GAMBIA ~ Green Vervet Monkey - Bijilo Forest Park ~

... Lovely monkey🐒 views at the Bijilo Forest Park ... a small rainforest nature reserve home to various mammalian species... the green monkey is the most tourist tolerant beast in West Africa... sadly the monkeys have often been fed by visitors in the park and this has caused issues, and the park is nominally trying to stop this practice, though park staff still regularly sell visitors peanuts to feed to the monkeys... this will reduce their fear of humans and disrupt their natural behaviour, which then increases the danger of small primates being stolen or hurt... there are plenty of fruit trees and other naturally growing foods for them to feed on... Thanks a lot Alena!ヽ(ヅ)ノ

Photo: © Phil Gysen
The species rich Bijilo Forest Park is a fenced woodland which was created in 1952 and covers an area of 51.3 hectares situated on the coast. The park consists of mainly of closed canopy forest with a significant number of Borassus aethiopum palms. The park was opened to the public in 1991 and now receives over 23,000 visitors per year. The park lost part of its reserve status in 2018 during the construction of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center.

This forest park is a home to over 150 bird species, other invertebrates and over 600 Monkeys.

Stamp: 

Butterflies 

(Issued 04-04-2005)