Pendjari National Park

Pendjari occupies the northwest corner of Benin where the landscape shifts from the coastal lowlands to the beginning of the Sahel, and the change registers immediately in the vegetation: the dense woodland of the south gives way to open savanna with flat-topped acacias, baobabs and red laterite soils that are entirely different from the red-earth earthworks of Abomey.

The park is bisected by the Pendjari River, which flows south from the Atakora massif and creates a permanent water corridor that draws wildlife consistently to its banks throughout the dry season from November to May, making river drives the most reliable game-viewing strategy.

The West African lion population in Pendjari is one of the few viable lion populations in West Africa, and the park's relative isolation from human settlement — combined with active anti-poaching patrols — has allowed a breeding population to persist where it has collapsed elsewhere in the region.

Elephants are present throughout the park but are most reliably seen at the waterholes in the northern sector during the dry season, when the herd sizes are larger and the animals spend more time at the surface water than in the dense riparian vegetation that obscures them in the wet months.

The campement at the park entrance in Tanguiéta is the primary lodge for the park, offering basic rooms and a natural pool that is shared with monkeys and parrots; the pool is fed by a spring and is one of the most reliable wildlife-watching spots in the park even without going on a game drive.

Birding in Pendjari is underreported: the park's list of over 300 species includes the Egyptian plover, the Sahelian sunbird species and several raptor species that are difficult or impossible to see elsewhere in Benin, and the riverine woodland in the south of the park holds species not found in the drier northern savanna.

The W National Park of Burkina Faso adjoins Pendjari to the north, and the contiguous protected area forms the largest wildlife corridor in West Africa, a fact that explains why Pendjari's populations are more viable than those in isolated parks elsewhere in the region.

The anti-poaching unit known as the Brigade of the Pendjari operates from Tanguiéta and conducts foot patrols in the park's core zones during the dry season, using a combination of thermal imaging equipment and informant networks to intercept wire snares set by pastoralists from the north.

The park's hippo population is concentrated in the Pendjari River's permanent pools and is most reliably seen during the dry season when the animals spend the daylight hours partially submerged in the deep pools upstream of the hippo church, a natural rock overhang that serves as a daytime refuge.

The only viable big-game safari destination in Benin and one of the most accessible in West Africa for seeing West African lions, elephants and buffalo in a natural savanna setting.

The park forms a contiguous protected zone with the W National Park in Burkina Faso, creating a transboundary wildlife corridor that supports larger and more genetically diverse wildlife populations than isolated parks.

The bird list of over 300 species includes Sahelian species unavailable anywhere else in Benin, and the riverine habitats in the south of the park provide a different ecological experience from the open savanna of the north.