Kibale Subheading
Kibale National Park
Uganda's premier chimpanzee tracking destination. Located between Fort Portal and Queen Elizabeth National Park and was upgraded to a National Park in 1993 after having been a forest reserve for about 60 years.
Chimp tracking is usually a 3 hour excursion into the forest, with approximately 1 hour with the chimps. There is a whole day habituation excursion possible as well.
Apart from the chimps there are another dozen species of primate here, as well as at least 60 mammal pecies, 335 bird species, and over 200 tree species.
Park entrance fees are usually incorporated into the fee for the chimp trekking activities. Nature walks may be slightly less and there is no additional fees for staying in community campsites or lodges within the park gates.
Features of Kibale National Park
Forest Walks
From 30 min to 8 hours
The only area for a quiet walk without a guide is near the Kanyanchu visitors centre, which is very good for bird watching.
The Bigodi Swamp walk offers some of the best bird watching and monkey viewing in Uganda. There are a couple of circuits that guides can show you that are approx 3 hours each.
Chimp Trekking
Approx 3 hours
A highlight of Kibale National Park is definitely the chimp tracking excursions that leave at 08.00 and 14.00 daily from Kanyanchu. Although not a guaranteed event the chances of sighting these habituated communities is very high. You can often be with about 10 metres from feeding or grooming individuals as well as seeing them moving through the treetops etc.
Bigodi Swamp
30 min to all day
The local community runs the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary which is just outside the park boundary.
In addition to the extensive birdlist (335 species)Kibale is home to at least several endemic species.