Anyone interested in joining me, Mammalia tours and some very cool bats in Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea? (early 2028)
Zenker’s Fruit Bat, Photo Laura Torrents
Carlos Bocos and I are having a lot of fun designing some very special mammal trips for Carlos’s new company Mammalia Tours. It’s all very exciting!
We plan to run two different trips in early 2028 (January & February) to West Africa and would like to know now who might be keen to join and – if you are – whether you have any conflicts yet for that period. This will help us to decide when to schedule the two trips.
Both trips are in their early planning stages but both – surprise surprise – will be looking for as many species as possible, with a particular emphasis on the very diverse bat fauna of the region along with larger mammals. On both trips we will be accompanied by a dedicated bat expert who will be catching bats most nights. They will be using the trip to further their research as well as further our mammal lists. Win win!
Ivory Coast
One trip with be to Ivory Coast where we will spend time in Tai Forest and other less well known areas. Other than the bats, Tai forest is great for primates and some very special species including Liberian Mongoose (which Charles Foley and I saw in 2024) and Zebra Duiker (which Charles Foley and I should have seen in 2024 if we had been paying attention … not our finest hour). Who knows what other surprises might be in store there (though note we are not going to be make a particular effort to see Pygmy Hippo).
Pied Butterfly Bat (Panda Bat), photo Laura Torrents
Equatorial Guinea
The other trip will be to Equatoria Guinea. We will be on Bioko to look for Drills and some of the other Bioko Island specialities as well as the bats and also the mainland.
There are some fabulous bat species in Equatorial Guinea and the bat researcher who will accompany us knows the country extremely well. We should have an excellent chance to catch the internet-famous and truly gorgeous Pied Butterfly Bat (aka Panda Bat) and several other very cool species. Although we won’t expect to catch huge numbers of bats each night, the diversity is usually good and we should end up with an impressive list of species. We will also spend time batting on the mainland and will make a special try for Giant Otter Shrew at a place where it has been seen several times by the bat researchers. There will be other surprises too I am sure. But again there is little information about what to expect so this is a journey into the unknown. My favorite type of journey!
Please let me know if you want more details on either trip and I will put your name down on the list to receive them when we have more information (jon@mammalwatching.com).
And if you are interested please also let me know which trip(s) interests you and what dates work for you in January & February 2028. We will keep that in mind as we move forward.
Exciting!
Jon
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