Just like the adorable Mountain Gorillas that are found in Uganda & Rwanda, chimpanzees are also an endangered species, with about 150,000 individuals left in the wilderness.
Chimpanzee Tracking (trekking) is the activity where Uganda chimp tracking undertaker with the help of a well trained & armed guide through the jungle following the trail left by a habituated chimpanzee family and when they find them, spend some time (usually an hour) with the chimps experiencing their cultures.
It’s important to note that Chimpanzees are close cousins to humans with almost 98% DNA; they live in huge communities of about 20-70 individuals with many family groups with one alpha male.
The Alpha male is the highest-ranking male that controls the group and maintains order during arguments, in chimpanzee society male chimps normally stay within their communities where they are born while females frequently move to the neighboring communities after reaching adolescence, Chimpanzees consume a variety of foods like fruits and plants that man eats and the fruit of fig trees.
A fully mature chimpanzee can weigh between 40-70 kg, while an adult female chimpanzee weighs between 25-50kg. The life expectancy of Chimpanzee is at 40-60 years.
In Uganda, the best thrilling spots for Chimpanzee tracking are Kibale Forest National Park and Budongo Forest National Park.
Chimpanzee tracking is an adventure activity where visitors go into the jungle forests with a trained guide to look for chimpanzees in their natural habitat.
Chimpanzee trekking is a walk through the chimpanzees’ habitat led by a trained guide and watching habituated chimpanzee families go about their daily business in the forest.
Chimpanzee trekking starts very early in the morning and every trek begins with the tour guides giving tourists the guidelines and rules that need to be followed during chimpanzee tracking as well as being able to follow the right clues that lead to tracking down the chimpanzees and the guides also offer vital information on other life of the forest.
It involves trekking through the jungle forest in search of the chimpanzees that keep on swinging from one tree to the next.
While trekking, you will be able to see other primates and wildlife like the red-tailed monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, and a variety of bird species among others.
Trekking might take a few hours or less but once you get to the chimpanzees, every group gets to spend an hour with them studying the way they eat, breastfeed their young ones, how they lay their nests, grooming and even taking photographs before trekking back to the camp.
Chimpanzee tracking offers a rare chance to catch a glimpse of our closest relatives that share nearly 98.7 percent of the DNA with humans.
They stay in complex societies, solve their problems, make and usually use tools, participate in absolute interaction, and communicate using several sounds and body gestures.
There are several chimpanzee destinations in Uganda and each one of these has a group of chimpanzees that you can trek.
Chimpanzee trekking is mainly done in the Kibale Forest National Park and other destinations where you can go for the chimpanzee trek include the Budongo forest, which is found in the Murchison Falls National Park, Kyambura Gorge in the Queen Elizabeth National Park, Semliki wildlife reserve, and Kalinzu forest found in Bushenyi.
Uganda is by far the best Gorilla & Chimpanzee tracking destination in entire Africa with Kibale Forest National Park considered among the top 5 best chimpanzee tracking destinations in the world.
The Kibale Forest National Park, located in western Uganda, is known to be the home to the close relatives of humans, chimpanzees. It contains a diverse array of landscapes and Kibale is one of the last remaining expanses to contain both lowland and montane forests. In eastern Africa, it sustains the last significant expanse of the pre-montane forest.
Kibale National Park is an eco-tourism and safari destination of high paramount, familiar for its population of habituated chimpanzees and 12 other species of primates. The park has one of the highest diversity and concentration of primates in Africa. The park protects several well-studied, habituated communities of the common chimpanzees, as well as several species of Central African monkey including the Uganda mangabey, the Ugandan red colobus and the L’Hoest’s monkey. Other primates that are found in the park include the black-and-white colobus and the blue monkey.
Chimpanzee Habituation experience cost $220 per person for a full day chimpanzee habituation guided by researchers and armed rangers/guides from Uganda Wildlife Authority all park entries are also included in the price, while Uganda chimpanzee tracking cost $150 per person both activities habituation and tracking are done in Kibale Forest National Park
The park boasts of many species of birds, including the olive long-tailed cuckoo, western tinkerbird, two species of pittas (African and green-breasted) and the African grey parrot.
Budongo Forest Reserve is situated in the Western part of Uganda around a 4 hours drive from the Uganda capital Kampala directly before you enter the Murchison Falls National Park. Budongo Forest covers a zone of 793 sq km, 53% is finished montane woods and the other territory is field.
This forest reserve is home to various natural life species, for example, more than 359 flying creature species, 465 types of trees, 9 primate species, 289 butterfly species, and 24 types of mammals as well as 130 types of moths. Budongo woods is additionally well known for mahogany trees and a major number of Chimpanzees roughly 600 to 700 chimpanzees.
Budongo has 6 groups of chimpanzee permits available for tracking. There’s consistently a high possibility of seeing the primates in Budongo forest once you book a chimpanzee trekking permit.
Chimpanzee tracking time in Budingo Forest National Park;
Chimpanzee Trekking begins at 7:00 am as you are driven by well trained and armed guides in search of these amazing primates that share a DNA of about 98% with humans. Chimpanzee trekking can take you 30 minutes or even an entire day, depending on the last known region of these primates. The Budongo forest reserve is overseen both by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the Jane Good all Institute.
Uganda hosts the biggest population of chimps in the whole world, which are found in Kibale forest National Park, Ngamba Island Chimp Sanctuary, Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve; Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth national park and Budongo forest.
In Uganda, it is possible to do safaris the traditional way and do chimp tracking or take part in a chimpanzee habituation experience with a ranger-guide.
Uganda’s temperate climate has made it easy for travelers to track Chimpanzees with ease. They can be tracked all year round in any of the parks where they are offering a truly wonderful safari experience while tracking them in the wild.
While in the forest, the ranger guide will lead travelers to the chimp and whereas some of the experienced ranger-guide will communicate with these chimps; mimicking their calls to locate where they are at that moment. After trekking through the forests, it is so thrilling to see how the chimpanzees react in the wilderness.
Besides, Kibale National Park, You can also track chimpanzees in Budongo Forest near Murchison Falls National Park, The Kalinzu & Kyambura Gorge near Queen Elizabeth National park and in the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee home.
If you are planning to visit man’s closest relative in their natural habitat, contact us and let’s arrange an amazing chimpanzee safari tour to any of the above destinations and also note that we can combine your chimp tour with other wildlife or gorilla packages to add thrilling experiences to your stay in Uganda.
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