Ngamba island – Chimpanzee Sanctuary adventure – Chimpazee trekking – Chimpanzee Conservation – Chimpanzee Habituation.
Ngamba island chimpanzee sanctuary. Ngamba Island is the only place in Uganda that’s a habitant to threatened chimpanzees from across the world. It’s an incredible and magnificent island situated in the district of Mukono in the middle of Uganda’s largest Lake, Victoria. The Lake is shared by the three East African countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Ngamba island was established in 1998 and occupies 100 acres where 98 acres are forested. It’s a chimpanzee sanctuary which inhabits rescued and orphaned chimpanzees from different parts of the world. Its home to 49 chimpanzees with 22 males, 27 females and all are led by the Alpha male as their top leader.
Getting to Ngamba Island.
The only way to the island is by boat. A boat safari to the island starts with boarding from the shores of Lake Victoria depending on the direction of the country you are in. The most opted for start point is the Uganda Wildlife education center (UWECE) situated on the shores of Lake Victoria just a few meters from the airport and from Entebbe town. On your boat safari to the island, you will get exposed to the amazing sea breeze with a morning mist rising off the placid waters, a view of the distant stunning islands, and fresh greenery surrounding the lake which gives nice pictorial opportunity for nature and photographers. You are at liberty to choose either to use an engine boat or speed boat, depending on the time you would wish to reach the island.
The chimpanzee experience.
A trip at Ngamba island is a life time experience since all questions running through your head about chimps get to be answered. The Island was purposely established to find a sweet and comfortable home to homeless and rescued chimps from smugglers and encroachers as well as poachers. Each of them after being rescued, are taken to the island, each given a home and a suitable name each depending on its back ground and story of rescue. Some are named after the tourists who make contribution to their wellbeing of Chimpanzees like Rupaleria named after Sudhir Rupaleria one of Uganda’s richest business man, and others named according to their merit like Natasha.
Chimpanzees at the island are caged during night and left to roam in the forest during day. The forest is electric fenced to prevent these chimps from escaping from the island to the neighboring villages at times causing a negative impact to the humans but this occasion is rarely seen since the whole sanctuary is sounded with water. Ngamba Island is truly a magical place to visit for a life fulfilling chimpanzee adventure. Excitement will rise in your veins as you watch these creatures welcome you while clapping their small hands and making different sounds.
Chimpanzees are ranked among Uganda’s foremost tourist attraction and one of the world’s remarkable encounters. A trip to this magical place will enable you learn more facts about this primate species such as its life style in the forest, communication skills amongst each other, mating, shelter and the feeding style on fruits, roots and stems. Important to not is that Chimpanzees at Ngamba are feed by the staff with fruits and vegetables. Like pumpkins, jackfruit, watermelon, pine apples among others since they are omnivorous.
With the help of the guide at the sanctuary, you will get adequate information that will enable you collect relevant data. The guide will take you through the back ground of each chimpanzee at the sanctuary, and how it has adopted to the life at the island.
Chimpanzees’ are man’s closest cousin consisting of over 98.5% human genetic code. Chimpanzees are not different from human being since it possesses characters like that of a human. The only difference is that chimpanzees are hairy all over the body and sometimes use its front limbs to move. These chimpanzees are gentile and friendly when they meet tourists. Those interested in Chimp tracking should not overlook Ngamba Island at the magical world.
Plan an adventurous trip to Ngamba Island where you will invest little and obtain a life time experience. However, their other places where chimp tracking is done and these include Budongo forest in Murchison falls national game park, Kalinzu forest near Queen Elizabeth national game park, Kibale forest national park also termed the primates capital of the world, and in Kyambura gorge in Queen Elizabeth national park.
Please contact us for a chimpanzee trekking adventure in any part of the country.
