Weekend in Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains

Bale Mountains Monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis)

In December 2024 I spent a weekend in the Bale Mountains before meeting my friends for a trip to Ethiopia’s Somali Region in search of Dibatag. Håkan Pohlstrand who guided for the main trip, organized this  weekend too with Efrem from Magic Land Safaris. More details on them, and getting into Ethiopia with your binoculars, are in the Somali Region trip report.

Ethiopian Highland Hare (Lepus starcki)

We travelled in a Landcruiser and departed Addis at 5am and took the slower route – via Abiata-Shala Lakes National Park for Ethiopian Hare – to the town of Goba on the edge of the Bale Mountains. We drove up to the Sanetti Plateau the next day and explored Harenna Forest, returning to Goba the following afternoon. Håkan and I flew back to Addis from Goba the following morning to meet up with the rest of our Dibatag group.

Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni). Photo Håkan Pohlstrand

IWe stayed at the Ghion Hotel in Addis. It is a little down on its luck these days but has character and boasts a famous jazz club. It also a lot cheaper than the other large hotels in the area. In Goba we stayed at the Wabe Shebelle Hotel. There is not a lot of  choice in town. I would have liked the hotel more if the wifi wasn’t broken and I didn’t have to call reception whenever I wanted hot water. But the food was OK and the beer was cold.

Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis)

In Harenna Forest we stayed in simple thatched huts on the far side of the village (towards the edge Harenna Forest). We contemplated staying at the expensive Bale Mountain Lodge but it is still closed and there seems no prospect of it opening soon. We visited the grounds and it looks like it would be a lovely place to say if it ever opens again.

Giant Root Rat (Tachyoryctes macrocephalus)

These areas are covered in other reports, including mine from 2007 when I was last here.

Addis looked very different, in places, to what I remember. Driving at night from the airport to the Ghion hotel reminded me more of the Las Vegas Strip than Addis circa 2007. Apparently the president is a fan of lights. The roads were better, there were more people everywhere, and a lot more traffic on the plateau than I remember. But other than that it all felt quite familiar, so I will just run through the mammals we saw. I was looking primarily for two target species: Ethiopian Hare and Bale Monkey.

Abiata-Shala Lakes National Park

We stopped here after Alex Meyer asked me – a few days before the trip – whether I was going to try for Ethiopian Hare. This was a good question and shows how little research I had done. The grassland around Lake Abiata is the place to look and Håkan agreed we would have time to take a look if we left Addis a bit earlier than planned.

Though this is a ‘national park’ in name, in reality it is – like so many of Ethiopia’s ‘protected’ areas – overrun with people and their animals. Håkan told me that 50,000 now live in the park. Depressing and a seemingly inevitable result of rapid population growth, poverty and a government more interested in intercepting binoculars than protecting their biodiversity.

We drove through the park for an hour or so in search of the hares, which are easiest to see in the grassland close to the lakeshore. The grass was unusually long which hampered our search.

Ethiopian Hare (Lepus fagani)

Ethiopian Hare (Lepus fagani). Three animals in different spots close to the lakeshore between 9 and 10am. They would be easier to see at night or when the grass was shorter. Lifer.

African Golden Wolf (Canis lupaster)

African Golden Wolf (Canis lupaster). A pair close to the lakeshore.

Bright’s Gazelle (Nanger notatus)

Bright’s Gazelle (Nanger notatus). A few close to the park entrance.

Gaysay Grasslands

We spent an hour or two at the Gaysay Grasslands, near Dinsho, to see what we could find. This used to be an excellent spot to see Servals but according to Håkan they are not as common as they once were.

Olive Baboon (Papio anubis)

Olive Baboon (Papio anubis). Common.

Bohor Reedbuck (Redunca redunca)

Bohor Reedbuck (Redunca redunca). A few distant animals.

Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni)

Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni). Common.

Common Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)

Common Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus). Common. These impressive high altitude warthogs seem bigger and hairier than their lowland cousins.

Sanetti Plateau

The Sanettti Plateau is one of the world’s great mammalwatching destinations in my opinion. Ethiopian Wolves, stunning scenery and an extraordinary rodent biomass. I was keen to see the wolves again, but also wanted to try to get better photos of the rodents than I had managed to take in 2007. I think it is fair to say that Håkan is not as interested in rats as I am. I suppose few people are. But I did spend an hour or two taking photos without straining our new friendship.

Black-clawed Brush-furred Rat (Lophuromys melanonyx)

Seeing the rodents is easy. Identifying them less so. But after consultation with Venkat Sankar I believe I saw three species – plus the Giant Root Rats which are hard to misidentify – and have included some tentativeID pointers for each below. I was told that there are other species active at night but are harder to see. It would have been fun to have looked if I had had a thermal scope. I didn’t. Blame the government.

When you look carefully at close up pictures some (apparently quite clear) differences between species start to emerge. But at first glance all of these rats are a similar size and colouration, with short tails. So my advice – unless you have extremely patient travel companions – is to get as many pictures, of as many animals, as you can and figure out their identities in private.

A good spot to see a wide range of rodents is near the old research/BBC camp in the middle of the plateau. The rodents are abundant and a little less shy it seemed. It also meant my travel companions could go do something else.

