Pendjari National Park

Pendjari is the best wildlife park in West Africa and part of the transboundary W-Arly-Pendjari complex listed by UNESCO. It holds the region's largest surviving population of West African lion, along with elephant, buffalo, roan, hartebeest, kob, hippo and one of the last cheetah groups north of the equator. Leopard are present but rarely seen. The Pendjari river marks the northern boundary against Burkina Faso, and the Atacora escarpment closes the south. Waterholes concentrate the game as the dry season deepens, and more than four hundred and sixty bird species have been recorded.