Okomu National Park, Edo State
Located in Ovia South LGA, the park which lies about 50km west of Benin City, Okomu National Park, formerly the Okomu Wildlife Sanctuary, is a forest block within the 1,082 km² Okomu Forest Reserve.
The park holds a small fragment of the rich forest that once covered the region, and is the last habitat for many endangered species.
The park holds a remnant of the Nigerian lowland forests that once formed a continuous 50–100 km wide belt from the Niger River west to the Dahomey Gap in Benin.
To the south and southeast the forest was separated from the coast by mangrove and swamp forests, while to the north it merged into the Guinean Forest-Savanna Mosaic eco-region.
Okomu National Park is about 200 km² of wildlife sanctuary, a rainforest ecosystem that is the habitat for many endangered species of flora and fauna. The state government formally defined the sanctuary in 1986, with an area of just 66 km2 before the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) took over management of the sanctuary in 1987, and extended it to 114 km2 by adding a one-mile wide buffer zone. The sanctuary was later taken over by the National Parks Service in 1999.
Okomu is a home of forest elephants, buffaloes, red river hogs, chimpanzees, leopards, bush baby, putty nosed guenon, porcupine, pangolins, duikers, antelopes etc.
The white throated monkey which is one of the rarest monkeys in the world today is found at the park as well. Butterflies and birds are abundant making it one of the best places for bird watching in Nigeria.
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