Kibale Forest National Game Park
Kibale Forest National Game Park (The primates’ capital of the world, A primatologist’s dream) is located in the districts of Kabarole and Kamwenge approximately 320 kilometres. It extends southwards from fort portal and forms a block with Queen Elizabeth, Rwenzori and Semiliki national parks as well as Toro Semiliki game reserve. The national park was gazetted in October 1993 and became a park in 1940’s. Today, it is one of the most rewarding destinations to explore especially was chimpanzee enthusiasts.
Kibale forest has one of the richest ecosystems in the whole of Africa. It contains over 340 birds species that include the African Pitta, Green-breasted Pitta to mention just a few making it a wonderful spot for bird watchers, 14 species of snakes, 27 species of frogs and toads, at least 20 species of other reptiles and at least 200 species of butterflies.
Chimpanzees trekking and Habituation.
Kibale Forest National Park is well known for having the highest population of primates in East Africa but most important of all the highest population of Chimpanzees. Chimpanzee trekking can be done by the tourist in Kibale Forest and it takes 2-3 hours. With Park ranger guides, visitors get to walk through the natural habitat, trekking the Chimpanzees in a group of six people per trek and it costs USD150.00 per person per trek. Chimpanzee tracking is done twice a day AM and PM depending on the Chimpanzee permits available at the time of purchase.
Chimpanzee Habituation
Kibale National Park is only place that offers Chimpanzee habituation experiences in the whole a vistor is allowed to stay with the chimpanzees in company of researchers for the whole day starting from 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM depending on your interests. This gives you a chance to learn more about their behaviours and their day activities. Chimpanzee Habituation permits costs USD200.00 per person per trek.
Other tourist activities in Kibale forest national game park.
Primates tracking.:
This is one of East Africa’s oldest forests. It’s a home to a population of more than 1000 chimpanzees and a community of about 80 of these has been habituated and used for tourist visits and really observed monkey species including the Lhoests monkey, Grey cheeked Mangby, Baboons, Black and White and Red Colubus monkeys among others.
Primates tracking is usually done through the central circuit and Kirembe route to the southern part of the park. Trekking primates is another exiting but rather challenging activity since visitors move long journeys to meet these primates. While trekking one can see quite a number of primates like vervet, red-tailed I’hoest’s and blue monkey, grey checked Mangabey to mention but a few.
Bird watching:
Kibale national park has a wide range of forest birds including those not recorded in any other park. Species include; Nahan’s francolin, Cassin’s spine tail, blue- headed bee-eater and masked apalis among others.
Culture encounter
Kibale National Park is surrounded by the local people who where fruit hunters and gatherers. They used to feed on Kibale Forest food such as vegetables and fruits. These people act as a tourist attraction to visitors they do, dances, music-and hand made crafts and this gives you a chance to learn about their life style and also their day-to-day activities.
Accessibility
The park can be accessed through many different routes but the most popular of all Entebbe to Kampala via Fort portal to Kibale National Park, a distance of 330km.
By road the park can be accessed through the nyakalengija trailhead which is 22km off the kasese -fort portal road and 25km north of kasese town. It can also be reached from Kampala via fort portal road (375km) or via mbarara and Queen Elizabeth national park (450km)
By air: The park can also be accessed by air and transport can be arranged on chartered flights from Kampala or Entebbe international airport.
Accommodation
There is a variety of accessible and reliable lodges for accommodation if its the concern of were to have a break off after a wonderful day of enjoying nature walks, bird watching and chimpanzee trekking adventures. Some of the lodges in place include; Crater safari lodge located 4.3mi from Kibale forest National Park, offering luxury accommodations. Eco lodge located on the rim of the Kifuruka Crater Lake 12mi from Kibale Forest National Park. Chimpanzee forest Guest house located in Kibale National Park. Chimpundu safari lodge located opposite the gate to Kibale forest, and Primates lodge Kibale located a few meters from the park offices, among so many other lodges.
Kibale Forest National Park can be visited any time of the year. The national park is one of the forests which consist of a mixture of green trees with variety of swamps, ferns, and shrubs, and very supportive of the wildlife with in this protected area.
The highlight in Kibale National Park is Chimpanzees trekking, Chimpanzee Habituation, Guided nature walk, Bird watching, Culture encounter, Night Forest walks.
