Beaucoup des animaux

There are goats everywhere. Goats on goats on goats. On streets, in fields. Baby goats. Goats with horns. Sometimes on a leash, but mostly free range. We had one on our doorstep the other day, bleating on and on about something. They're usually foraging for garbage and maybe trying not to get hit by cars. They probably belong to someone, but its not entirely clear if they come home like the cows do. They bleat morning, noon and night, but its the roosters that make me thankful for earplugs at night... and a noisy fan in my bedroom.

Lots of garden variety domestic animals roam the streets of Saint Louis and nearby villages -- cats, dogs, roosters, horses, goats and the occasional cow, but I was surprised by some of the wildlife we just happened to see while driving to and from a village today:

1. Warthogs! Legit wild pigs with tusks and tails straight up in the air! I got a couple pictures to prove that I saw them, but they're not really worth posting. All you can really see is them literally high-tailing it away from our truck. I wonder if that's where the figure of speech came from? 
2. Monkeys! They were totally raiding a cornfield! Tens, maybe hundreds of them! Similar picture scenario -- I have the proof, technically, but its not great wildlife photography. I did a Google search when I got home and figured out they were patas monkeys. They're terrestrial, as opposed to arboreal, which makes sense, seeing as there aren't very many trees here. And their reproduction rates are super high to account for the adult mortality due to predation due to their terrestrial living habits.
3. A huge lizard! He looked like the Komodo dragon at the Minnesota Zoo. I had trouble getting a proper name out of the field team. They best I could do was "big lizard", but a Google search suggests it might have been a Savannah monitor. According to Wikipedia, they feed "almost exclusively" on insects and molluscs. Coincidentally, the one we saw was just upstream of the dam -- maybe the schisto-transmitting freshwater snails that are prevalent upstream are their favorite afternoon snack? 

It's like I signed up for a safari or something. 

In all seriousness though, northern Senegal is home to some of the best bird watching in the Old World. The Parc Nacional des Oiseaux du Djoudj is just up the road from Saint Louis and is a major stopover point for migrant birds from Europe. Think flamingos, pelicans, egrets, oh my! Take note, bird lovers. I'll be coming here for fieldwork for the next few years and would love a companion to make a trip to the sanctuary and learn about all the cool Old World birds! Look it up and plan a trip!