About Chimpanzee Habituation in Uganda

Uganda is one of the great safari destinations that do receive numerous tourists that travel to the country to enjoy primate activities such as; Gorilla Trekking, Chimpanzee Trekking as well as golden monkey trekking experience in the forest Jungles of the Pearl of Africa. Among these amazing primate activity, there is a new fascinating exercise that was added to supplement on the experience of primate adventure in Uganda and this is the habituation experience.

Habituation is the process of training the wild primates to get used to presence of human beings in their natural habitat. The exercise prepares them for the tracking experience before they are open for primate safaris. The Habituation process is done the mountain gorillas as well as the chimpanzees which are close relatives to the human beings about 98%.

In Uganda, Chimpanzee Habituation is done is only done in Kibale forest national park which is the best Chimpanzee Trekking destination in Africa. The forest harbors over 1500 individuals of chimpanzees out of the 4950 population recorded in the Pearl of Africa. Kibale Forest National Park is situated in the district of Kabarole in western region of Uganda.

Unlike chimpanzee trekking permit that allows you to spend one hour with these beautiful creatures, Chimpanzee Habituation experience permit allows you four hours or even the whole day to spend with the chimpanzees in jungle while learning about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns of life in jungle. This is one of the reasons why the Chimpanzee Trekking Permit costs 200 USD per person per day whilst chimpanzee habituation permit costs 250 USD per person per day and the activity is done with researchers and park ranger guides.

We advise travelers to make advance booking for chimpanzee habituation experience at least 6 months prior the date of travel. And Best Time to go Chimpanzee Trekking is during the wet season in the months of March to April and full end of November when there are few tourist visiting the park and during this period there is plenty of food for the Chimpanzees. therefore the exercise will not require a lot of movement following the chimpanzees that like leaping from one tree branch to another in search for food especially in the dry season. Take note of this, the Uganda Wildlife Authority allows a maximum of four people to participate in exercise. Chimpanzee habituation gives you a chance to be part in the naming of the new born babies and study more about their behavior in the wilderness.

Chimpanzee Habituation experience

On the day of chimpanzee habituation experience, wake up early for delicious early morning breakfast and get ready with your packed lunch boxes. The activity starts with briefing at the park headquarter offices. Here you are grouped into groups of 4 people and each group is assigned a researcher and park ranger guides. Later transfer to the starting point to begin the exercise where you have to track the chimpanzees nests that they built last night.

If you wake up early enough, you meet the chimpanzee community just waking up from their nests to start the day. On this note, a true chimpanzee habituation adventure starts at an hours’ time getting to dawn between 6:00am-6:30am. After locating the chimpanzee family, grab a chance to enjoy their daily day activities like, Breast feeding the babies, patrolling, hunting while others restring  in the trees and at around 7pm they start building the nests where they will stay at night.

Besides chimpanzee, there are about 13 primate species in Kibale forest such as; Black and White colobus monkey, blue monkeys, L’Hoest Monkey, the Central African Monkey, Vervet Monkeys, Olive baboons among others. On a luck day, you get a chance to encounter with other mammals in the park such as; Giant Forest Hogs, the bushbucks, lions, bush pigs, African buffaloes, warthogs among others. You as well encounter with some Carnivores such as; African golden cats, lions, leopards, Mongooses among others. The park is one of the bird watching destinations where you spot numerous colorful bird species like the western think bird, Olive long tailed Cuckoo, African Grey parrot among others. 

All cannot be said, but the above gives you outstanding reasons to plan for the Chimpanzee Habituation Experience due to the extremely thrilling adventure and educational experience that reminds you about your trip in the Pearl of Africa. And you are planning a chimpanzee experience in Uganda this season, don’t hesitate to contact our travel experts by sending an email on info@gorillaugandasafaribookings.com or call us directly on +256-775630809 or +256-701343598  to speak directly to our reservations team.