The almost 12,000 km² national park is one of the largest nature reserves in West Africa. It consists mainly of wet and dry savannah and is famous for its diverse flora and fauna. These include lions, elephants, monkey and crocodile species.
Comoé National Park: facts
Official title:
Comoé National Park
Natural monument:
originally the Réserve de Faune de Bouna-Komoé, national park since 1968, area of 11 492.5 km² with heights of 119 to 658 m (Mont Yévelé) and extensive erosion plains along with island mountains made of granite, the Comoé flows over 230 km through the national park
Continent:
Africa
Country:
Ivory Coast
Location:
in the northwest of the prefectures of Bouna and Ferkessedougou, southwest of Bouna and north of Abidjan
Appointment:
1983
Meaning:
one of the largest nature reserves in West Africa
Flora and fauna:
90% wet and dry savannah as well as 10 gallery and dry forests, in the forest occurrence of plant species such as Afzelia afrikana and Isoberlinia doka, in the savannah of Combretum, Andropogon and Bauhinia, endangered plants include, among others. Borassus aethiopum and Chlorophora excelsa; northernmost distribution area of the yellow bridge ducker and the bongo; 11 species of monkeys such as Anubis baboon, Diana and monkey cats, small white-nosed monkeys, chimpanzees, southern Guereza; also panther, leopard, warthog, cape buffalo, African elephant, hippopotamus, giant pangolin, white ram (Oribi), Sitatunga, Kob; among the birds 10 species of heron such as goliath heron and hammerhead; among the reptiles Nile, armored and stump crocodile
Species richness in danger
The Comoé National Park is located in the northeast of the Ivory Coast featured on ebizdir. It is named after the river that meanders through the park. With 11,500 km² Comoé is the largest national park in West Africa. It extends to an altitude of 120 to 660 m. With a north-south extension of about 120 km, the national park has a wide range of vegetation types from the Sudanese vegetation zone in the north to the Guinea zone in the southwest. Above all, the richness of species of the plants that can be found in this park was decisive for inclusion in the World Heritage List. Its fauna typical of the savannah is also typical. Elephants, buffalo, antelopes, hippos, lions, leopards, warthogs and monkeys include. However, due to the civil war in the Ivory Coast (which has now ended) and due to the sharp increase in poaching, the fauna of the Comoé National Park is severely threatened. In 2003 it was therefore included in the Red List of World Heritage in Danger by the World Heritage Committee. Due to successful protective measures, it was removed from the list again in 2017.
In the Comoé National Park with its typical wet and dry savannah and gallery forests, heavy hippos wade through the water of the Comoé gracefully despite their beefy bodies. Two bulls wrestle for their territory with their mouths wide open. A few lower-ranking young men and the respective “harem ladies” follow the action at a suitable distance. Elsewhere, the strikingly short-snouted stump crocodile lurks for prey in the shallow water, and at mating season a male Nile crocodile woos its chosen one with its tail lashing through the water. Small herds of elephants and a few bright red-brown colored bongos, which belong to the large antelopes, gather at individual water points. In the forest fringes along the Comoé and its tributaries, the short-horned yellow-bridged duiker roams around, now and then carefully taking in the weather. On the other hand, the graceful-looking, yet powerful Oribis, a dwarf antelope, prefer the forest savannah as their habitat. In the treetops, long-tailed monkey cats and gray-reddish-brown colored Diana cats, whose faces are adorned with a long, white beard, do gymnastics with great skill. Organized in small groups, chimpanzees hunt down some of these monkeys so that they can be eaten together after they have been successfully caught. A “primeval cattle” is the giant pangolin jokingly called “living spruce cones” and colored gray-brown.
But this fauna is not per se preserved for future generations. Poaching primarily threatens the population of elephants and waterbuck, and through uncontrolled slash and burn grazing on the southern edge of the national park, more and more natural landscapes are being transformed into cultural landscapes. But it is to be hoped that future settlement will be limited to the outskirts of the national park: because in the national park is the distribution area of the black flies, which transmit the pathogens of river blindness. However, if the national park is not adequately monitored, the high-yield poaching will result in further losses in the game population.
