Côte D’Ivoire
“Rare, beautiful Mona and Diana monkeys with fluffy white face ruffs swing through the trees by the hundreds in the small, friendly village of Gbetitapea where villagers welcome and revere them as totem animals.”
This steamy West African country on the Gulf of Guinea earned its name as a center of the elephant-tusk trade. A different view has let elephant populations and others gradually rebound after several decades of anti-poaching protection. Lions, leopards, and more than a dozen kinds of primates are at home in these jungles and savannahs, plus striped, spiral-horned bongo antelopes at their northernmost limit. There are more than 690 bird species—dazzling blue-breasted and chocolate-backed kingfishers are among them, also black and blue-headed bee-eaters, red-cheeked wattle-eyes, African finfoots, and spectacularly long-tailed hawks.
A reputation as “the Paris of Africa” has been marred by recent political troubles but Côte D’Ivoire is still beautiful, with friendly people generally supportive of conservation and several wildlife reserves of world renown.
More about the Reserves in Côte D’Ivoire
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