Qualla: Gashaka Gumti National Park

Gashaka Gumti National Park: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dotun55, CC BY-SA 4.0. Somewhere on the summit of Gashaka Hill, the crumbling walls of a German fort still stand among the grass. Built before 1918 as a watchtower over the surrounding valleys, the garrison was seized by the British Frontier Force during the scramble for the Mambilla Pass -- a narrow corridor into Cameroon that both empires considered worth fighting over. Nearby, the headstones of fallen German soldiers dot the hillside, half-swallowed by vegetation. Below, stretching across 6,731 square kilometres of northeastern Nigeria, Gashaka Gumti National Park sprawls from the flat Gumti woodlands in the north to the cloud-wrapped mountains of the Gashaka sector in the south. Established in 1991, it is the largest national park in Nigeria, and one of the least visited.

Image: Dotun55 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gashaka Gumti National Park: A Park of Two Halves

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nuredeenn, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park's name comes from two old settlements that anchor its geography. Gumti, in Toungo local government area of Adamawa State, lends its name to the northern sector: relatively flat terrain draped in savanna woodlands and grasslands where elephants, lions, and hartebeest move...

Image: Nuredeenn | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gashaka Gumti National Park: Where Chimpanzees Still Climb

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dotun55, CC BY-SA 4.0. With 103 documented mammal species, Gashaka Gumti is one of West Africa's richest wildlife reserves. The roster reads like a catalog of the continent's most charismatic animals: elephants, leopards, golden cats, gorillas, hyenas, waterbucks, and multiple species of antelope. But ...

Image: Dotun55 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gashaka Gumti National Park: Colonial Ghosts and Fulani Herders

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dotun55, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park carries layers of human history beyond the German fort. Enclaves for local Fulani pastoralists exist within its boundaries, a pragmatic arrangement that allows farming and grazing to continue in a designated protected area. These communities have grazed cattle across the...

Image: Dotun55 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gashaka Gumti National Park: The Long Road In

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dotun55, CC BY-SA 4.0. Getting to Gashaka Gumti requires commitment. The nearest commercial airport is in Yola, and from there a taxi ride to the park takes roughly seven hours along roads that test the suspension of any vehicle. An airstrip for light aircraft exists at Serti, near the main entrance to...

Image: Dotun55 | CC BY-SA 4.0