Is Chimpanzee Habituation Experience in Uganda Worth The Money?
The unique opportunity the chimpanzee habituation experience presents to visitors to immerse in the forest from dawn to sunset, seeing a wild troop of chimpanzees eating, grooming, traveling, and sleeping, makes the money well worth it.
Although the usual chimpanzee trekking period is one hour watching the chimpanzees, the whole-day guided tour offers a more in-depth journey with a wild chimpanzee band still suffering their innate anxiety for human interference.
Uganda offers an unusual journey in two world-class protected forest reserves for a mear fraction of the gorilla trekking permit cost: Budongo Forest in the northwest and Kibale National Park in the west. The encounter provides a peek into the everyday routine of the chimpanzee, our closest surviving ape found in African tropical rainforests.
Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall popularized viewing chimpanzees in their natural habitat by pointing out that many of our behaviors, once thought to be uniquely human, may have been inherited from the common ancestors we shared with chimpanzees six million years ago, so reflecting a mirror, if a blurred one, to our own species. Worth every dollar you will spend, the chimpanzee habituation experience is like a walk along Goodall’s paths.
Experience with Habituation in Chimpanzees
Heads into the bush at the crack of morning, the chimpanzee habituation experience group catches the chimpanzees as they leave their overnight nests to begin their day hunting, social, and traveling activities.
Well above the earth, secure from predators, chimps live by day and sleep at night in a nest built with branches and vines on a tree. Your little group will follow their tracks and sounds until you catch up with them and attempt to keep with their motions all through the day.
Under the direction of wild chimpanzee living and working guides, the chimpanzee habituation experience is the most fascinating approach to understand how Jane Goodall’s early findings altered our perspective of human uniqueness. The journey into Goodall’s footsteps is pretty reasonably priced and well worth the investment.
Like seeing a live wilderness television documentary, except this time will you be in it; your guide and primate specialist will provide precise facts about the group with the style of a reality TV pundit. A rare real wilderness experience in Uganda’s woods, a day beneath the humid forest canopy will help you to see the great parallels between chimps and humans in intellect, tool usage, hunting, personality, and social interactions.
Ideal locations for the encounter
Kibale National Park, the primate capital of Africa, and Budongo Forest in the Murchison Conservation Area northwest of the city of Uganda represent the ideal locations for the chimpanzee habituation experience worth your money.
Kibale National Park
If you want to have the finest personal interaction with chimpanzee colonies in Africa, most primate enthusiasts first choose Kibale National Park. With 766 square kilometers, The Forest is the final bastion with highest primates density worldwide. Among 13 primate species found there are more than 1500 chimpanzees.
By road, Kibale is the most easily accessible Ugandan park around 330 kilometers west of Kampala capital city. For your experience of chimpanzee habituation, it offers a fantastic range of suitable lodging options. Usually spending a night or two in Kibale, encounter the chimpanzees, then go south to the gorilla trekking sites in the extreme southwest of the nation.
Every morning from Kanyanchu center, chimps in Kibale go through habituation experiences with a limited number of visitors.
Budongo Jungle
Found en-route to Murchison Falls National Park, Budongo Forest is a somewhat less-visited area of the Murchison Conservation Area Among Uganda’s best attractions, the mahogany-rich forest is ideal for birdwatching, following chimpanzees kept by primatologists, and guided nature walks.
Although only accessible during the low seasons of January–June, and October–December, a new chimpanzee group in Budongo Forest is ready for the chimpanzee habituation experience Still, half-day chimpanzee treks abound all year long.
Apart from Kibale National Park, Budongo Forest is the only area in Uganda providing chimpanzee habituation experiences worth the money and the least expensive.
Experience’s worth in terms of price
Experience with chimps in Kibale National Park costs USD 300 day per person. At Budongo, the same permit runs USD 230 day per person. Though you may leave whenever the whole group agrees with you, the permit offers you a full-day experience and includes a professional guide and armed ranger(s).
The habituation permit is well worth the $300 in Kibale and $85 in Budongo that lets you just spend one hour among the chimpanzees.
Although permits may be bought at the UWA headquarters in Kampala, it is advised to engage a licenced local operator to assist you negotiate the local bureaucracy. Let us know at email when you would like to enjoy this unique experience. Katland Safaris handles local logistics and safari management; we will assist you book the permits.
Remember that you will have to pay for more than just the permit cost for the gorilla habituation trip in Uganda. Your vacation will include lodging, transportation, food, and occasional excursions like gorilla treking. You would therefore want a local operator like Katland.
When would be the ideal time to visit?
Though chimpanzee habituation experience may be done all year long, it is most suited in the Dry season of November to February and mid-year during the brief light rain of June and July. These periods make chimpanzee habituation, chimp trekking, and birdwatching great fun on the dry hiking paths.
The chimpanzee habituation experience in Uganda is worth the money as it is the delight of the lengthy, exciting hunt enveloped in the lush embrace, calling me with birdsong and pant-hoots. When then are you planning to arrive?
Book with us when ready at email. A private consultant will walk you through the whole booking process and oversee your trip, including securing your gorilla trekking permits and locating the finest lodging for your adventure.
