Senegal is a country of extremes. With a long coastline, the country lies where 2 different ecosystems meet –  semiarid grassland, oceanfront, and tropical rainforest converge. 

44% of the country is rainforest though only 18% of this is considered primary rainforest. The species found here include African forest elephants and west african manatees, In terms of primates include just one great ape – the common chimpanzee, but other monkey include Patas monkey, Green monkey, Campbell’s mona monkey, Lesser spot-nosed monkey, Guinea baboon, Sooty mangabey, King colobus and Red colobus. Small similar species include the potto and the Senegal bushbaby.

The other half of the country is less wet, which means that rather than rainforest, we have savannah. Niokolo-Koba National Park protects some of this. The government of Senegal estimates the park contains 20 species of amphibians, 60 species of fish, 38 species of reptiles (of which four are tortoises). There are some 80 mammal species. These included (as of 2005) an estimated 11000 buffaloes, 6000 hippopotamuses, 400 western giant eland, 50 elephants, 120 lions, 150 chimpanzees (It is inhabited by a banded forest in the park (Lower Rim) and Mount Assirik. (north-western limit line where chimps are distributed.)), 3000 waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus), 2000 common duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia), an unknown number of red colobus (Colobus badius rufomitratus) and a few rare African leopards and West African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus manguensis), although this canid was thought to be wiped out throughout the rest of the country. Other mammals include roan antelope, Guinea baboon, green monkey, patas monkey, warthog. This is another of the most well protected savannah ecosystems in west Africa. While only 150 lion live in this reserve, they are the same subspecies as found in India. 

Below, you will find a video about this reserve, of particularly interesting, as it is one of relatively few which have both wild lions and chimpanzee.