Kibale National Park

The chimps are really great. The forest is not at the same level of Bwindi, but it’s really good. I would like to see snakes in there, but it was not possible.

We found ourselves in another lush forest, hiking to get to the trackers who had spotted the chimpanzees. Our guide was so informative and her love for chimpanzees was contagious! We were a bit unfortunate because the chimpanzees we found were high up in the trees, never coming down once so we hurt our necks constantly looking up. It was also harder to see them up there, but even so seeing them and hearing their calls and learning so many interesting things about them was well worth the visit.

The same as for Bwindi: It was really impressive to see the animals up close. But in a smaller group it would be even better to really get a full score under bush vibe. Here the problem was also that at least 4 groups were close on each other's heels during most of the time and so nearly 40 people as on Black Friday tried to rush after the chimpanzees and take the best position for a picture. I didn't like this stress at all! Apart from that the chimpanzees were very lively and much more active than the gorillas.

Not many wildlife and we could not see the tree climbing lions nor any leopard.

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

African rain forest at ist best, the chimpanzees were very easy to get along with.

We did the chimpansee trekking which was amazing!

Went there just to see the Chimpanzees and we did. We came soo Close, they almost run between our legs.

Very good place to visit and to see the chimpanzee's was a great bonus.

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.