Gombe National Park

Wildlife & Animals

Expert

By Philip Briggs

Philip is the author of the Bradt guidebook to Tanzania.

The main attraction in Gombe Stream is its population of habituated chimpanzee. There are about 100 chimps in the small park. Your guide will take you, on foot, along the forest trails to find them. Once found, you can observe them for one hour. If you are lucky, they'll be feeding in the canopy, but often they are on the move, and you will have to walk through the undergrowth at a remarkable speed to follow them.

GorillaNone

ChimpanzeeCommon

White RhinoNone

Black RhinoNone

LionNone

LeopardRare

CheetahNone

HippoOccasional

BuffaloNone

ZebraNone

WildebeestNone

ElephantNone

GiraffeNone

Wildlife Highlights

Aside from the chimps, other primates are often encountered. A troop of olive baboon, also under study since the 1960s, is exceptionally habituated, while red-tailed and red colobus monkey – the latter regularly hunted by chimps – stick to the forest canopy. One of the more secretive inhabitants of the forest is the bushpig.

Best Time for Wildlife Viewing

The Dry season (from May to October) is the best time for trekking chimpanzee. At this time, the chimps tend to stay close to the lakeshore and are easier to find. The park stays open throughout the year but, in heavy rain, the trails might be difficult to walk.