Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary

The second part of our trip to Mole National park took us to our two ecotourism sites - the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary and Kintempo Falls. Look up this site in google maps you see where were located in Ghana. Starting at the monkey sanctuary you would find Kumasi to the south (Sunyani is located about 1/2 between Kumasi and the sanctuary and a little west of Kumasi). Kintempo is only slightly north of the sanctuary and Mole is located north of Kintempo.

The monkey sanctuary is a eco-villiage location and the monkeys are considered to be sacred to the local community. There are two different types of monkeys and while one turned out to be very habituated (Campbell's Mona Monkey) whereas the other (Geoffroy's Columbus Monkey) was quite camera shy! This was an interesting experience as a member of our group suggested to our guide that it would be good to bring along bananas so that visitors could feed the animals- something that was quite a surprise to me!

While at the site we took a guided walk through the forest. This was great day for me as it was an outdoor adventure; however, it was also an odd experience as I am completely against the habituation of animals. It seems very odd to me to create a "wild" experience where animals are hand-fed. I also wonder if the potential problems of this type of activity were considered...what happens when the monkeys become aggressive and approach small children who happen to be eating something desirable. Trying to avoid placing my own values onto the experience was difficult but it was very evident that Ghanaian students and faculty alike were very excited to be able to hand feed a monkey!

Other cool sights at the sanctuary included trees that were covered by strangler figs...these provided a great climbing gym for the students! The could climb up the middle of the structure...where the original tree used to be! We visited the monkey graveyard and I saw (without screaming) a Green Mamba Snake! It was in a bush along side the trail. I did give my camera to Aaron to take a picture (you all know how I feel about snakes...full body shiver here) but when it was confirmed that this snake is very venomous I quickly pulled him out of the bush!! Gotta love students!

The village located within the sanctuary is somewhat separate from the tourist experience - either by desire/design or by lack of tourist services. There was a small gift shop that was filled with lovely carvings but at that point I would have paid more for a cool drink! The pictures below are of the village and of some sort of insect chrysalis.