Lac de Tengréla

A shallow lake with a resident population of hippos

Lac de Tengréla is a shallow lake about 7 km west of Banfora with a resident population of around thirty hippos — one of the more surreal wildlife encounters in West Africa, since the lake is small enough that you can usually see the entire group from a single point on the shore. Local fishermen will take you out in a pirogue for a close-up view.

The hippos are most active at dawn and dusk; in the heat of the day they submerge with only their ears and eyes showing. Keep a respectful distance — hippos are responsible for more human deaths in Africa than any other large animal. The villages around the lake have set up a small visitor centre and charge a modest fee for the pirogue trip, which directly supports the protection of the herd. Combine the lake with the Cascades and the Dômes in a long day out of Banfora.

things to do sight wildlife
A story
The hippos arrived in the 19th century, washed downriver in a flood from the larger lakes further south, and never left. Locals call them les vieux — the elders — and consider them sacred. The population has held steady at about thirty animals for the last century, fed in part by villagers who throw mangoes to them from the shore.