The Comoé River is the park's lifeline. Flowing south toward the Gulf of Guinea, it carries humidity into the Sudanian zone, creating conditions that should not exist this far north. Shrub savannas give way to dense riparian forest along the banks. In floodplain clearings, hippopotamuses emerge at dusk to graze. Three species of crocodile share the river system, including the critically endangered slender-snouted crocodile and the vulnerable dwarf crocodile. At least 60 fish species have been documented in the Comoé and its tributaries, along with 35 amphibian species, an extraordinary count for a savanna habitat. The park's north-south climatic gradient, running from dry grassland to humid Guinea savanna, compresses ecosystems that elsewhere span hundreds of kilometers into a single protected area.

Chimpanzees are forest animals. That is the conventional understanding, and it is mostly correct, but Comoé complicates the picture. Around 300 chimpanzees live here in a mosaic of savanna and forest fragments, adapting their behavior to open landscapes in ways that researchers are only beginning to understand. Since 2014, the Comoé Chimpanzee Conservation Project has studied this population in depth, making it the only savanna chimpanzee group under sustained scientific observation in Ivory Coast. Students from multiple countries have conducted graduate research through the project, while local community members work as field assistants, weaving conservation into the local economy. Alongside the chimps, endangered white-collared mangabeys, ursine colobus monkeys, and African elephants move through the park's patchwork of habitats.

Protection came early, in fragments. In 1926, French colonial authorities declared the area between the Comoé River and the town of Bouna a wildlife refuge, later expanded and redesignated as the Réserve de Faune de Bouna. The park earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 1983 for its exceptional plant diversity around the river. Then Ivory Coast fractured. The First Ivorian Civil War in 2002 drove out park management, and poachers and cattle herders moved in. By 2003, UNESCO placed the park on its World Heritage in Danger list. The Second Civil War compounded the damage. For years, the park existed in name only, its boundaries open, its wildlife declining.

Recovery began with the return of the Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves after the second civil war ended. Rangers re-established patrols. The research station reopened, drawing scientists back to a landscape many had feared was lost. In 2017, the World Heritage Committee removed Comoé from the danger list, citing encouraging numbers of chimpanzees and elephants that some experts had believed were gone entirely. The challenges remain formidable: poaching networks persist, farmers press against the park's edges, and deteriorating roads limit access for patrols. But the trajectory has reversed. Community partnerships now provide sustainable income sources for villages on the periphery, reducing the pressure to extract resources from inside the park. Comoé is no longer just surviving. It is, cautiously, thriving again.