Best places to go for Chimpanzee Tracking in Uganda
Uganda provides a great opportunity for chimpanzee tracking experience in East Africa and Africa as a whole. Chimpanzees in Uganda can be tracked in Kibale Rainforest, Budongo Forest, Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National park, and Kalinzu forest reserve.
Our close relatives usually stay in groups as troops of about 30-80 individuals and they chew grass from time to time until they get satisfied. They use twigs or at times grass stems as tools, by pushing these into termite holes and ant nests on which the insects cling.
They are arboreal as well as earthly and spend most of their hours of daylight on the ground walking fast on all their four limbs with their fingers half-flexed so as to support their great weight. Chimpanzees are active during daytime as though active during the night and start their night- nests they excitedly feed on various fruits which is their main diet, leaves, seeds, buds, flowers as well as blossoms. Later, their feeding turns out to be choosier, and are typically picking fruits using their hands.
Chimpanzee tracking in Budongo Forest
Budongo forest is located three and half hours from Kampala, Uganda’s capital, and is the largest wildlife conservation area in the country worth visiting on a safari. This is the most interesting place where you can ever see our closest relatives in the wild and can include visiting Murchison Falls National Park – the largest national park in Uganda.
chimpanzee trekking
Chimpanzee tracking starts early around 7:00 am and the guides follow the daily movements of habituated chimpanzee groups. Three years of recording chimpanzees have been made and indicate that the months of February, March, April, May, and September offer you a success rate of seeing the chimpanzees at 90 percent while during the month of February, March, April, May, and September decreases to 70 percent. The forest offers you an opportunity to see an overnight habituation experience where you can actively see chimpanzees while at Eco Lodge.
Chimpanzee tracking at Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National Park Kyambura Gorge stands as the hidden jewels of Queen Elizabeth National park and part of the Albertine Rift.
It is silent of fabulous gorge with a very thick forest at the bottom where the chimpanzee tracking activity is done alongside wildlife viewing and bird watching. Chimpanzee tracking experience in Kyambura George is a three to four-hour experience that can be readily be accessed from the lodging near the Mweya region of Queen Elizabeth National Park. It is surely a fulfilling experience as you will enter the forest of Kyambura George with knowledgeable guides.
Kibale forest, the Best Chimpanzee tracking destination in East Africa
Kibale forest wilderness is a home of 13 different species of primates with about 1500 chimpanzees. It is a tropical rainforest jungle with exotic birds, countless butterflies, mammals and forest elephants, forests buffaloes, and other six other primates.
The chances of seeing chimpanzees in Kibale is 95 percent making it the best chimpanzee destination in East Africa. You need to bring good-wearing shoes with good traction on your chimpanzee tracking safari, suitable for steep muddy slopes. Some people feel more comfortable when wearing long-sleeved clothes when moving through the wilderness.
Chimpanzee tracking at Kalinzu Forest
Kalinzu forest is a unique African forest waiting to be explored and is accessible from the Mweya area of Queen Elizabeth National Park which is about 2 hours drive.
It is basically an eastern Extension of the Maramagambo forest, the 137 square kilometer forest reserve is crossed with a number of scenic trails along the ridges and valleys of the Great Rift Valley Escarpment, which offers you to view Lake Edward, Kazinga Channel, and Rwenzori mountains.