From June 19th to December 23rd (with a short break in Ghana from October 1st – 9th) I was in Côte d’Ivoire working as a logistician for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). As usual, I took loads of photos of the little and not-so-little critters I saw. My Ivorian staff sometimes thought I was strange to be so interested in the little bugs around me, but when I explained that many of these guys don’t exist where I come from, my hobby of creature photography immediately became completely normal and acceptable. In fact, staff sometimes excitedly came to tell me about some little bug or animal I should see. Twice, friends of staff even came by to show me their pet monitor lizards (photos of one of the ornate monitor lizards below), and in both Daloa and Tabou we had neighbours ask if we wanted to see their crocodiles (photo of the Tabou crocs below). The descriptions are based on my observations for the most part, not on actual researched names, so when it says “woodchip moth” for instance, it’s my description for an insect, the name of which I don’t know, rather than the actual name. If you have a correction for me, please let me know! So here, organised very roughly from slightly less interesting to more interesting, are 59 photos of the wildlife I encountered over six months in Côte d’Ivoire:
Wasps starting a new nest in our garage
Wasps working on their nest in a health centre
A spider 3 inches across, but very flat
Cows outside the MSF Daloa office
Cows on the Guiglo garbage heap
Land Cruiser fishing
Centipede in Zokoguhue health centre
Weird leaf bug
Big snail cruising on our terrace at night
Leaf bug
Leaf bug
Praying mantis at Para health centre
The mango beetle climbs out of my mango
Yellow Power Rangers beetle
Rhino beetle
Rhino beetle on Daniel’s shirt
Rhino beetles in a sac, to be sold as food
Pretty little moth
Triangular moth
Green fat moth
Big brown moth
Blue-eyed big brown moth
Woodchip moth, side view
Woodchip moth, top view
Six inch maroon moth
Six inch brown moth
Tiny mosquito moth
House fly
House dragon fly
Curious green fly
Tiny fly with antennae
House gecko
Male agama lizard
Female agama lizard eating a grape
Little lizard caught on a shoe
Baby skink caught on my hand
Baby gecko caught on my arm
Lizard on the window screen
Black skink sidewinding along the baseboard
A lizard’s final breaths
A lizard’s final breaths
Ornate monitor lizard
Ornate monitor lizard
Ornate monitor lizard
Crocodiles in Tabou
Chameleon skin at a mystic’s shop in Daloa
Leon the chameleon in Tabou
Leon the chameleon in Tabou
Vervet monkeys, Taï
Diana monkey, Daloa
Astrophe, our pet cat, sleeping on a book in Tabou
Astrophe sleeping in our bin of documents to be burned
Astrophe showing his wild side
Rainbow Shield Bug in Daloa
Two flies taken hostage by ants
Flies guarded by ants
Flies guarded by ants
Variegated grasshopper in Zoukpangbeu
Male forest elephant, near Sapia
Hi, random question. Any idea how old the Diana Monkey was in that picture?
(Also, what’s the deal with the crocs in that pit?)
:/
Sorry, I have no idea how old it was! The crocs were kept as pets by the owner, who seemed to have them mostly as a gimmick. The staff were able to go in among them barefoot to feed them without being attacked so I guess they were quite domesticated.
Thanks for the answers. Poor crocs, saw one in a similar pit in bangkok but at least he had room to move away from his own poop… not that I’d want one running freely through my garden particularly.