Kibale National Park

Our Encounter with Chimpanzees in Kibale Forest National Park

My husband and I enjoyed our unforgettable day experiencing wild chimpanzees in Kibale Forest National Park, Uganda. We visited the park in September 2013, having hired a safari guide to drive us from Kampala to visit Uganda’s national parks. We were especially eager to behold the wild primates in this extraordinary part of the world, and after our day in the Kibale Forest, we visited the mountain gorillas in Bwindi National Park and the golden monkeys in Mgahinga National Park.

At Kibale (as with the gorillas in Bwindi), a team of rangers had been tracking the chimpanzees and communicated their whereabouts via walkie talkies to the ranger guides, who led groups of visitors through the forest to find them. There were about a dozen visitors per group, and there were several groups. The duration of the hike depended on where the chimps were, and our hike through the forest that day was about an hour long, following a trail and slightly difficult, given the heat and humidity. An older man, carrying cameras and gear, seemed struggle with the hike, but the rest of the group, comprised of adults of various ages, managed it well.

Once we reached the chimpanzees, we left the trail and cut through the forest to stand beneath them, as they were high in the trees. We used binoculars and watched the chimpanzees, up in the trees, eating, resting and mating. There were females with babies, and males. The chimpanzees seemed rather nonchalant about the human visitors, below, having grown accustomed to being observed by rangers and the daily crowd of tourists. Occasionally, they urinated from the trees and the group of humans would dodge the downpour.

We learned that the female chimpanzees freely roamed the forest, passing through the territories of the males as they wished. The dominant males spent much time and energy maintaining their territories and determining status with one another. A female in estrus approached a young male, who granted her request for mating, and one realized that chimpanzee reality did not match the prevailing patriarchal interpretation of males being “in charge,” like human autocrats.

The groups of visitors were spread out in the forest with our assigned guides and had one hour to be in the midst of the chimpanzees. During our experience, the older man, who had been struggling on the trail, had a diabetic seizure and collapsed. The other tourists assisted him as our guide called for help. He gradually recovered and was escorted back to where the vehicles were parked.

After that incident, some of the male chimpanzees descended from the trees and briefly paused near us before traveling together across the forest floor. One stopped near me, giving me the wonderful opportunity to be in his presence for a few minutes. The tourists rushed after the chimps, moving quietly yet quickly through the brush, snapping photos. The male chimps sat together for a moment in a group, surrounded by photographers, before dispersing into the forest. We felt fortunate to have been so close to them, as encountering them on the ground felt very different and more intimate than watching them from a distance in trees, silhouetted against the midday sky.

After our hour with the chimps, we hiked back to where our hired safari guide was waiting of us. Despite the eager tourists with their cameras, the human behavior -on the part of the visitors, rangers and guides at Kibale – felt relatively respectful, and we were satisfied with what appeared to be a good conservation effort on the part of the national park staff to sustain the forest and this wild population of chimpanzees. It was, overall, an exhilarating and beautiful experience. My husband and I will always treasure the memory of that moment of connection, in the wilderness, with our closest primate relatives.

Wonderful place

When I headed to Kibale Forest NP my main interest was the chimpanzee tracking: the forest is said to be the best place in East Africa to spot them so a visit there was due. But I wasn't prepared to everything else Kibale has to offer: a beautiful rainforest, stunning scenery, lots of other monkeys (red tails, black and white colobous) and THOUSANDS of butterflies. Whenever walking in Kibale, be it from the lodge to the tree house or during the chimp tracking, I was followed by a multitude of colorful butterflies of different sizes: it felt like a dream!
Even without a guide it was rather easy for me to spot quite few red tails and a couple of colobous; in the afternoon, on the other side of the pond in front of my tree house, I could hear crushing sounds and could see the trees shaking: apparently there were a couple of forest elephants lingering in the area. Given the thick vegetation I couldn't really see much of them but it was a cool experience. At night, I could hear a group of monkeys coming onto mthe roof and deciding that it was a good place to rest! Fantastic, and it was only my first day!
The chimp tracking was demanding since it was in the afternoon and not in the morning: it took almost three hours to track the group but when we managed to find them, it was unbelievable. The females and the babies were in the higher tree branches, while the alpha male was keeping an eye on us. At a certain point while the group started to move, the male came down the tree and started to walk on the ground in the opposite direction, almost trying to attract us away from the females and babies. No wonder they are considered the most intelligent animal in nature. I managed to take a lot of pictures, but best of all were the countless memories I have.
All in all I'd return to Kibale in a heartbeat, even among Uganda highlights I think it's underrated: I'd put over Kibale only the Rwenzori mountains and Bwindi NP.

Kibale is incredible, you see many primates and apes, the only not so positive, is that many tourists and photographers for taking the best picture, do not respect the minimum spaces of distance with the chimpazees

Incredible primate experience!

We visited Kibale Forest in May 2015 and the main reason for our visit was to see chimpanzees, we were certainly not disappointed! The experience was outstanding and the quality of the guiding was second to none. As someone who has visited all of Uganda's National Parks, I would say that seeing the chimpanzees in Kibale was up there with the best experiences in the country and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

We did the trek on a clear sunny day, which apparently helped with the viewing of Chimpanzees. We were lucky to find 3 of them within 5 minutes (having driven for 10 minutes away from the starting point, due to the chimps being some distance away). We then tracked them for about 30 minutes and found the rest of the group, around 25 individuals, whom we were able to get close to and follow for a good period of time. The walk is through fairly thick forest and quite hilly in places. We were with a mixed group, but the guide set a pace appropriate for all.

Chimpanzee trekking

My wife and I did an all-day Chimp trek. So fascinating. You spend a day with them, as they travel through the forest, you share their daily routine. You see them making choices, resting, eating, drumming on trees (!), interacting. The trek itself is flat, you cover a good area, but not too hard (MUCH easier than Gorilla trekking, which I also recommend). Chimpanzees are our closest relative.. see them in the wild, in their natural habitat, up close.

Probably my favorite park from my time in Uganda. Chimpanzee trekking was amazing of coarse, but there was so much more there. Many monkey species many beautiful birds. I could have very easily spent much more time here exploring.

Disrespectful persecution of the chimpanzee to get a picture

I was in the Park a few days ago and surprisingly, it was one of the worst experiences I have ever had. More than 50 people (usually there are about 80), chasing and harassing an animal to get a photo with it. The security policy, the respect and the privacy on the part of the Rangers was zero: no distances kept, no masks on, no speaking in a low tone, no control over the crowds and running of people after the animal. Very disappointing, nothing respectful of the animals and absolutely nothing professional at all. They talk about training more families to split over humans and thus expand the number of visitors and, consequently, their economic income. I don't understand why a wild animal has to be trained to the presence of humans @s, with the simple purpose of photographing it and increasing the visits and income of the Park. They should manage it in a more controlled way and reduce the number of visitors per day. I do not recommend it at all. I give it a star because the website does not allow me to put zero.
I hardly believe that the only goal from the Park is to get as much income as possible no matter the treatment of animals in it.

Unfortunately we've observed Chimps Just on the trees, but this Is nature!

The chimpanzees were so close one could almost touch them. Of course we were masked up and kept a safe distance so they would not catch in human bug. We saw a very large group comprised of all ages and members. The guide was knowledgeable and knew them each by name.

Good to see chimpanzee