With Uganda’s star attraction being the mountain gorilla it’s easy to overlook the many other primates that make their home in the jungles of Uganda. Bwindi National Park plays host to at least 10 species of primate and Kabale National Park is home to 13 primate species, more than any other East African park. The list of primates that can be found include the red-tailed L’Hoest, blue monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabey, red colobus, black and white colobus, habituated chimpanzees and the baboon. Kibale National Park is especially famous for its primates and as such Chimpanzee tracking can be incredible in this region of Uganda.
There are 5 recognised sub-species of chimpanzee within Africa; Uganda is home to the ‘Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurthii’ sub-species, also known as the Eastern Common Chimpanzee. Unfortunately, contrary to its more wildly used name, the Eastern Common Chimpanzee is actually classified as endangered. In fact populations of chimpanzees have already been wiped out in 5 central African countries. Fortunately Uganda has in recent years adopted a very successful conservation strategy, with the money made through National Park fees, gorilla tracking permits, chimpanzee tracking permits, etc being reinvested into the conservation of Uganda’s native wildlife. Consequently a recent chimpanzee census has actually shown that numbers of chimpanzees have actually grown in recent years. Today Uganda is possibly the best place in the whole of Africa for chimpanzee tracking, and Kibale National Park with the highest density of wild chimpanzees
