YANKARI, Nigeria’s Most Popular National Park

Nigeria is a nation of incredibly enchanting beauty. Pristine beauty and spellbinding natural wonders. From the Wase Rock to the Assop Falls, both in Plateau State to the heavenly heights of the Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River to the vast Oguta Natural Lake in Imo State, Nigeria is full of awesome scenery and unforgettable sights. At one point, I was on my way to Abuja and while passing through Kogi State, the sights of some rock formations and the deep-green scenery of the expansive rolling hills left me utterly speechless. I could not mutter even a single word as my soul soaked in the raw natural beauty of the environment. The beauty was truly angelic and I will do anything to savour it again.

How we manage to conveniently overlook such majestic wonders and attractions in our land and fight over petty things is what I still don’t understand. Anyway, while we refuse to notice or even appreciate these natural wonders and prefer arguing and to shamelessly throw tribal/religious missiles at one another, foreigners and tourists from all over the world are silently slipping in and having the loveliest and most memorable times of their lives in Nigeria, one of the world’s most enchanting nations.

 

A tourist is chopping the life of his head in one of the four warm springs in the park. Believe it or not, this is not Bahamas or the British Virgin Islands, this is YANKARI. 

Inside the warm spring. CREDITS: Bill and Nelle (Flickr)

CREDITS: Bill and Nelle (Flickr)

CREDITS: Bill and Nelle (Flickr)

An African bush elephant. CREDITS: Muhammad Mahdi Karim/Wikimedia.

An olive baboon. CREDITS: Muhammad Mahdi Karim/Wikimedia Commons.

-Patas monkeys

A Patas monkey.

-Waterbucks

A waterbuck. It is actually a large antelope. CREDITS: Adrian Pingstone/Wikimedia Commons.

-Bushbucks

-Roan Antelopes

A Roan antelope. CREDITS: Badboybenny/Wikimedia Commons.

-Western hartebeest

The Western hartebeest. CREDITS: Baliola/Wikimedia Commons.

-Warthogs

A warthog in the park.

-African buffalo

The African buffalo. CREDITS: Ikiwaner/Wikimedia Commons.

-Hippopotamus

A hippo CREDITS: Kabacchi/Wikimedia Commons.

-Striped hyenas

A striped hyena. CREDITS: Sumeet Moghe/Wikimedia Commons.

-Nile crocodiles

Nile crocs can be very aggressive. CREDITS: Philippe HECKEL/Wikimedia Commons.

—-BIRDS OF THE YANKARI NATIONAL PARK

For the lovers of birds and avian enthusiasts, there are more than 350 species of birds in the Yankari National Park. Some of these are:

-African grey hornbills

An African grey hornbill. CREDITS: whifflepeg/Wikimedia Commons.

-Cattle egrets (stocky heron)

The cattle egret. CREDITS: Cburnett/Wikimedia Commons.

-Saddle-billed storks

Saddle-billed stork. CREDITS: hyper7pro/Wikimedia Commons.