Uganda Primate Safaris

Primates

Uganda’s Star attraction is the endangered mountain gorilla, the bulkiest of living primates, and among the most peaceable. Staring into the pensive brown eyes of these gentle giants, who share 95% of their genes with humans is as humbling as it is thrilling; no less so when one realises that fewer than 700 individuals survive, divided between Bwindi National Park and the Virunga Mountains.

With in Uganda, five habituated gorilla troops-four in Bwindi and one in Mgahinga National park- can be visited by a total of 30 tourists daily.

Uganda is also home to man’s closest relative, the chimpanzee, a delightful ape whose evocative pant-hoot call is a definitive sound of the African rainforest. Chimpanzee communities have been habituated for tourism at Kibale forest, Budongo forest and Queen Elizabeth National Parks Kyambura gorge. A community of orphaned chimps, most of which were confiscated from poachers, can be visited on Ngamba Island, which lies on Lake Victoria 45 minutes by motorboat from Entebbe.

Monkeys are exceptionally well represented in Uganda. Indeed, Kibale forest boasts the largest primate variety and density in East Africa, with fives or six species likely to be observed over the course of one afternoon walk. Else where, Mgahinga National Park hosts habituated troops of the rare golden monkeys, while Murchison Falls is one of the few East African strongholds for the spindly, plains-dwelling patas monkey. The fossilised 20-million-year-old bones of Morotopithecus, the earliest-known ancestor of modern apes and humans, were unearthed in the 1960’s near Moroto in eastern Uganda, and are now housed in the National Museum in Kampala.

For your Uganda primate tours and Uganda safaris