Comoe National Park

Comoe protects a transition the map rarely keeps intact: over eleven thousand square kilometres where the West African savanna meets the forest zone, gallery woodland tracing the Comoe River through grasslands studded with forest islands - a mosaic UNESCO inscribed for its exceptional plant diversity and the wildlife it carries, from elephants and buffalo to chimpanzees that research camps study in the park's south. Roan antelope and hartebeest work the open country, hippos crowd the river pools, and the birdlife - approaching five hundred species - makes the gallery forests sing. Recovering strongly under renewed management, Comoe rewards the travellers who reach its remote gates.

History

The area was always thinly populated, most likely because of its poor soils, river blindness along the Comoé and the tsetse flies that carry sleeping sickness. In 1926 the land between the Comoé River and Bouna was declared the Refuge Nord de la Côte d'Ivoire, enlarged in 1942 and 1953 as the Bouna wildlife reserve, and on 9 February 1968 the area west of the river was added and the whole raised to a national park of 11,500 square kilometres, the largest in West Africa. In 1983 it became a biosphere reserve and a World Heritage Site; it was put on the danger list in 2003, when the absence of management let poaching and cattle grazing spread, and the park later recovered with the return of the park service and the reopening of the research station (Wikipedia, Comoé National Park).

Highlights

• The Comoe River galleries - hippo pools under forest canopy.
• The savanna mosaics - grasslands, forest islands and roan antelope.
• The chimpanzee country - the southern forests' research territory.
• The birding - hornbills to bee-eaters across five habitats.

When to go

December to April, the dry season, concentrates game at the river and keeps tracks passable; the harmattan months are hazy but cool. Rains close much of the park to vehicles.

Before you go

Comoe is for self-sufficient or operator-supported travel: access roads are long and rough, facilities are basic camps, and sightings ask patience - this is wild West African savanna, not East African density. The recovery story is real and worth supporting.

Nearby

Bouna's crossroads town and the long roads south toward Abidjan or south to Bondoukou.

Key facts