Mont Sângbé National Park


Mont Sângbé National Park is a national park in Ivory Coast. The Encyclopædia Britannica lists it among the "principal national parks of the world". It acquired national park status in 1976.
The National Park is located within the Monts du Toura, a range of mountains west of the Sassandra River. It covers an area of 95,000 ha north of Man, between Biankouma and Touba. The park consists of very densely vegetated savanna woodland with wildlife populations of elephants, buffaloes, warthog, antelopes and monkeys.

Description

Mont Sângbé National Park occupies a rugged terrain in the eastern end of the highland chain extending through Guinea and northern Liberia. There are many granitic inselbergs and peaks that reach over above sea level. The annual rainfall averages is. The vegetation is mostly dense savanna woodland, with some small patches of deciduous forest, either as forest islands or as gallery forests. Two types of savanna are found in the southern part of the park. On well-drained soils grasses Brachiaria serrata and Andropogon macrophyllus dominate together with the principal tree species Daniella oliveri and Lophira lanceloata. On seasonally waterlogged soils there are few woody species and the grass Loudetia phragmitoides predominates. The northern parts are drier and support Sudanian woodland where the tree Isoberlinia doka is very abundant.

Wildlife

Mammal species of conservation concern include chimpanzee, king colobus, sooty mangabey, Diana monkey, western palm squirrel, African linsang, African bush elephant ), water chevrotain, African buffalo, bongo, Maxwell's duiker, red-flanked duiker, black duiker, yellow-backed duiker, bay duiker, royal antelope, oribi, bohor reedbuck, kob, waterbuck, western hartebeest, and roan antelope.
There are two crocodiles of conservation concern: slender-snouted crocodile and dwarf crocodile. The bird fauna is incompletely surveyed but include species such as Baumann's olive greenbul ) and emerald starling.
Odontobatrachus arndti from Mont Sangbé

Great apes

Herbinger and Lia carried out a chimpanzee survey in Mont Sangbe National Park in May 2001, finding a population of 235–260 individuals in a survey area covering less than 5% of the park's total area, a population density of 5.7 chimpanzees per km².