Chimpanzee safaris

The experience of meeting chimpanzees in the wild can be truly extraordinary.

Coming face to face with an animal which is so clearly intelligent and thoughtful is really unlike any other animal encounter in Africa. It’s very hard to put into words.

Being omnivores, chimpanzees are much more active than the usually sedentary and vegetarian gorillas. A chimp encounter can often be quite an exhausting and exhilarating experience, especially during a hunt, which will see you sweatily chasing on foot through the forest as they swing effortlessly through the canopy above.

Here at ATR we unanimously rate chimpanzee encounters as the finest wildlife interaction experience in Africa, although this does depend very much on getting to the right location and getting lucky with your sightings.

A small proportion of the total chimpanzee population in Africa lives in family groups which have been habituated to the presence of humans. This process takes about two years and involves researchers spending all day every day in their company. Habituated chimpanzees are definitely not tame, but they are at least tolerant of people, usually to a distance of around ten metres.

looking into the eyes of a chimpanzee is a wildlife encounter like no other

In order to visit the chimpanzees you need to travel, usually by air, to one of the key locations in Tanzania, Uganda or Rwanda, staying in one of the specialist lodges nearby for usually 3 to 5 nights.

You will need to buy at least one chimpanzee permit, which entitles you to participate in a guided hike into the forest to (hopefully) meet one of the habituated families. The whole experience typically lasts 3 to 7 hours, depending on the specific location of the chimps at the time. The hike can be easy or tough, but visitors should be relatively fit and well equipped for this kind of outdoors activity.

The actual time spent with the chimps and the quality and intimacy of each sighting can vary enormously. The chances of an encounter of some sort is very high, over 90%, but the chances of getting up really close and personal is perhaps more like 60-70%.

Many of our guests choose to buy two or more permits in order to increase their chances of a high quality sighting.

Chimpanzee permits are not as expensive as those for gorillas, but they can be in short supply. It is critical that you book your trip as early as possible. Not only do the permits run out, but the handful of quality lodges often become heavily oversubscribed.

We usually recommend planning at least six months in advance, preferably a year ahead for the Dec-Jan and Jul-Sep high seasons.

The minimum age for trekkers is fifteen years old in most areas.

book as far in advance as you can to get the best spots

Chimpanzees can still be found in the forests of a large swathe of central and western Africa. There are four subspecies, Central, Western, Nigeria-Cameroon and Eastern, although the differences between them are relatively slight to the casual observer.

The sub-species that our guests most commonly encounter is the Central common chimpanzee, whose range is focused on the forests of Congo, dipping into the more accessible countries of Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

By far the best location to view chimps is Mahale Mountains in the remote west of Tanzania, which is not only a stunningly beautiful location, but is also where the chimps are most ground-based and confident in the company of humans.

Other lesser locations in Tanzania include the even less accessible Gombe Stream and the relatively easily accessed Rubondo Island in Lake Victoria (a short hop from Serengeti).

The second best location is probably in the Kibale Forest area of western Uganda, where encounters are not usually as intimate as those in Mahale, but where the chances of lesser sightings are very high.

Other locations in Uganda include parts of the Murchison Falls conservation area, plus an isolated population in the Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National Park, both also to the west of the country.

In Rwanda there are habituated chimps in Nyungwe Forest, although encounters here can also be rather modest in our experience.

Although there’s no doubt in our minds that the best chimp experience is at Mahale, these other areas do have the distinct advantage of being much more easily connected to the key mountain gorilla areas of Uganda and Rwanda.

the best locations tend to also be the most expensive

During the 1990s the threat to chimpanzees from poaching and loss of habitat was completely out of control and there were no safe havens anywhere in Africa.

It was therefore necessary to create sanctuaries to which rescued and orphaned animals could be provided with a safe home.

Unfortunately at both of the two main facilities of which we are aware (Ol Pejeta Cheetah Sanctuary in Kenya and Ngamba Island in Uganda), there’s apparently no prospect of these chimpanzees ever being returned to the wild. There also appears to be very little serious research being carried out.

This makes these sanctuaries little more than retirement villages, where chimpanzees live out their lives behind bars, whilst being ogled by human tourists.

We do find these two sanctuaries to be rather sad places to visit. The chimps clearly understand a little too much about what is going on to be truly happy in captivity.

That’s why our whole focus is very much on protecting and expanding chimpanzee habitats in the wild.

It’s worth pointing out that there was a third chimpanzee rescue location at this time, Rubondo Island in Lake Victoria, where the chimps were released back into the wild and where they’ve lived happily ever since, with virtually no further human intervention.

too intelligent to happily keep in captivity

Bonobos are a distinct species to common chimpanzees, the two being the only members of the genus Pan.

They are considerably smaller than their cousins, with more slender limbs and general body shape. In the past they have been referred to as pygmy, dwarf or gracile chimpanzees.

The 30,000 to 50,000 bonobos that are thought to exist in the wild all live exclusively in a huge area of tropical forest in central and southern DR Congo.

Interestingly their territory is separated from that of common chimpanzees by the Congo River itself, the creation of which is thought to have led to the separation of the two species less than two million years ago.

Bonobos are renowned for being very easily aroused sexually and are often involved in a remarkable frequency and variety of sexual encounters.

Because of the remoteness and political instability of this part of the world, there is presently no way that we can include bonobos in trips.

the sex-mad chimps that are impossible to observe