Blick’s Grass Rat (Arvicanthis blicki)

There was a lot more traffic on the plateau than I remember from 2007. In part because so many people now live in and below Harenna Forest. A new road is being constructed that will bypass the plateau and should soon lighten the flow of trucks. The heat haze up here is pronounced from the mid-moring (as you can see from some of my pictures). If you want to get good pictures you should get there early.

Ethiopian Highland Hare (Lepus starcki)

Ethiopian Highland Hare (Lepus starcki). Several on one hillside – in a spot Håkan knew – in the middle of the plateau. The rocky areas about a kilometer before the first telecom tower (coming from Goba)  are still good for this species Håkan said and also for Klipspringer too which we missed ( I saw both species  there in 2007).

Black-clawed Brush-furred Rat (Lophuromys melanonyx)

Black-clawed Brush-furred Rat (Lophuromys melanonyx). Fairly common but far less abundant than Blick’s Grass Rat.

Black-clawed Brush-furred Rat (Lophuromys melanonyx)

ID Pointers: Black-clawed Brush-furred Rats have prominent, black, naked ears; a white belly and neck; and a sparsely haired tail.

Blick’s Grass Rat (Arvicanthis blicki)

Blick’s Grass Rat (Arvicanthis blicki). Abundant on the plateau.

Blick’s Grass Rat (Arvicanthis blicki)

ID Pointers: Blick’s Grass Rats have fur on the outside their ears, unlike the other two rats, and the inner ears are not hidden in fur like in the Otomys below. They have a fairly well-furred tail (see picture immediately above) – noticeably hairier the tails of the other two species I saw. They also have a dorsal stripe which seems only occasionally visible (see the photo two pictures up).

Heller’s Vlei Rat (Otomys helleri)

Heller’s Vlei Rat (Otomys helleri). Perhaps a little less common than the brush-furred rats – and definitely much less common than grass rats. Lifer.

Heller’s Vlei Rat (Otomys helleri)

ID Pointers: Heller’s Vlei Rats are fluffy, with long guard hairs over the rump and flanks compared to the other two species. They have a broader – more bunny like – face and long hairs sprouting in front of their naked ears almost covering the inside of their ears.

Giant Root Rat (Tachyoryctes macrocephalus)

Giant Root Rat (Tachyoryctes macrocephalus). A wonderful species that reaches remarkable densities of up to 2,600 animals km² and a favorite food for the wolf. Fairly easy to see emerging from – or fully outside of – their burrows when you are looking for them.There were some habituated animals around the old research/BBC camp.

Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis)

Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis). We saw seven during our drives across the plateau.

Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis)

Harenna Forest

In 2007 I took a very short drive into Harenna Forest. Back then Bale Monkeys were thought to be hard to see and I don’t remember seeing any people living in the forest. here are now two groups of habituated Bale Monkeys which can often be seen in stands of bamboo close to the top of the forest, while other – shyer – animals are often seen around the (now closed) Bale Mountain Lodge. Lots of people are now enroaching into the forest and harvesting bamboo inside.

This time we searched  for Bale Monkey in the early afternoon then drove for an hour or two down through the forest, returning to the village at dusk. A short night drive produced very little. We spent a couple of hours the following morning exploring the road and looking for monkeys before driving back across the plateau to Goba.

Bale Mountains Monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis)

Bale Mountains Monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis). We couldn’t find the habituated troops during our first afternoon, perhaps because people had recently cleared one of their favorite stands of bamboo. But we did see a family of animals – all very shy – close to the Bale Mountain Lodge. One of these is pictured below..

Bale Mountains Monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis)

The following morning we found a large troop of confiding animals close to the road. A beautiful monkey and fun to watch.

Olive Baboon (Papio anubis). Several around the Bale Mountain Lodge.

Guereza (Colobus guereza)

Guereza (Colobus guereza). A few animals close to the village and another troop in the middle of the forest.

Menelik’s Bushbuck (Tragelaphus sylvaticus meneliki):

Menelik’s Bushbuck (Tragelaphus sylvaticus meneliki). A dozen or so in the forest often grazing by the road.

Common Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus). A few around the Bale Mountain Lodge.

Bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus)

Bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus). One couple along the roadside deep in the forest in the late afternoon.

17 species & 3 lifers for the weekend

Stuff I Missed

Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis) hunting for rodents

We checked out an abandoned building in Gaysay where Håkan had once seen an Ethiopian Long-eared Bat (Plecotus balensis), but it was empty. It would be worth looking in any likely-looking structures in the park. There were a lot of bats flying early in the evening in Harenna Forest high above the road despite the very low temperatures. I have no idea what they were.

There was abundant evidence of root or mole rat colonies inside Harenna Forest which I was told are a different species to the Giant Root Rat. I staked a few out –  and opened up the entrances of some fresh burrows – but I didn’t see one emerge. There was a lot of digging in the grassland close to the Bale Mountain Lodge and a walk around here at dawn with a thermal scope would probably get you one.

Håkan was optimistic we would see Giant Forest Hogs in Harenna, which are pretty common, but we were not lucky. We also briefly checked out a favorite spot for Klipspringer on the plateau but couldn’t see one.

Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis)

Thank you to Håkan for coming along and to Efrem from Magic Land for driving us so safely. And thank your Venkat Sankar for your help (again!) with rodent identification.