Chimpanzee Trekking in Uganda

Chimpanzee Trekking in Uganda

Jane Goodall turned her childhood dream to live among African wildlife into a reality. She also turned her passion for animals into an epic adventure, produced ground breaking scientific discoveries, and changed the way the world understands our closest living relative, the chimpanzee.

Chimpanzee trekking in Uganda is an active adventure where visitors will actively participate in trekking the chimpanzee a alongside the rangers, chimpanzees live in a large community called the trop and this trop can be in hundreds and thousands.

Chimpanzees share about 98.7% of their DNA with humans, making them the closest primates to humans other than the Mountain gorillas. There are over 1800 Chimpanzees spread across Uganda in areas such as Kibale Forest National Park, Budongo Forest Reserve, Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Semliki National park, and the Kyambura Gorge within Queen Elizabeth National park for tourists who wish to track them in their natural habitats. There are also some Chimpanzees within the Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC in Entebbe) and Ngamba island Chimpanzee Sanctuary which is situated 23 kms south of Entebbe. Besides the popular chimpanzee tracking where tourists spend only one hour with these Primates, another riveting activity exists in Budongo Forest Reserve and Kibale Forest National Park-called the Chimpanzee Habituation Experience where tourists spend the 4 hours with Researchers to study the Chimpanzees as they undergo Habituation (to make them used to the presence of humans).

The biggest threat to chimpanzees in Africa is the loss of habitat by deforestation. Chimpanzees are also killed for their food among the peoples of the Congo or offered as pets to illicit animal dealers. In the last century, Uganda lost thousands of chimps owing to snares and other traps set up for other species, such as antelopes.