An Excursion to Bandia Animal Reserve

Post By Julienne

A few weeks ago we took a trip to Bandia Animal Reserve, less than two hours outside of Dakar.  I think it was 16 years ago that the reserve was created from a 1000 hectare area of fairly stripped land with boabab trees.  Now the land looks very healthy... and the animals seem to be thriving!  Many of the animals are kinds that were at once prevalent in Senegal, but now are not- some animals in the park are local, some were brought in from other parts of Africa, and some were born at Bandia.  It was exhilarating to be so close to these animals, and to see them roaming happily in their managed habitat.

This gives a feel of the landscape.

A boabab in the reserve.  Boababs can live to be 2000 years old!  The fruit of the boabab is called "monkey bread."

Can you spot the lizard?

Ostriches on the move.  Later, Sylvia was eating an apple near an ostrich and it started coming too close for comfort.  We slowly backed away... 

Elands.

Savannah buffalo.

Skylar in the vehicle... with a friendly neighbor.

Hello!  Bonjour!  Nangadef?

A savanna party.

Bon appetit!

Hey stripes!

What I DON'T have a picture of is the 2 rhinoceroses that we saw.  These rhinos were brought from South Africa, and folks at the reserve are hoping that they reproduce.  The rhinos, because there are only 2 and I guess because they are rhinos, were not easy to find... but our guide was determined!  We did a lot of driving around, analyzing tracks and scat and trying to deduce the path of the rhinos.  We found them near a water hole!  The reason I don't have a picture of them is that our guide repeated several times, "Be careful, be careful," the exact meaning of which I was not clear of as we continued to walk closer and closer to the rhinos, and Sylvia's 5 year old self began to look smaller and smaller and somehow I thought I'd be better equipped to save us from a charging rhino if I didn't have a camera in my hand.  The fact that I had any notion at all of protecting Sylvia  from a charging rhino, camera or no, is a very clear example of hubris.  I'm pretty sure there must be a Shakespeare play depicting this exact scenario.  In any case, the rhinos let us be and continued to enjoy their water hole while we backed slowly away to the vehicle.