Lesser spot-nosed monkey, Kakum National Park in Ghana
All forest monkeys in Ghana have been very hard hit by the scale of rainforest destruction and bushmeat poaching. Primates have always formed a part of the Ghanaian diet, hunting monkeys today is illegal, but they are still frequently targeted by poachers, using shotguns. With so little forest remaining, poachers have to venture deep into the few protected areas in search of prey. Monkeys are now a very rare sight in most forests, in the Ankasa Conservation Area in the southwest of Ghana, despite the rainforest being almost pristine, you're unlikely to catch more than a glimpse of a monkey. There the few monkeys that remain still hide or flee when they encounter people.
Here however, around the canopy walkway in Kakum National Park, the monkeys that have survived are it seems well protected. The canopy walkway is one of Ghana's major tourist attractions, so the Wildlife Division need to ensure that the wildlife at least in this part of Kakum is properly protected. Even so seeing monkeys from the walkway is still not easy, when moving through the forest they instinctively try to keep hidden under the canopy, to avoid their main natural predator the crowned eagle. During my morning visit to the canopy, I caught only the briefest glimpse of an unidentified monkey, that clearly didn't want to show itself.
As the day heats up all wildlife not just monkeys becomes less active, and more tourists come up to the walkway, causing a certain amount of disturbance, that doesn't help with wildlife viewing.
They can't hide all of the time, in the late afternoon they start to become a bit more active and there's then a reasonable chance of seeing them, once the noisier tourists have left the walkway.
The lesser spot-nosed monkey is one of the more common monkeys in Ghana, because they're not dependent on primary rainforest, even so the few individuals I saw from the walkway were the only ones I saw during my Ghanaian trip.
It is also possible to see Lowe's monkey, olive colobus and the Geoffroy's or white-thighed black and white colobus from the walkway, however the latter species is still pretty rare in Kakum. The beautiful roloway monkey (Cercopithecus (diana) roloway) used to occur in Kakum but is now likely extinct in the park, it's thought that only one tiny population now survives in Ghana in the Kwabre Forest on the border with Cote d'Ivoire, it is on the brink of complete extinction. The Miss Waldron's red colobus (Piliocolobus (badius) waldroni) may also have once occurred in Kakum but this monkey is likely completely extinct, due to loss of habitat but primarily bushmeat hunting.
Lesser spot-nosed monkey, Kakum National Park in Ghana
All forest monkeys in Ghana have been very hard hit by the scale of rainforest destruction and bushmeat poaching. Primates have always formed a part of the Ghanaian diet, hunting monkeys today is illegal, but they are still frequently targeted by poachers, using shotguns. With so little forest remaining, poachers have to venture deep into the few protected areas in search of prey. Monkeys are now a very rare sight in most forests, in the Ankasa Conservation Area in the southwest of Ghana, despite the rainforest being almost pristine, you're unlikely to catch more than a glimpse of a monkey. There the few monkeys that remain still hide or flee when they encounter people.
Here however, around the canopy walkway in Kakum National Park, the monkeys that have survived are it seems well protected. The canopy walkway is one of Ghana's major tourist attractions, so the Wildlife Division need to ensure that the wildlife at least in this part of Kakum is properly protected. Even so seeing monkeys from the walkway is still not easy, when moving through the forest they instinctively try to keep hidden under the canopy, to avoid their main natural predator the crowned eagle. During my morning visit to the canopy, I caught only the briefest glimpse of an unidentified monkey, that clearly didn't want to show itself.
As the day heats up all wildlife not just monkeys becomes less active, and more tourists come up to the walkway, causing a certain amount of disturbance, that doesn't help with wildlife viewing.
They can't hide all of the time, in the late afternoon they start to become a bit more active and there's then a reasonable chance of seeing them, once the noisier tourists have left the walkway.
The lesser spot-nosed monkey is one of the more common monkeys in Ghana, because they're not dependent on primary rainforest, even so the few individuals I saw from the walkway were the only ones I saw during my Ghanaian trip.
It is also possible to see Lowe's monkey, olive colobus and the Geoffroy's or white-thighed black and white colobus from the walkway, however the latter species is still pretty rare in Kakum. The beautiful roloway monkey (Cercopithecus (diana) roloway) used to occur in Kakum but is now likely extinct in the park, it's thought that only one tiny population now survives in Ghana in the Kwabre Forest on the border with Cote d'Ivoire, it is on the brink of complete extinction. The Miss Waldron's red colobus (Piliocolobus (badius) waldroni) may also have once occurred in Kakum but this monkey is likely completely extinct, due to loss of habitat but primarily bushmeat hunting.