Kibale National Park

Kibale National Park also called the primate capital of the word is one of the most popular national parks in Uganda. It is well known for chimpanzee tracking. Also known as the primate capital of the world, Kibale is home to 13 species of primates including over 1500 chimpanzees. This is the highest concentration of primates in Africa.

The park covers an area 795 sq km at the foothills of Ruwenzori Mountains (mountains of the moon) close to fort portal town in western Uganda. The vegetation consists largely of evergreen tropical rain forest which wind down into the rift valley with some 180 km long woodland savannah corridor that connects to Queen Elizabeth national park. This corridor provides a migration route to large mammals such as elephants, buffalo, warthog and leopard which move between Kibale, Queen Elizabeth national park and Semuliki valley.

The main attractions of the park are chimpanzees in particular those that have been habituated for chimpanzee tracking and chimpanzee habituation experience. These activities start at the park’s main tourist center Kanyanchu located inside the forest about 15-minute drive from Fort Portal town. However, there’s a new visitor center Sebitoli about 10-minute drive east of Fort Portal town that has been opened.

Wildlife

Kibale forest supports 13 species of primates and the largest population of chimpanzees estimated at 1500 in East Africa. Besides chimps, other primates include red colobus monkey, Uganda mangabay, L’hoest monkey, grey checked mangabay, black and white colobus monkeys and the nocturnal bush baby, potto and galago. The park’s savannah corridor is home to large mammals though rare to see including buffalo, elephant, giant forest hog, water buck.

Also, the park is rich in birds with over 300 species of birds which makes it one of the top destinations in the country for bird watching. Notable and must see bird is the green breasted pitta. Albertine rift endemics are also present such as dusky crimsoning, purple breasted sunbird, red faced woodland warbler and blue headed sunbird. Other interesting birds are great blue turaco, yellow ramped tinker bird, blue breasted kingfisher among others.

When to visit

Kibale stays open throughout the year for tourists on Uganda safari and the weather is pleasant allowing for chimpanzee tracking and other activities. Though, the good time to visit is during dry season January to February and June to September but you still expect rain showers because it’s a rainforest. The rainy season months are October to December and March to May, the northern part of the park becomes wetter due to heavy rains it receives up to 1700mm per annum. Therefore, dirt roads require four-wheel drive if you are connecting to parks of Uganda like Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi or Murchison which are best during the dry season, from December to February and June to September. During rainy season you can track chimps but additional gears like rain jacket, boots are required.

Chimpanzee tracking

Chimpanzee tracking in Kibale forest national is the main tourist activity and it is conducted at 08:00 a.m. in the morning and 02:00 p.m. afternoon. Visitors are always briefed before chimpanzee tracking

Your Uganda wildlife authority guides will lead you into the forest hiking on foot searching for the chimps. Once they are located, visitors can view and take photos for 1 hour sometimes chimps are found feeding and moving on ground or in the canopies which mean that guides have to follow them which can rather be challenging due to the thick vegetation.

Chimpanzee habituation experience

Another great way to see chimps is through chimpanzee habituation experience. This is the activity that offers visitors an experience to track chimpanzees for a full day. For visitors interested to learn more about the social life of chimpanzees such as feeding, use of tools for hunting.

Primates

Besides the chimpanzee, kibale forest also teems with 12 species of primates. Likely to be spotted during guided forest walks in addition to well-known chimpanzees, are the threatened red colobus monkey, grey checked mangabay, Ugandan mangabay, blue monkeys, red tailed monkeys, olive baboons, black and white colobus monkeys.

Birds

Kibale forest has over 300 species of birds and most of them are forest birds. There are trails dedicated for bird watching in Kibale. The notable bird species include the green breasted pita, great blue turaco, African paradise flycatcher and many forest species that are difficult to spot.

Nature walks

These can be done during day or at night. Night walks in kibale forest give visitors an opportunity to spot nocturnal animals with the help of a flashlight. These nocturnal animals include bush babies, galago, poto, civets

Ndali-Kasenda crater lakes

The park is surrounded by a ring of crater lakes called Ndali-kasenda craters and there are nice vacation accommodations set right in this tranquil environment. The view point on top of the world’s hike offers spectacular views of these lakes, rift valley and distant snowcapped mountains of the moon as well as hiking around to spot primates and birds.

Bigodi wetland sanctuary

Just south of the park, there’s an eco-tourism Bigodi wetland sanctuary which offers a community swamp walk usually done after chimpanzee tracking. Bigodi is a local community managed natural wetland sanctuary located about 6 km from Kibale Forest National park and can be reached by car (10 minute drive) from Kanyanchu the park’s visitor center.

It covers an area of 4 sq km and provide habitat for over 200 bird species, 8 species of monkeys, otters and swamp dwelling antelope sitatunga, a variety of plants, orchids, butterflies and reptiles. It can be visited in the afternoon after chimpanzee tracking for nature walks and cultural encounters. Rather than being at your lodge, it’s better to visit bigodi and support the local communities.

Kibale forest national park lies in western Uganda about 358 km from Kampala city. Main road access kibale is via Mubende and Fort portal which takes about 5-6 hour drive from Kampala or Entebbe international airport. However depending on the itinerary, kibale can be accessed from Queen Elizabeth national park or coming from Murchison Falls National Park. There are good roads to the park but 4 wheel drive vehicle is required.

Accommodation:

There’s only one luxury lodge inside the park next to kanyanchu visitor center – that’s primate lodge kibale. A wide range of lodges provide accommodation outside the park and carter for both luxury and budget travelers.