3 Days Chimpanzee Habituation Safari – Kibale Forest National Park
This 3 Days Chimpanzee Habituation Safari is an insightful guide to bring you close to the relatives of mankind found in Kibale National Park. Chimpanzees are the closest human relatives, sharing about 98-99% DNA with humans. The 3-Days Chimpanzee Habituation Safari introduces you to the primates of Kibale National Park that freely roam in the lush green forests. Training these creatures is a gradual process taking many years for them to get used to being around trekkers and game rangers.
3 Days Chimpanzee Habituation Safari
The 3 days habituation for chimpanzees offers lengthy periods for staying among the wild chimps in their natural habitat. Kibale is renowned for its large chimpanzee concentrations about 1500 individuals translating to the many groups available for travelers to trek. On this 3-days chimpanzees tracking in Kibale National Park, there are also opportunities for spotting several other primate species in the forest including the Black and white colobus monkeys, and baboons among others.
3 Days Chimpanzee Habituation Safari – Trip Highlight
Day 1: Transfer to Kibale Forest National Park
Day_2: Chimpanzee Habituation and Bigodi Swamp walk
Day 3: Transfer back to Kampala/Entebbe
Detailed itinerary – 3 Days Chimpanzee Habituation Safari in Kibale National Park
Day 1: Transfer to Kibale Forest National Park
You will be picked up from Entebbe International Airport or your residence in Kampala and embark on a long drive to Fort Portal in Western Uganda. It takes about 5-6 hours to reach Kibale National Park from the capital Kampala. The scenic drive is a mixture of lush green fields, rolling hills, and Lake Wamala along the Mityana-Mubende road.
Upon your arrival in Fort Portal, check into your accommodation and head for a well-prepared lunch and relax until the following morning.
Day 2: Chimpanzee Habituation Experience and Bigodi Swamp walk
wake up in the morning and be treated to an early breakfast. Drive to the Kanyanchu center of Kibale National Park where you will join the rest of the Chimpanzee trekkers for information and guidance. After reaching Kanyanchu, you will be assigned to a particular group of chimpanzees. The tracking activity may take short hours, long periods and sometimes the entire day depending on the movements of the primates in Kibale.
You will be in the company of a guide, porters (optional), and armed rangers to protect you from forest elephants, which may be aggressive. The guides are in constant communication with trackers who follow the movements of chimps to make it easy for travelers heading to Kibale National Park to find these creatures the next day.
Upon finding them, trekkers on habituation tickets are allowed 4 hours with chimps. Once time is up for seeing the Chimpanzees, you will walk back to the starting point, where you will be debriefed and awarded certificates for Chimpanzee habituation experience.
You then drive back to the lodge for lunch and later visit the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary for a walk. Here you have to opportunity to see several species of monkeys like the Black and White Colobus Monkeys, Red-tailed Monkeys, L’Hoest Monkeys, Vervet Monkeys, Baboons, various bird species, and other wildlife.
Day 3: Transfer back to Kampala/Entebbe
After unforgettable chimp trekking experience, it is time to leave the pristine wilderness of Kibale National Park behind and drive back to Kampala or Entebbe International Airport.