A whopping 48% of the Gambia is forested, though only 0.2% of the country is covered in primary rainforest. There are currently 22 protected areas, which combined, add up to 6.4% of the countries area. Perhaps, obviously, given the fact that the majority of the Gambia is forested, 

While the Gambia has an area called Savannah, it is in the uplands, and as such is not like the savannah elsewhere. As such, virtually all of the big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo) are not present in Gambia with the exception of the leopard, which can often survive well in the forests of the Gambia. The African forest elephant became locally extinct in the 1930s. Hyenas are also found in small numbers in the east of the country. The west African crocodile is also found here, which while no where near as agressive as the nile crocodile, has been recorded attacking people. There are a variety of reptiles, including a number of venomous snakes.

Bushbuck, Maxwell’s duiker, warthog and hippopotamus, make up the majority of the herbivores.

There are 30-40 species of bats (these may get added to the list of mammals on this site in the future, but are not listed for now). The world has a total of 1400 species of bats, which while may be of interest in the future, seems beyond the current scope of this website.

In terms of marine mammals, there are two species of dolphin (the Atlantic bottlenose and the Atlantic humpback dolphin) and the west African manatee. It is unclear how the manatee is doing – the last full survey was around 30 years ago, but at this time, there were plenty in the Gambia river. Hunting by the local population is meant to have stopped in the 1990s, so if that is correct the population should have recovered well by now.

Primates: Bijilo forests have endangered western red colobus monkey and the callithrix monkey. King West National Park has baboons and patas monkeys, the Senegal bushbaby  and Campbell’s mona monkey. The River Gambia National park has chimpanzee. The western red colobus are a common sight in the Kiang West National Park, Bijilo Forest Park and Abuko Nature Reserve. Guinea baboon , which is large in size and fierce in appearance, is found in the northern region and also in small numbers in the coastal Makasutu Culture Forest.

As well as all these mammals, there is 500 species of bird that have been recorded. We have not (as yet) listed many birds, but hopefully in the future, this will also be added.