/2009
- Niokolo Koba Park in peril
Recent Visitors
Visitors of Niokolo-Koba National Park
- Ali Zingstra
- Ask Gudmundsen
- Atila Ege
- Bodil Ankerly
- CynthiaSam
- David Pastor de la Orden
- Dutchnick
- Els Slots
- Iain Jackson
- Jarek Pokrzywnicki
- jxrocky
- Luis Filipe Gaspar
- Malgorzata Kopczynska
- Michal Kozok
- Michal Marciniak
- MMM
- Nihal Ege
- Olli-Pekka Turunen
- Philipp Leu
- Roger Ourset
- Roman Bruehwiler
- Stanislaw Warwas
- Szucs Tamas
- Westwards
Community Reviews
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Like Bulgaria, Senegal was quick off the mark, resulting in some WHS getting in early which are questionable now. Niokolo-Koba, named after the Niokolo (Koba) River and the Kob antelope, is an enormous park in the east of the country. At its inscription it was rich in mammals including “a large population of elephants”, but after decades of poaching (which has been curtailed only in recent years), few of that is left. It has chimps, lions and other location-specific mammal species that are clinging on to existence and are heavily supported by conservation NGOs such as Panthera. Still, it’s remarkable considering the circumstances that such small and isolated populations have managed to survive for so long in West Africa.
Don’t expect to see them though, those elephants or lions which are so numerous in Southern and Eastern Africa – there are only a dozen or so here in a fairly inaccessible park. For a reality check, I recommend reading this trip report of someone who stayed in the park for 2 weeks in 2018 looking for wild dogs but saw none (no wild dogs, no lions, no elephants). Also, the park seems to leave the more interesting parts such as Mt Assirik to scientists only.
With my Gambian driver and guide, I stayed at Camp Wassadou, which lies just across the River Gambia from where the park begins. Some 20 other guests were present, which indicates that tourists still trickle in. On the afternoon of our arrival, …
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Niokolokoba is a great reserve, I did'nt expect such a great range of species in Senegal. I have visited Simenti twice with West African Tours travelling from The Gambia once in 2006 and then again in 2008. On our second visit the species list included Leopard, Roan Antelope, Hippopotamus,Kob, Oribi, Waterbuck, Ground Hornbill, Black Crowned Crane, Saddle-billed Stork and Lion. We missed Hunting Dog and Chimpanzee (but we found fresh nests).
This park is a short / cheap flight from the UK and has great wildlife, some interesting villages and Simenti makes a great base.
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